By Fernando Rangel
In rural Mexico, climate change doesn’t just bring more frequent and extended droughts or increasingly unpredictable rain. It also reveals the fractures beneath the surface: the corruption, the inequality and the everyday barriers that shape who benefits and who is left behind. When the government tries to address a big challenge like water scarcity, the underlying problems rise with it, making clear that climate adaptation isn’t only about technology or policy. It’s about the systems that determine who gets access in the first place.
“I don’t know how to use a computer.”
This is what Vicente Santana tells me. He is a 42-year-old sugarcane farmer and owner (third generation, inherited) of six hectares in the small town of Tala, Jalisco in Mexico. We talk in the shade of a tree on the edge of his field. He is wearing dusty jeans and boots, a sweat-stained hat and a long-sleeved hoodie, despite the intense heat. At first, it seemed counterintuitive, but he tells me the layers keep the sweat in to cool his body down, while protecting him from spiders, snakes and the midday sun.