In 1998, Hurricane Mitch had devastated southeastern Guatemala. In the area around Chiquimula, where Lucrecia was working, roadways had been washed away; the entire local economy, which depended on coffee and tobacco, simply ceased to exist. People were starving. Guatemalans in the eastern part of the country were often too poor to emigrate; the farthest most of them could go were the larger towns in the department or the streets and shanties around Guatemala City.
