Kevin López was 19 years old when he left Villa El Triunfo, his small town in southern Mexico, because he knew there was not much of a future there.
He studied, started working and raised his own family in the state of Quintana Roo, which is home to the well-known tourist enclaves of Cancun and the Riviera Maya. But in 2022, after 12 years away, he decided to return home.
He wanted to reunite with his family again. But what helped him make up his mind were the opportunities that he saw opening up around the famous Mayan Train, which has a station in El Triunfo that has literally turned this small town of 5,500 inhabitants upside down.
The flagship megaproject of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of which the first section was inaugurated this December 15, aims to promote the economic development of the poorest regions in the southeast of Mexico like this one.
But it also received harsh criticism for its environmental impact on natural ecosystems and for having tripled its initial budget – charged to public coffers – to exceed US$28.5 billion.
Kevin got a job at El Triunfo during the construction of the train. But the expectation that exists about the revolution that the project will bring here is such that he left that job to carry out his great dream: open his own restaurant, a seafood restaurant with a terrace with large tables, lights and sound equipment like It had never been seen before in this small agricultural and livestock town.
“In the town everyone is looking to see what they can do. Land that previously sold for 20,000 pesos (US$1,160) now sells for more than 100,000 (US$5,800). One way or another, you know that something is coming,” the young man predicts.
Railway town
Life in this town still passes slowly and calmly, barely disturbed by the trucks that pass through it loaded with materials and the noise of the construction works of the train that is expected to arrive here on December 31.
Under humid heat that far exceeds 30 degrees, El Triunfo is almost at the end of the state of Tabasco and not far from Guatemala. To get to the head of Balancán, the municipality to which it belongs, you have to travel up to 40 minutes by car.
It may be surprising that a Mayan Train station is located in this remote place, which does not have an ambulance and barely has an ATM that accumulates long lines on collection days and when the available money usually runs out in less than 12 hours.
But the truth is that El Triunfo’s relationship with the train goes back a long way.
The passenger railway that operated during the second half of the last century passed through here. Actually, it is because of that road and that old station that the town itself was born: first train workers settled there, then loggers and ranchers or farmers who transported their goods on it.
In fact, the oldest settlers say that the name of the town is due to the fact that it was a triumph to have that valuable means of transportation. Others joke that they would name it that way because it is such a triumph to reach this remote place.
Be that as it may, those decades of glory in which the town had up to twice as many inhabitants have now vanished.
Passenger trains stopped circulating in Mexico at the end of the 90s and with this began the decline of El Triunfo. Not only the wagons disappeared: also most of its young people who began to migrate from the town in search of work and opportunities.
“When the railway stopped working, everything fell apart. Now with the arrival of the Mayan Train we hope to have that same boom we had again,” says María de los Ángeles Moguel, coordinator of municipal services, hopefully.
The municipal delegate of El Triunfo, David Alberto López, does not hide his enthusiasm and expectation for what is to come. He believes the train will improve communication for his neighbors and nearby communities to, for example, travel to hospitals in cities that are now hours away by road.
But, above all, he believes that the economy in the town will improve with the arrival of tourists and the opening of businesses. “We hope that he will be a detonator for the progress of El Triunfo,” he advances.
“And it’s going to bring a lot of work. Companies are already looking for land, because this is going to explode. Maybe not in the first days, but in a few years,” says Marco Antonio Mendoza, a resident born in El Triunfo.
Regarding the numerous environmental criticisms that weigh on the project in the areas where the route was opened in the middle of the jungle and over underground caves, the municipal officials of El Triunfo say they have not been affected given that the railway line here already existed.
In addition, they highlight that thanks to the government program Sembrando Vida there was significant reforestation in their area.
“If I were affected, I would say that we would have to do an in-depth study and see what other alternatives there were to avoid causing harm. But we are a country so rich in jungle, cenotes… that it does hurt, but sometimes you have to sacrifice something to get something else. It was affected, but more people will benefit,” says Moguel.
First effects
But what can a tourist do when they arrive by train to a place like El Triunfo? The municipal delegation emphasizes all the attractions in the surrounding area: the waterfalls and ruins of Moral-Reforma—which will have a new visitor center—, the red mangroves of the San Pedro River…
What happens is that, today, the visitor who arrives at the town station has no way to get to these attractions nor does he have services. And many of them will not be aware that they exist due to the lack of tourist information and dissemination about this area.
“We are still green in all that, a lot of investment is needed,” Moguel acknowledges. “But I understand that routes are already being planned to move tourism,” she says without being able to go into detail.
While waiting to see the impact of the train in El Triunfo when it comes into operation, what is undeniable is that its construction process has already caused obvious effects in the town.
Workers from companies related to the project helped the San José hotel, which was the only one operating in El Triunfo, increase its rooms from 8 to 12, which are almost always occupied.
Now, four other hotels are being built in the town and the owners of several abandoned houses recovered them to be rented. “I think there will be enough demand for everyone,” predicts Lucrecia Sánchez, owner of San José.
And until now, the main person responsible for this influx of people arriving from outside the town was “the Chinese factory”, as it is popularly known here.
It is a factory located on the outskirts of the town, run by a Chinese-Portuguese business consortium hired by the Mexican government and which was in charge of manufacturing the more than 400,000 sleepers or sleepers for the section 1 track.
At its busiest time, it had more than 800 workers divided into three shifts, of which 90% were hired in El Triunfo and its surroundings.
Now, in the final stretch of the process, the workforce is smaller, but the operators were still working a few days ago in the meticulous process that goes from cutting tension cables to the final polishing of the concrete pieces.
“Mexico has not developed any railways in decades, so we brought production technology and technicians from China to train local workers, since this is something new for an agricultural-livestock area without industries,” explains the manager of factory human resources, Wenjing Ma, who everyone here calls “Jimmy.”
“But Mexicans learn quickly, they are very hardworking and we have had a good relationship,” he adds. A few months ago, however, the staff went on strike in protest over issues related to their payments and health and safety conditions, although an agreement was eventually reached.
The other 10% of factory workers are citizens from China, who live in a residential complex on the plant’s own land and are not related to El Triunfo.
“It’s not that they are locked up, it’s for security reasons and the language barrier,” says Ma.
In the town they still remember when a couple of them went to the park to play soccer, which attracted the curiosity of almost all the neighbors. But they were not seen again.
Complaints and expectations
While the sleeper factory slows down, work is being done against the clock on the construction of the El Triunfo station building ahead of the inauguration of this section at the end of the year.
To build the new road it was necessary to raise an embankment, which in practice left the town almost divided. The inconvenience of the works and the damage caused by trucks and machinery on some of the streets provoked protests from neighbors, who ask for improvements in the pedestrian and vehicle crossings made around the new road, in drainage and road paving. .
“When there is a big project, improvements come for your town. There are complaints from some people and others who understand it, who are patient and who know how to wait because this will be a real benefit,” says Rosa Giselle Silván, construction assistant at the train station.
This 27-year-old environmental engineer and resident of El Triunfo claims to be one of the few who has always found work without having to leave the town. “Now that so many hires have been made, many acquaintances have returned,” she says.
Although the biggest complaints in El Triunfo have historically been the constant cuts in the electricity and water supply.
They have always existed, especially in the hottest months, but some neighbors wonder if the train works influenced the problem and how they can prepare for the long-awaited arrival of tourists.
José Alfredo Sarao, from the Don Santo taqueria in the central park of El Triunfo, downplays the criticism and assures that, since the train workers arrived, his sales have practically doubled.
“This is the best thing that could have happened to this town. There will be more movement and for us it is a blessing, because many places wanted to have it. It’s going to be like a bomb, I have faith in it,” she says while preparing some quesadillas and the power of the light from his stall begins to decrease by the second.
“Yes, this happens a lot,” he admits resignedly.
Sitting on a bench in the park that serves as the nerve center of the town, two friends enjoy a popsicle while talking about the topic.
“The works have caused damage, because the streets were impassable, they were broken, with mud… but we have that faith that later everything will be very beautiful, because if not, how are we going to destroy tourism?” asks Eugenia Euán, a preschool teacher.
Those responsible for El Triunfo already fantasize about everything they would like to see in the town. “A shopping plaza, a garden, a museum, a multi-star hotel… and feel proud of our town. This is the change of El Triunfo, it is the change from the old to the modern,” says its municipal delegate López.
Next to his office, a neighbor comes out muttering in annoyance from the only ATM. A drop in electricity power has temporarily left it without service.
El Triunfo dreams of resurrecting itself as the railroad town it once was, but it still needs time and support to know what it will really become after the arrival of the Mayan Train.
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