December 2, 2007
Diana Ramirez saw a shredded picture of the Virgin Mary pieced together with tape. A cracked, glued statue of Santo Nino de Atocha — a Roman Catholic depiction of the infant Jesus — stood atop a dresser.
She suspected the items came from a nearby dump, where many so-called “ragpickers” forage for recyclable items to sell, such as aluminum cans, copper wire and glass bottles.
It was December, and 2 inches of snow coated the ground outside this home in Juarez, Mexico. Inside, a middle-age mother and her two sons fought the chill biting them through broken windows.
