墨西哥一家人岩石下安家30年[1]

But for one Mexican couple, a hut wedged below a 130-foot boulder in Coahulla, Mexico has been home for the past 30 years.

For many people the idea of living under a rock might seem like the punchline of a joke. But for one Mexican couple, a hut wedged below a 130-foot boulder in Coahulla, Mexico has been home for the past 30 years.

A reporter recently visited the couple, Benito Hernandez and Santa Martha de la Cruz Villarreal, in their primitive desert home 50 miles south of Texas. Hernandez is a farmer who plants and collects the Candelilla plant used in making Candelilla wax.

He first saw this boulder 55 years ago, when he was eight, and decided to make it a home one day. Twenty years later he was able to secure rights to the land.

"I started coming here when I was eight-years-old to visit the Candelilla (harvesting) fields and I liked it here. I liked it and then I continued visiting every three to four months. I wasn't married and I didn't have a family yet but I liked it and I had to keep coming to put my foot in (on the property) because lands here are won through claiming them," Hernandez told the International Business Times.

The home, made of sun-dried bricks and cement, has a dirt floor, a wood stove, and no plumbing. Electrical service is said to be unreliable. A nearby stream supplies fresh drinking water. In winter, though, the water source freezes over.

"It gets very cold here and we struggle to get food. We have to work hard here on the Candelilla (fields). That's the only job we have. That's what we live from," said Hernandez.

The couple have seven children, six of whom are married and live nearby.

双语资讯

(Agencies)

对许多人而言，在岩石底下居住这一想法听起来像是笑话。不过，对于一对墨西哥夫妇来讲，过去三十年，嵌在墨西哥Coahulla州的一块高达130英尺的巨石下的一个棚屋便是他们的家。

一名记者近期拜访了贝尼多-赫纳德兹与桑塔•玛莎-德拉克鲁兹•维拉里尔这对夫妇，他们的家位于德克萨斯州以南50英里的原始沙漠。赫纳德兹是一名农夫，靠种植和收集蜡大戟为生，这种沙漠植物可以用来提取小烛树蜡。

55年前，赫纳德兹第一次见到这块巨石，那时他才8岁。当时他就下定决心有朝一日在那里安家。20年后，这里终于成为他的家园。

“我在8岁时来到这里，到Candelilla

这个房子由晒干的砖块和水泥砌成，有泥土地面，配有柴炉，没有水管。据说屋里的电器装置不大好用。附近的一条小溪供应新鲜的饮用水。不过到了冬天，水源就会冻结。

赫纳德兹说，“冬天这里很冷，找食物不容易。我们必须在Candelilla田地上勤恳劳作，因为这是我们唯一的工作，是我们的生计所在”。

这对夫妇共抚养了7个孩子，其中6个都已成婚，住在不远处。

Vocabulary:

boulder: 大圆石，巨砾

Santa Martha de la Cruz Villarreal watches her husband in the home's kitchen.

Lucero Hernandez, Hernandez's granddaughter, in the doorway of the home.