I met Candelario on my 2003 trip down the Great Divide to Copper Canyon. He was a schoolteacher in a remote canyon town unreachable by car and I happened by his open-air classroom. We chatted a bit, and I talked with his class a bit. He then walked up the canyon with me for a delightful afternoon, showing me his favorite swimming hole and telling me all about his life. At that time he had to live several hours from his family in a tiny place where he was the only teacher, had no running water or electricity, and no walls on the school. But his delightful attitude and happy smile were my real memory.

Well, Candelario now teaches 6th grade in a larger school in his home town, Samachique (still a very small town), which is at the turnoff to go down to Batopilas (where we are now). We stopped to spend the night with him and he greeted us with that same wonderful smile, and took us out exploring to his favorite caves. Samachique has electricity and running water. But look carefully at the picture (click to enlarge). This is his classroom. They have a classroom computer, internet (via satelite), and a smartboard, and a projector. All their lessons have special features on the computer, including video. Three of the classrooms at his school have this.

Just a couple of years ago, these kids would never have seen anything of the outside world, and now kids in a tiny town in rural Mexico have internet and multimedia to support their education. What kind of effect do you think that will have on the future of rural Mexico?