FRANCISCO MURGIA, Zacatecas, Mexico — As Efren Carrillo walks home on dirt roads, he passes adobe and brick buildings and crosses a footbridge over a river that's dry now, as it is most of the year.

The 14-year-old boy points out animals — a dog, a few horses, a pig — saying he likes this rural town because he's close to animals. He dreams of being the next "Crocodile Hunter," like he has seen on television.

Even so, Carrillo longs to return to Wendover, Utah, where he was born and lived until moving to this quiet Zacatecas town with his father a few years ago, after his mother died. There are more opportunities in the United States. Efren says the outlook here is bleak.

"It's hard to earn money here," he says. "There's more chances over there — there's more work, more places to learn — to be something."

Half of the population of the largely rural central Mexican state has left over several years, looking for opportunities in more prosperous Mexican states or another country, according to a Zacatecas development report for 2005-10.

The dusty rural towns such as Francisco Murgia are a stark contrast to the vibrant Zacatecas city, where tourists admire the colonial architecture and array of cathedrals.

Outside the city, highways are lined by fields of chilies and other crops. There are a few factories and roadside restaurants between towns. Farther off the highway, some smaller towns are reached only by dirt roads. Many people earn a subsistence by working on farms or ranches. Most of the working-age men interviewed by the Deseret Morning News say they've at some point worked in the United States.

In Francisco Murgia, Carrillo is among about two dozen students at a secondary school who answer "si," or "claro," when asked if they have relatives in the United States.

Carrillo's older sister, a U.S. citizen, remains in Wendover. She sends money back when she can and is saving up money to sponsor a green card for their father, Juan Carrillo, and brother Eric, who were both born in Mexico.

Juan Carrillo is anxious to get back to Wendover, where he says there are better opportunities to work, if you're legal. Eric Carrillo crossed the border earlier this year, but his lack of papers left him unable to find a decent job, his father says, so he returned to Mexico.

The father, meanwhile, makes about 600 pesos each week working on a cattle ranch. That's roughly $54 and only a fraction of the $400 to $600 he says he could make in Wendover. He's waiting until he can return legally, because of the dangerous conditions at the border and the $1,500 to $2,000 that he says smugglers charge for a border crossing.