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Tlaxcala – Adelaida Avelino, 60, is still devastated by the loss of her corn and wheat harvest, which were destroyed by the freeze that hit the Mexican state of Tlaxcala a month ago. But at least her medicinal plants survived.

“Some were hurt, others are very resistant. But the corn and wheat crops are beyond recovery and we don’t know if the government will give us any support,” Avelino, from the village of Españita, a few km from Tlaxcala, the capital of the small central state of the same name 130 km southeast of Mexico City, told IPS.

Like another four dozen local farmers, Avelino goes every week to the Alternative Market of Tlaxcala, which operates in a central square in the city, offering campesinos or small farmers from the area around the state capital a place to sell their crops.

At the market, she sells ointments and potions based on medicinal plants like absinthe, camomile, salvia, rue, arnica and aloe vera, which she grows in her backyard garden.

Avelino’s case is an illustration of the difficulties faced by rural women in Mexico who since 2008 have suffered the combined effects of the economic, food and climate crises, compounded by the spiral of drug-related violence in different regions in this Latin American country.