OUR barrio was energized by electricity when I was already 10 years old. Before then, we had no access to electricity except a dry cell battery that operated a transistor radio at an AM frequency. We had no piped water as well. During the night, lighting meant a kerosene-fueled rag wick in a gin bottle or, for someone a bit more economically empowered in a poor community, the light came from an air-pumped kerosene Coleman lamp. Life was harsh and poor. There were no industries in many rural areas. The only way to make a living was through subsistence farming.
The energization of the rural areas sparked economic growth because electricity allowed farmers to be involved in small enterprises. My seamstress mother used to mechanically foot-pedal her sewing machine day and night. It was tiring and grinding. But when electricity came, she doubled her output when she attached a small motor to her sewing machine. As the government created electric cooperatives in the 1970s, this increase in productivity was replicated thousands of times in rural areas of the country as many areas got energized.
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