MENDOTA -- Crossing the border and arriving to the United States doesn't always mean the beginning of prosperity after all.
For many farm workers in California, arriving legally or illegally this summer hasn't represented much of a difference.
Since 1988, Juan Solorio travels each summer from La Piedad, Michoacán, México to Mendota to work in the fields doing irrigation and sometimes in the cotton harvest.
But this year has been different because since he arrived on June 5 he hasn't been able to work one day.
His wife and four kids are in México and have managed to live with a family who hasn't charged them any rent, knowing that he is unemployed.
"If there was water right now, we would be working," said Solorio outside a store with two other unemployed farm workers who seemed hot from the sun.
Ricardo Torres, 42, and Eliseo Melgosa, 61, make an echo of Solorio's words.
Torres applied for unemployment benefits since January but that assistance is about to run out.
Melgosa is surprised of what they are going through in Mendota and other farming cities in the fertile county of Fresno such as Firebaugh, Huron, Tranquility and San Joaquín.
Five small communities in the California's Central Valley with a high Latino concentration that day by day see the growing urgent necessity of a reform in the water system.
"This had never happened during the last 25 years, there are a lot of people and not enough work," said Melgosa.
This year, the city of Mendota, with a 9,788 population, suffered a 40 percent water supply cut towards agriculture.
The yellowish aspect of many of its fields say more than a thousand words.
"They started with 45 percent in January and February, but last month it was reduced by five percent," said Councilman Leo Capuchino.
Mendota is known as the 'Cantaloupe Center of the World,' but for many of its inhabitants, lately the city has been known for the lack of employment and natural resources.
City officials have figured that Fresno County will suffer a loss of $73 million in harvests this year.
But the general manager of Westlands Water District declared that "the magnitude of this disaster could not be measured on the value of the harvest and the size of acres alone. There are huge human costs too. There are jobs that have been lost and others that will be lost."
Capuchino explained that if a farmer doesn't have enough water, he will stop watering his tomato, cotton, alfalfa, lettuce, cantaloupe, or broccoli crops to keep the almond, pistachio, apricot trees or grape vines alive.
Birmingham added in a formal statement that the call of emergency by the governor Arnold Schwarzzeneger due to the drought will not relief the final impact that this situation will have among the consumers in California and its surroundings.
Nonetheless, he hopes the declaration will help move water to the crops that need it much sooner.
"The situation is critical," said Capuchino, who worked for Westlands Water District for more than 40 years. He knows better than anyone that the panorama of the region looks gloomy. "Without water there is no work."
And without any work, people will not go out to buy all the basic foods and business owners will also suffer.
"The impact (of unemployment) has been so great that I no longer have a grocery store," said Joseph Riofrío, who is also a city council member. Due to the lack of profit, Riofrío improvised a video and videogame store in his building that has been owned by his family for 75 years. He still sells sodas and some other products.
San Juana Prieto has lived in Mendota for 23 years and doesn't remember such a difficult time as this year's drought.
"We have lived through floods, freezes, but now that there is no water it coincides with the high gas prices and it's making it worse."
About two weeks ago Prieto found a job working with the hoe, but the foremen have told her that it will be for a short period of time.
"We have thought of moving to Madera," said Prieto, whose husband works as a truck driver, but he is also suffering due to the high diesel prices.
Last week Assemblyman Juan Arámbula introduced a proposal to extend the unemployment benefits to those who have lost their job due to the drought.
Bruce Blodgett, executive director of the San Joaquín Farm Bureau Federation, said that the county has not been significantly affected.
"We haven't seen good numbers," said Blodgett. "It has been ironic that it hasn't been difficult to find sources of employment either."
In the past -- before the economy began to decline -- farmers would have a hard time finding enough people to work in their fields. Now, due to the economy, the lack of employees is no longer a problem.
In Firebaugh, María del Refugio Ruíz is feeling the effects of the drought because her daughter hasn't been able to find a job either and she can't help her.
At the age of 70, Ruíz would rather be able to go to the fields herself, but her ankles broke while working and she stopped doing that a few years ago.
In order to survive, she cleans houses or baby-sits for some women who go out to the field and sometimes earns $30 a day.
But when the farm workers don't have a job, they don't need help.
"Many people are leaving to Dos Palos. There are many fields here that are not going to be sowed," said Ruiz, who became a widow more than seven years ago and lives with a son who is a little over 20-years-old. He had an accident at a very young age and became paraplegic.
Recently, Ruiz was left with no electricity for 15 days and it was until San José Catholic Church gave her a check for $250 to pay off the four months she owed that she was able to have the service on again.
Ruiz also regrets that one of her grandsons, who is a 20-year-old, can't get a job due to his illegal status. "He's practically from here. My daughter brought him when he was 2 and he's a good kid, he already finished school (high school) and he can't find a job."
Among all the shortage, Ruiz was pleasantly surprised when a couple of months ago, the driver of the bus she takes to go and clean houses told her she no longer had to pay him.
Due to her age, she qualifies for free transportation. That is not the case for any other type of personal assistance or for her son's care since he also lacks a legal status.
"People suffer a lot more here than in México. I would go back if my son wasn't sick," she said.