Authors like Carton de Grammont (2004) and Sepulveda (2003) consider Mexico's Sustainable Rural Development Law, promulgated in December 2001, as an intent to promote rural development from a territorial perspective, recognizing the present complex rural reality and the role that rural society plays in a globalized socioeconomic context. This law recognizes and revalues the multifunctional and pluriactive nature of the peasant economy and proposes a rural development with equity, social justice and ecological balance. However, after more than six years from its publication, the rural population in poverty conditions faces problems to access the support programs. Even though the change of the government's vision on rural development represents an opportunity for poor people, the institutional supply cannot satisfy the Law's offerings. This paper presents the experiences of a group of peasant women from Tesopaco, Sonora, Mexico, in their process of looking for public resources to support a productive project, emphasizing the challenges and opportunities they have faced to initiate and maintain the project, within the context of the above law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]