It’s a special time of year outside the city market in the center of Hermosillo.
Fruit sellers sit behind trays and boxes brimming with red and green cactus fruits grown in Sonora, called pitayas. The fruits are only in season for a couple of months in the summer, and Hermosillo residents have clustered in front of vendors to take advantage of the short season.
The pitayas’ leathery skin splits to show bright red fruit flecked with black seeds. Brenda Chávez pulled the green and red orbs from a plastic bucket. Each pitaya costs 10 pesos, around 50 cents.
“They’re very good, very sweet,” Chávez said.
Chávez and the other pitaya sellers bring this fruit from Carbó, a town an hour north of the Sonoran capital. Farmers there harvested the plants hours before the sun rose.
Chávez has been selling pitayas for more than 30 years. It’s been a bad season, she said. There have been fewer fruits this year, and they’re smaller.
Chávez speculates it’s the lack of rain; the region is suffering from drought. But Hermosillo residents flock to buy the pitayas she does have.
“It’s a fruit of the desert, it’s natural, God gave it to us,” Chavez said.
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Cattle from Mexico have been barred from the United States for most the past year to prevent the parasite from entering. Ranchers in Sonora say this method was a mistake. -
Mexico’s foreign secretary says 14,000 Mexican nationals remain in immigration detention in the United States as Mexico pursues consular and legal action. -
The move comes after a nearly yearlong ban of Mexican cattle into the United States to protect against the New World screwworm parasite. -
The San Luis port of entry from Sonora, Mexico, is Arizona’s westernmost border crossing, and could see delays for four to five months starting later this month. -
No cases of the flesh-eating New World screwworm parasite have been reported in Arizona, but USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in the state has recommendations for ranchers to protect against it.
