They are human capital, ordered like product and shipped in for a season. A handful of women from a windblown village in Mexico set out for a better life - una vida mejor -on the back roads of the new world economy.

Story by ANNE HULL • Photographs by JOSHUA DAUTOFF
and PAM ROYAL
of the Times Staff

[Times photo: Joshua Dautoff] Epilogue About the story

Part one: Leaving Palomas Part two: The Smell of Money Part three: Freedom Found Put your thoughts in the Guestbook