Winter 2007
On February 20, 2007, the Higuera family, (parents Nabor and Delia, and their son, Luis), came to visit us in Loreto. They were driving their own car, earned by their hard work fishing with the panga Marisol. They were on their way to celebrate Marisol’s 16th birthday at Rancho Sordo Mudo, some 700 miles north. This is the same family whose horizons were limited to a 20-mile radius between their remote fishcamp home and La Purisma not so long ago. Through hard work and perseverance in hard times, they have provided for themselves, and bettered their lives and those of others close to them. Marisol is the miracle that binds them together to meet all the challenges that come their way. They have learned the “proper” sign language from tapes we bring them, and indeed Marisol is adverse to using the old charades sign language she developed before Rancho Sordo Mudo.

 The family is proud of the fact that Marisol has consistently excelled at “El Rancho,” and that she has won many awards for being a top achiever in a variety of subjects. She has been at Rancho Sordo Mudo since January 2002— five years now. She will graduate from the school in 2 more years, and we all question if she will ever be happy back in La Purisma where there are few people with whom she can communicate. The family knows we will provide for any further education Marisol wants to seek beyond her 18th birthday, and we hope she chooses to do so. Nabor and Delia do not understand her thirst for education, but they realize her horizons are much broader now than the beach dwelling “wild child” of only five years ago. As Nabor says, she is “muy inteligente.”

 Life at the fishcamp has improved considerably for the residents, and we all rest easier knowing the pangas have GPSs, depth sounders, and radios to find their way back to the bocana. Base station radios in several of the huts allow the families to get news of approaching hurricanes. Nabor and others are becoming more aware of fishermen's’ affects on the environment, and have been involved with Grupo Tortugero, a ProPeninsula turtle conservation project that teaches fishermen sound environmental and conservation practices for sustainable fisheries.

Sadly, that remarkable couple who introduced us to the Higuera family some 16 years ago, is no longer with us. Don O'Neil died in December 1999, followed by our beloved "Tia Anita," Ann O'Neil in March 2007. Ann lived long enough to see the wonderful changes in Marisol, and she bequethed money to ensure her continuing education. We anxiously await seeing where the miracle of Marisol will lead us next.