http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k2fxIz-XF8&feature=related
I am glowing! absolutely ecstatic. Yesterday, as I typed Centro Las Libres into the news which I do every few days now, a new article appeared "Guanajuato Reduces Sentences against Women." After years of work, a flood of international pressure, and the published story of Alma, the Guanajuato congress responded. This past week they reduced the sentence for infanticide from 25-35 years to 3-8 years if the infanticide occurred within 24 hours of birth. This solution is far from ideal because it hardly addresses the problem of falsely accusing poor women and the six women I worked with will be set free as criminals who served their time. My guess it that the politicians hope that if they get these women out of jail the UN will stop breathing down their necks and feminist groups from around the world will stop calling them monsters. It is a cowardly band aid, but it represents a victory and a huge step. A process we thought would take years and tens of thousands of dollars has been partially completed, and with their freedom the unjustly incarcerated women will work with Las Libres for complete justice. By this Sunday, all six women I worked for in Guanajuato will take their first steps out of prison in half a decade. I am so proud of Las Libres, and happy to have been able to work for them for such an extended period of time. Their story demonstrates the power of a group of small, passionate, dedicated individuals.
I'll end this e-mail and my Mexico e-mails with this prayer (a professor read it at the faculty address this year and I thought it was relevant and wonderful):
May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships,
So that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.
May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war,
So that you may reach out your hand.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Article on Current Situation in Guanajuato
Desfiladero (quarterly publication)
(Article published: August 7, 2010, La Jornada, http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/08/07/index.php?section=opinion&article=008o1pol)
Jaime Avilés
Jailed for Abortion? Let’s free them!
“Women who are beaten by their men are advised to resign, laugh and pray,” is how Verónica Cruz, president of the Centro Las Libres, an association interested in defending civil and reproductive rights for the women of the Mexican state of Guanajuato, characterizes the posture of Luz María Ramírez Villalpando, director of the Institute of the Guanjajuato Woman. Ramírez Villalpando also declared days ago that “women with tattoos are the first to blame for the loss of values in our society.” She is the sister-in-law of the secretary of Guanajuato state Gerardo Mosqueda. He is also second in charge in the local chapter of El Yunque, [a supposed ultra-Catholic secret society with apparently strong ties with the local government.]
In 2001, when Vicente Fox became president, the heir to his state government seat [Fox was governor of his native state of Guanajuato from 1995-99,] Carlos Romero Hicks, was backed by the PAN (National Action Party) and the ONY (National Organization of the El Yunque.) During his six-year tenure, Romero Hicks modified laws and public policies related to sexual education and reproductive rights in order to “harmonize” them with the religious ideas of the new administration, according to Verónica Cruz.
Sexual education for pre-pubescent children and adolescents was practically suppressed in private and public schools. Drawings of male and female reproductive rights were eliminated from science books, as the Taliban of El Bajío (in Guanajuato state,) believe that they “incite lust.” They launched a permanent campaign against condoms and birth control based in another dogma: that the only way to prevent sexually-transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies is abstinence.
When, in response to protests by several groups around the country, the federal “government” prohibited El Yunque’s science book and demanded that they use the one edited by the department of education, the Guanajuato Taliban burned it in a public plaza in Leon, according to Cruz. And Carlos García, a La Jornada correspondent, states that Mrs. Ramírez Villalpando (who is not a doctor but an interior designer) said that “women secrete a spermicidal fluid as they are being raped, which protects them from getting pregnant.” Undoubtedly, this is why Guanajuato’s walls have the following statement painted on them, framed by the state government’s seals and emblems: “Whether for love or for violence, abortion is a crime.”
Murderous uteri
In the summer of 2004, an investigator from the Institute for Social Studies of The Hague documented cases of women in Chiapas who had spontaneous abortions due to the conditions of extreme poverty in which they live. I obtained data about perfectly healthy women in urban areas whose pregnancies were involuntarily interrupted between the fifth and sixth month because they had “infantile uterus,” that is, their wombs were incapable to contain a developing fetus.
Since 2001, spontaneous abortions due to malnutrition or any other physical limitation as well as voluntary interruptions of pregnancy, are punished with up to 35 years in jail in Guanajuato. For the El Bajío Taliban, these are “homicides of kinship by reason of aggravation of a product in gestation,” according to the state’s penal code. Or, as simplified by Governor Juan Manuel Oliva Ramírez in an interview published yesterday by La Jornada, they are “infanticide.”
Just today, because of this vile accusation, five young peasant women woke up in jail at the Social Rehabilitation Center in Puentecillas, in the outskirts of Guanajuato’s capital, and another one in Valle de Santiago, near Michoacan. They are all sentenced to more than 25 years of imprisonment. The oldest one in the group (who is just 26 and has already served 9 of her 26-year sentence,) has never received medical attention, reproductive health education or assistance to prevent or interrupt her pregnancies. One of them became pregnant the fourth time she was raped, and was arrested after she had an abortion, while she received no protection against the men who abused her for years.
Aside from being victims of such an atrocious and unacceptable injustice, all these women received the same surprise when they arrived to public hospitals, dripping blood and psychologically devastated: before they were treated in the emergency room, the hospital personnel called agents of the appropriate public agency in order to catch them “in the act.”
The six of them –plus Alma Yareli Salazar Saldaña, who was freed– went from the hospital straight to jail. After being sentenced, some of them appealed to the Superior Court of Justice, but they lost the case due to the lack of good lawyers. Now, in order to bring it to the Supreme Court (Mexico’s moral dump,) each of them needs to gather at least 500 thousand Mexican pesos [almost $40,000 USD] to get a lawyer to represent them. An impossible dream, since their families live in extreme poverty and rarely have the means to gather the 400 pesos ($32 USD) to travel from their villages to the Puentecillas Rehabilitation Center to visit.
United Nations v. El Yunque
Speaking of distances, a few days ago –in the eve of the Mexican visit of the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, South Korean Kuyng-wha Kang–, Guanajuato’s Public Safety Agency made the Puentecillas interns sign a document in which they ask not to be interviewed by the press. Why did they accept to sign, as if they were celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, Rachel Weisz or Natalie Portman, fed-up with the paparazzi? Because they were threatened to be transferred to Valle de Santiago. To their families, who live near the towns of Dolores Hidalgo and San Miguel de Allende, Valle de Santiago is as far away as New York is from Iztapalapa to us.
Now that we know about their existence and their torment (they are all under 30 and have their lives ahead of them,) we will not tolerate that they rot in jail. First, we need to let them know, by every possible means, they are not alone, that they must not “resign, laugh and pray,” but that they must continue fighting for their rights, certain that they will be free sooner than they think.
The quarterly paperback Desfiladero, invites its readers –wherever they may be– to think, imagine, organize, give shape and content, and activate a national and international solidarity campaign for the liberation of María Araceli Camargo Juárez, Yolanda Martínez Montoya, Ana Rosa Padrón Alarcón, Susana Dueñas, Ofelia Frías and Liliana Moreno. The campaign must undoubtedly have the Centro Las Libres as a focus, whose brave members live and fight in Guanajuato and need to become surrounded and protected by the arms of all of us.
At this moment, there are 166 women in Guanajuato who were also turned in by their “doctors” to the police. Forty-three of them are at the mercy of the court to be submitted to a penal process. It is not only a matter of the six peasant women who are imprisoned or about the ones who are sitting in the waiting room of terror, but about all women in Mexico and throughout the world. Shall we set up this campaign? Critics, suggestions and involvement of any kind are welcome. In jail for abortion? No way!
jamastu@gmail.com
(Article published: August 7, 2010, La Jornada, http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/08/07/index.php?section=opinion&article=008o1pol)
Jaime Avilés
Jailed for Abortion? Let’s free them!
“Women who are beaten by their men are advised to resign, laugh and pray,” is how Verónica Cruz, president of the Centro Las Libres, an association interested in defending civil and reproductive rights for the women of the Mexican state of Guanajuato, characterizes the posture of Luz María Ramírez Villalpando, director of the Institute of the Guanjajuato Woman. Ramírez Villalpando also declared days ago that “women with tattoos are the first to blame for the loss of values in our society.” She is the sister-in-law of the secretary of Guanajuato state Gerardo Mosqueda. He is also second in charge in the local chapter of El Yunque, [a supposed ultra-Catholic secret society with apparently strong ties with the local government.]
In 2001, when Vicente Fox became president, the heir to his state government seat [Fox was governor of his native state of Guanajuato from 1995-99,] Carlos Romero Hicks, was backed by the PAN (National Action Party) and the ONY (National Organization of the El Yunque.) During his six-year tenure, Romero Hicks modified laws and public policies related to sexual education and reproductive rights in order to “harmonize” them with the religious ideas of the new administration, according to Verónica Cruz.
Sexual education for pre-pubescent children and adolescents was practically suppressed in private and public schools. Drawings of male and female reproductive rights were eliminated from science books, as the Taliban of El Bajío (in Guanajuato state,) believe that they “incite lust.” They launched a permanent campaign against condoms and birth control based in another dogma: that the only way to prevent sexually-transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies is abstinence.
When, in response to protests by several groups around the country, the federal “government” prohibited El Yunque’s science book and demanded that they use the one edited by the department of education, the Guanajuato Taliban burned it in a public plaza in Leon, according to Cruz. And Carlos García, a La Jornada correspondent, states that Mrs. Ramírez Villalpando (who is not a doctor but an interior designer) said that “women secrete a spermicidal fluid as they are being raped, which protects them from getting pregnant.” Undoubtedly, this is why Guanajuato’s walls have the following statement painted on them, framed by the state government’s seals and emblems: “Whether for love or for violence, abortion is a crime.”
Murderous uteri
In the summer of 2004, an investigator from the Institute for Social Studies of The Hague documented cases of women in Chiapas who had spontaneous abortions due to the conditions of extreme poverty in which they live. I obtained data about perfectly healthy women in urban areas whose pregnancies were involuntarily interrupted between the fifth and sixth month because they had “infantile uterus,” that is, their wombs were incapable to contain a developing fetus.
Since 2001, spontaneous abortions due to malnutrition or any other physical limitation as well as voluntary interruptions of pregnancy, are punished with up to 35 years in jail in Guanajuato. For the El Bajío Taliban, these are “homicides of kinship by reason of aggravation of a product in gestation,” according to the state’s penal code. Or, as simplified by Governor Juan Manuel Oliva Ramírez in an interview published yesterday by La Jornada, they are “infanticide.”
Just today, because of this vile accusation, five young peasant women woke up in jail at the Social Rehabilitation Center in Puentecillas, in the outskirts of Guanajuato’s capital, and another one in Valle de Santiago, near Michoacan. They are all sentenced to more than 25 years of imprisonment. The oldest one in the group (who is just 26 and has already served 9 of her 26-year sentence,) has never received medical attention, reproductive health education or assistance to prevent or interrupt her pregnancies. One of them became pregnant the fourth time she was raped, and was arrested after she had an abortion, while she received no protection against the men who abused her for years.
Aside from being victims of such an atrocious and unacceptable injustice, all these women received the same surprise when they arrived to public hospitals, dripping blood and psychologically devastated: before they were treated in the emergency room, the hospital personnel called agents of the appropriate public agency in order to catch them “in the act.”
The six of them –plus Alma Yareli Salazar Saldaña, who was freed– went from the hospital straight to jail. After being sentenced, some of them appealed to the Superior Court of Justice, but they lost the case due to the lack of good lawyers. Now, in order to bring it to the Supreme Court (Mexico’s moral dump,) each of them needs to gather at least 500 thousand Mexican pesos [almost $40,000 USD] to get a lawyer to represent them. An impossible dream, since their families live in extreme poverty and rarely have the means to gather the 400 pesos ($32 USD) to travel from their villages to the Puentecillas Rehabilitation Center to visit.
United Nations v. El Yunque
Speaking of distances, a few days ago –in the eve of the Mexican visit of the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, South Korean Kuyng-wha Kang–, Guanajuato’s Public Safety Agency made the Puentecillas interns sign a document in which they ask not to be interviewed by the press. Why did they accept to sign, as if they were celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, Rachel Weisz or Natalie Portman, fed-up with the paparazzi? Because they were threatened to be transferred to Valle de Santiago. To their families, who live near the towns of Dolores Hidalgo and San Miguel de Allende, Valle de Santiago is as far away as New York is from Iztapalapa to us.
Now that we know about their existence and their torment (they are all under 30 and have their lives ahead of them,) we will not tolerate that they rot in jail. First, we need to let them know, by every possible means, they are not alone, that they must not “resign, laugh and pray,” but that they must continue fighting for their rights, certain that they will be free sooner than they think.
The quarterly paperback Desfiladero, invites its readers –wherever they may be– to think, imagine, organize, give shape and content, and activate a national and international solidarity campaign for the liberation of María Araceli Camargo Juárez, Yolanda Martínez Montoya, Ana Rosa Padrón Alarcón, Susana Dueñas, Ofelia Frías and Liliana Moreno. The campaign must undoubtedly have the Centro Las Libres as a focus, whose brave members live and fight in Guanajuato and need to become surrounded and protected by the arms of all of us.
At this moment, there are 166 women in Guanajuato who were also turned in by their “doctors” to the police. Forty-three of them are at the mercy of the court to be submitted to a penal process. It is not only a matter of the six peasant women who are imprisoned or about the ones who are sitting in the waiting room of terror, but about all women in Mexico and throughout the world. Shall we set up this campaign? Critics, suggestions and involvement of any kind are welcome. In jail for abortion? No way!
jamastu@gmail.com
Saturday, August 7, 2010
One Correction to the article: the 6 omen imprisoned for infanticide were all victims of spontaneous abortions (still born births at unexpected points during their pregnancies)
These women were manipulated by the legal system and government in Guanajuto because they are poor, uneducated and have no access to health care.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=362113&CategoryId=14091
These women were manipulated by the legal system and government in Guanajuto because they are poor, uneducated and have no access to health care.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=362113&CategoryId=14091
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
I have never been more proud than working with this organization!
http://www.milenio.com/node/498259
Thursday, July 1, 2010
In their voicese
Below you will find the stories of each of these women in their voices compiled and translated from interviews (pseudonyms are used to protect the identities of the women.
∴Alesandra∴
When she was 18 years old Alesandra was accused of aborting her pregnancy of 9 months and sentenced to 25 years of prison.
“I hadn’t told anyone I was pregnant, because I had already been threatened that if I had another child, my family would be upset. I started to feel sick one day and my mother gave me a tea. When I went to the bathroom I noticed I was bleeding and that the umbilical cord had started to emerge.
My mom took me to the doctor and he refused to treat me because he thought I had aborted the child. He sent me to the hospital. The doctor there yelled at me “Do you know what you have done niña? How could you do this?” He put me to sleep and when I woke up he made me sign something, I couldn’t tell what. He told me they couldn’t save the baby and that I had to go to jail for what I had done.”
∴Gabriela∴
When She was 34 years old Gabriela was accused of aborting her pregnancy of 6 months and sentenced to 25 years of prison.
“I have no idea what day I was born. I never went to school, and from a young age helped my father around our farm. He never let us leave the house at night, but during the day I loved to walk around and talk to people in the community. One night a man offered to walk me home, but I told him no and asked him to leave.
My family’s house was poorly made. The doors were thin wood. The man came by at night and would sleep with me. He would leave before sunrise. I never told anyone I was pregnant. One day I felt sick…the neighbor found me and called the police…”
∴Fatima∴
Fatima’s case varies from the others. Her infant of a year and three months fell sick and died in the hospital and she was accused of murdering her child and sentenced to 26 years.
“I noticed my youngest was sick and that there was blood in her cough so I brought her to the hospital with my brother. My brother told me she died in the hospital and I became hysterical, screaming “not my daughter,” and my older daughter came and grabbed me, sobbing.
A few days later I was called into a judicial office. They accused me of beating my child and forced me to sign blank sheets of paper which they later used as my “confession.” They said I murdered my baby.”
∴Patricia∴
When she was 26, Patricia was accused of aborting her 7½ month pregnancy and sentenced to 29 years in prison.
“One morning I woke up feeling sick and like I had to go to the bathroom. I went to the latrine near our house and fainted. My parents found me there, unconscious with a dead fetus between my legs. My father removed the fetus and put it on our patio to bury later in a funeral service. They brought me to the hospital.
When we returned the fetus was gone; a neighbor had seen the bundle and called the police and the Public Prosecution Office. Public officials came to my house and forced me to sign several documents. Then they took me to their office and said they had to detain me. My assigned defense lawyer explained to me that I had abandoned and murdered my child, that I would have to go to prison for my crime.”
∴Ana∴
When she was 19, Ana was accused of murdering a 9 month-old baby and sentenced to 30 years of prison.
“I didn’t realize I was pregnant. So when I noticed I was bleeding I thought it was my cycle. After eight days of heavy bleeding, I started vomiting and my mother took me to the hospital.
“Don’t tell me you don’t know what you did.” The nurse scolded me, “We know you threw your baby in the trash.” A 9 month-old baby had recently been found in a trash near the hospital. A nurse told me they did a blood test (There is no medical or legal record of this blood test or proof that it ever existed).
They wouldn’t let me see my family or call them. I told a doctor my stomach hurt. “Your do not hurt. You are feeling the results of what you did.” He told me. They said police and fireman found evidence at my house, that I would be punished. I was interrogated and imprisoned. I never met my defense lawyer. They used false documents with forged signatures as my confession.”
∴Sofía∴
At the age of 19 Sofía was accused of murdering her baby of 6½ months and sentenced to 25 years.
I was in my house and my stomach began to hurt. I went to the bathroom and the baby came out in the bath tub. I felt her nose and chest, but she wasn’t breathing. I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. I wrapped the baby in a bag and sent it down the river.
I was sick for several days and finally I had to go to the hospital. The doctor said I almost died. They had found the baby and told me I would be punished. I was taken to a holding cell. They said I taped my baby’s mouth shut to suffocate her, but that was a lie. When I went to the bathroom they accused me of trying to escape. One of the officials from the Public Prosecution Office put a statue of Christ in my cell so that I could repent my sins.
*All of these stories were translated by Jessica Steinberg from parts of interviews conducted by Gabriela Ortiz.*
∴Alesandra∴
When she was 18 years old Alesandra was accused of aborting her pregnancy of 9 months and sentenced to 25 years of prison.
“I hadn’t told anyone I was pregnant, because I had already been threatened that if I had another child, my family would be upset. I started to feel sick one day and my mother gave me a tea. When I went to the bathroom I noticed I was bleeding and that the umbilical cord had started to emerge.
My mom took me to the doctor and he refused to treat me because he thought I had aborted the child. He sent me to the hospital. The doctor there yelled at me “Do you know what you have done niña? How could you do this?” He put me to sleep and when I woke up he made me sign something, I couldn’t tell what. He told me they couldn’t save the baby and that I had to go to jail for what I had done.”
∴Gabriela∴
When She was 34 years old Gabriela was accused of aborting her pregnancy of 6 months and sentenced to 25 years of prison.
“I have no idea what day I was born. I never went to school, and from a young age helped my father around our farm. He never let us leave the house at night, but during the day I loved to walk around and talk to people in the community. One night a man offered to walk me home, but I told him no and asked him to leave.
My family’s house was poorly made. The doors were thin wood. The man came by at night and would sleep with me. He would leave before sunrise. I never told anyone I was pregnant. One day I felt sick…the neighbor found me and called the police…”
∴Fatima∴
Fatima’s case varies from the others. Her infant of a year and three months fell sick and died in the hospital and she was accused of murdering her child and sentenced to 26 years.
“I noticed my youngest was sick and that there was blood in her cough so I brought her to the hospital with my brother. My brother told me she died in the hospital and I became hysterical, screaming “not my daughter,” and my older daughter came and grabbed me, sobbing.
A few days later I was called into a judicial office. They accused me of beating my child and forced me to sign blank sheets of paper which they later used as my “confession.” They said I murdered my baby.”
∴Patricia∴
When she was 26, Patricia was accused of aborting her 7½ month pregnancy and sentenced to 29 years in prison.
“One morning I woke up feeling sick and like I had to go to the bathroom. I went to the latrine near our house and fainted. My parents found me there, unconscious with a dead fetus between my legs. My father removed the fetus and put it on our patio to bury later in a funeral service. They brought me to the hospital.
When we returned the fetus was gone; a neighbor had seen the bundle and called the police and the Public Prosecution Office. Public officials came to my house and forced me to sign several documents. Then they took me to their office and said they had to detain me. My assigned defense lawyer explained to me that I had abandoned and murdered my child, that I would have to go to prison for my crime.”
∴Ana∴
When she was 19, Ana was accused of murdering a 9 month-old baby and sentenced to 30 years of prison.
“I didn’t realize I was pregnant. So when I noticed I was bleeding I thought it was my cycle. After eight days of heavy bleeding, I started vomiting and my mother took me to the hospital.
“Don’t tell me you don’t know what you did.” The nurse scolded me, “We know you threw your baby in the trash.” A 9 month-old baby had recently been found in a trash near the hospital. A nurse told me they did a blood test (There is no medical or legal record of this blood test or proof that it ever existed).
They wouldn’t let me see my family or call them. I told a doctor my stomach hurt. “Your do not hurt. You are feeling the results of what you did.” He told me. They said police and fireman found evidence at my house, that I would be punished. I was interrogated and imprisoned. I never met my defense lawyer. They used false documents with forged signatures as my confession.”
∴Sofía∴
At the age of 19 Sofía was accused of murdering her baby of 6½ months and sentenced to 25 years.
I was in my house and my stomach began to hurt. I went to the bathroom and the baby came out in the bath tub. I felt her nose and chest, but she wasn’t breathing. I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. I wrapped the baby in a bag and sent it down the river.
I was sick for several days and finally I had to go to the hospital. The doctor said I almost died. They had found the baby and told me I would be punished. I was taken to a holding cell. They said I taped my baby’s mouth shut to suffocate her, but that was a lie. When I went to the bathroom they accused me of trying to escape. One of the officials from the Public Prosecution Office put a statue of Christ in my cell so that I could repent my sins.
*All of these stories were translated by Jessica Steinberg from parts of interviews conducted by Gabriela Ortiz.*
Funds and Representation for unjustly incarcerated women
In the state of Guanajuato, all forms of abortion are illegal except in the case of rape. Despite this exception, no woman has ever received a legal abortion in the state. Women who seek abortions illegally are penalized with one to three years in prison (even rape victims) and since 2000, 150 women have been arrested and served time for this “crime.” Along with these women, 7 women who delivered stillborn fetuses have been accused by authorities and physicians of intentionally aborting their children, tried and imprisoned for alleged infanticide. Because these women are poor, with little education and no knowledge of the legal system in Mexico, they had no means of defending themselves against these accusations and are now imprisoned because of crimes they didn’t commit. Instead of being tried under abortion laws, these women were penalized for homicide and will spend between 25-40 years in prison instead of the normal abortion sentence of 1-3. On top if the injustice in their incarceration and excessive punishments, some of these women were rape victims. These women, in the eyes of the machista culture here and in the eyes of the politicians in Guanajuato, have no rights and no voices. The violation of the human rights is of no concern because their social status, gender and education level render them undeserving of the inherent freedoms guaranteed to all individuals by international law.
Centro Las Libres has visited these women biweekly for several years now, studying the facts of their cases, learning to their stories, and developing relationships with both the women and their families. After much work, we are finally ready to appeal their cases to a federal court. Working with an accomplished lawyer from Mexico City*, Centro las Libres appealed the case of one woman earlier this year. Upon receiving the fifty-page appeal, the federal court immediately mandated her release and her unjust 28-year sentence ended after only 3 years. The lawyer who collaborated with Las Libres to free this woman pro bono, but unfortunately the other cases will cost up to 500,000 pesos (around $39,000 US) for each case. In addition to the immeasurable amount of work Las Libres has done, researching, preparing information, providing moral and emotional support for the women and collaborating with the lawyer from Mexico city, this year Las Libres has taken on the raising of these funds on as its largest project. The women at Las Libres, the interns and the volunteers work day and night to ensure that these women have a voice and that their rights are realized.
Centro Las Libres has visited these women biweekly for several years now, studying the facts of their cases, learning to their stories, and developing relationships with both the women and their families. After much work, we are finally ready to appeal their cases to a federal court. Working with an accomplished lawyer from Mexico City*, Centro las Libres appealed the case of one woman earlier this year. Upon receiving the fifty-page appeal, the federal court immediately mandated her release and her unjust 28-year sentence ended after only 3 years. The lawyer who collaborated with Las Libres to free this woman pro bono, but unfortunately the other cases will cost up to 500,000 pesos (around $39,000 US) for each case. In addition to the immeasurable amount of work Las Libres has done, researching, preparing information, providing moral and emotional support for the women and collaborating with the lawyer from Mexico city, this year Las Libres has taken on the raising of these funds on as its largest project. The women at Las Libres, the interns and the volunteers work day and night to ensure that these women have a voice and that their rights are realized.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
Sex Ed for Prepubescent boys? Yes please! (Loewenstern #5)
As part of writing the grant proposals and the annual bulletin, much of my week, I venture out with various members of Centro Las Libres, participating in workshops and trying to absorb as much information as possible.
One of the more interesting, enjoyable workshops I attended and helped with recently was a sexual education workshop for middle school students at a public school in San Jose de La Luz, the same community in which I have attended several workshops with women. Three university students from Queretaro put together full lesson plans for the boys and girls of this school covering everything from sexual anatomy, to contraception, to the emotional and spiritual elements in love, sex and relationships. In schools in Guanajuato there is no sexual education of any form and when teachers tried to introduce basic anatomy and technical reproductive health information into their biology text books several years ago, priests and Catholic leaders around the state burned the books in huge public bonfires. Most parents don’t talk to their children about puberty or sex because of their own lack of education and because of embarrassment surrounding the subject matter. Guanajuato has the 3rd highest teenage pregnancy rate in the country, a fact that can be seen in the remarkable number of girls who look much younger than myself carrying babies under their arms as they shop with their friends and go out for coffee dates. The workshops sponsored by Centro Las Libres will probably be the students only exposure to sexual education and their only opportunity to ask an adult figure about their doubts and misunderstandings.
Entering the classroom, I felt a smile stretch across my face and wondered if my maturity and Spanish level would allow me to talk about sexual health with a group of boys between the ages of 11 and 15. I swallowed my smile and took a deep breath when the boys joined us, and Alejandro began the days lesson with sexual anatomy and questions from the past weeks workshop. Opening the first anonymous question, the extent of the misinformation became apparent:
“Si se quema el condón después de tener relaciones sexuales, se previene el embarazo?”
“If you burn the condom after sex, will it prevent pregnancy?”
As the questions continued my Spanish was put to the test. Pulling out (and why it doesn't work) and pre-ejaculate sperm were definitely not topics I ever thought I would breach, nonetheless explain to a group of hispanohablantes. Despite my reservations and nervousness, the students listened to their peers and us attentively, absorbing the new information and sharing their doubts and knowledge.
Throughout the remainder of the 45 minutes we covered the reasons why we weren’t ready and wouldn’t want to become pregnant, the responsibilities of pregnancy, and what love is and what love is not. The students actively participated, and surprised me with their kindness, consideration and seriousness. To reinforce our points we made posters and handed out a comic called “Días Embarazosos” (Pregnant Days), which discusses pregnancy and contraception in a palatable form for pre-teens. By the time we finished with our two groups (15 people in each), I left with a great feeling of accomplishment as well as gratitude for the experience, for the challenge, and for the positive response of the students. As their parents came to pick them up after classes, I noticed several of the women who attend our workshops in the same community were mothers. Realizing that our work percolates through all levels of the community, I couldn’t help but smile and feel reaffirmed in the value of Centro Las Libres. Little by little, grass roots efforts like theirs will change the social dynamics of the culture and bring about the change needed for progress.
Hope everyone is loving summer time!
One of the more interesting, enjoyable workshops I attended and helped with recently was a sexual education workshop for middle school students at a public school in San Jose de La Luz, the same community in which I have attended several workshops with women. Three university students from Queretaro put together full lesson plans for the boys and girls of this school covering everything from sexual anatomy, to contraception, to the emotional and spiritual elements in love, sex and relationships. In schools in Guanajuato there is no sexual education of any form and when teachers tried to introduce basic anatomy and technical reproductive health information into their biology text books several years ago, priests and Catholic leaders around the state burned the books in huge public bonfires. Most parents don’t talk to their children about puberty or sex because of their own lack of education and because of embarrassment surrounding the subject matter. Guanajuato has the 3rd highest teenage pregnancy rate in the country, a fact that can be seen in the remarkable number of girls who look much younger than myself carrying babies under their arms as they shop with their friends and go out for coffee dates. The workshops sponsored by Centro Las Libres will probably be the students only exposure to sexual education and their only opportunity to ask an adult figure about their doubts and misunderstandings.
Entering the classroom, I felt a smile stretch across my face and wondered if my maturity and Spanish level would allow me to talk about sexual health with a group of boys between the ages of 11 and 15. I swallowed my smile and took a deep breath when the boys joined us, and Alejandro began the days lesson with sexual anatomy and questions from the past weeks workshop. Opening the first anonymous question, the extent of the misinformation became apparent:
“Si se quema el condón después de tener relaciones sexuales, se previene el embarazo?”
“If you burn the condom after sex, will it prevent pregnancy?”
As the questions continued my Spanish was put to the test. Pulling out (and why it doesn't work) and pre-ejaculate sperm were definitely not topics I ever thought I would breach, nonetheless explain to a group of hispanohablantes. Despite my reservations and nervousness, the students listened to their peers and us attentively, absorbing the new information and sharing their doubts and knowledge.
Throughout the remainder of the 45 minutes we covered the reasons why we weren’t ready and wouldn’t want to become pregnant, the responsibilities of pregnancy, and what love is and what love is not. The students actively participated, and surprised me with their kindness, consideration and seriousness. To reinforce our points we made posters and handed out a comic called “Días Embarazosos” (Pregnant Days), which discusses pregnancy and contraception in a palatable form for pre-teens. By the time we finished with our two groups (15 people in each), I left with a great feeling of accomplishment as well as gratitude for the experience, for the challenge, and for the positive response of the students. As their parents came to pick them up after classes, I noticed several of the women who attend our workshops in the same community were mothers. Realizing that our work percolates through all levels of the community, I couldn’t help but smile and feel reaffirmed in the value of Centro Las Libres. Little by little, grass roots efforts like theirs will change the social dynamics of the culture and bring about the change needed for progress.
Hope everyone is loving summer time!
Amor es: amar a una persona, un sentimiento, querer, amar mutua, respetar, sale de una mismo, adentro, amistad, honestidad
Love is: loving a person, a feeling, to want, mutual, respect, outside of yourself, inside, friendship, honesty
Amor NO es: pornografía, pleitos, falta de respeto, violencia, no querer, acusación, violación
Love is NOT: pornography, fighting, a lack of respect, violence, no love, accusation, rape.
Workshops in San Jose de La Luz
The classroom we taught in.
A comic we used to teach about the responsibilities involved in having a child and contraception.
Of the student that attend this school, approximately 40% will continue to high school and at best around 8% will attend a university. Familial and economic needs prevent the remainder of the students from completing their education.
Public school in San Jose de la Luz
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Mujeres denunciadas por un aborto y encarceladas por homicidio en razón de parentesco
La otra población de mujeres afectadas son las que actualmente están en prisión procesadas por el delito de aborto y sentenciadas por el delito de homicidio en razón de parentesco en agravio del producto en gestación. Esta realidad nos enfrenta directamente con la sociedad porque estas mujeres han sido víctimas “acumuladas” de la pobreza, de la injusticia, de la exclusión, y de un sistema que reproduce la violencia contra las mujeres, entre ellas se encuentran 2 mujeres que fueron víctimas de una violación, se practicaron el aborto por el cual ahora están sentenciadas por homicidio en razón de parentesco y purgando una condena que va de 8 a 35 años, brutal diferencia entre el delito de aborto que su pena máxima son 3 años y procede la libertad bajo caución.
Un dato para ejemplificar los casos de las mujeres que actualmente están en la cárcel purgando una condena por un aborto/homicidio, nos la proporciona la siguiente referencia: De acuerdo a los datos oficiales entregados por la Dirección General de Ejecución Penitenciaria y Readaptación Social, existen solo 7 mujeres encarceladas por “homicidio en razón de parentesco en agravio de su menor hijo(a) en gestación” (6 en el CERESO de Guanajuato y 1 en el CERESO MIL de Valle de Santiago). Sin embargo, desprendido de la investigación detallada que el Centro Las Libres ha desarrollado en los CERESOS de Guanajuato, hemos encontrado a 8 mujeres en el CERESO de Guanajuato y 2 en el CERESO de Valle de Santiago, hasta ahora. Después de conocer las historias de vida de estas mujeres y la lectura de sus expedientes (de los cuales tenemos copia), resumimos a continuación una breve descripción de algunas de ellas. (Los nombres no son reales, son nombres ficticios, para respetar la confidencialidad de estas mujeres)
La otra población de mujeres afectadas son las que actualmente están en prisión procesadas por el delito de aborto y sentenciadas por el delito de homicidio en razón de parentesco en agravio del producto en gestación. Esta realidad nos enfrenta directamente con la sociedad porque estas mujeres han sido víctimas “acumuladas” de la pobreza, de la injusticia, de la exclusión, y de un sistema que reproduce la violencia contra las mujeres, entre ellas se encuentran 2 mujeres que fueron víctimas de una violación, se practicaron el aborto por el cual ahora están sentenciadas por homicidio en razón de parentesco y purgando una condena que va de 8 a 35 años, brutal diferencia entre el delito de aborto que su pena máxima son 3 años y procede la libertad bajo caución.
Un dato para ejemplificar los casos de las mujeres que actualmente están en la cárcel purgando una condena por un aborto/homicidio, nos la proporciona la siguiente referencia: De acuerdo a los datos oficiales entregados por la Dirección General de Ejecución Penitenciaria y Readaptación Social, existen solo 7 mujeres encarceladas por “homicidio en razón de parentesco en agravio de su menor hijo(a) en gestación” (6 en el CERESO de Guanajuato y 1 en el CERESO MIL de Valle de Santiago). Sin embargo, desprendido de la investigación detallada que el Centro Las Libres ha desarrollado en los CERESOS de Guanajuato, hemos encontrado a 8 mujeres en el CERESO de Guanajuato y 2 en el CERESO de Valle de Santiago, hasta ahora. Después de conocer las historias de vida de estas mujeres y la lectura de sus expedientes (de los cuales tenemos copia), resumimos a continuación una breve descripción de algunas de ellas. (Los nombres no son reales, son nombres ficticios, para respetar la confidencialidad de estas mujeres)
El proyecto final de mi practica
El Centro Las Libres de Información en Salud Sexual Región Centro AC, a través de las instancias gubernamentales y por medio de la Ley de Acceso a la Información Pública para el Estado y los Municipios de Guanajuato; de entrevistas directas con funcionarios públicos y con prestadores de servicios de salud y de justicia; así como los testimonios de las mismas mujeres afectadas, hemos podido ir construyendo la investigación de un fenómeno que parecía imposible comprobar; el encarcelamiento de las mujeres por ejercer su derecho a decidir. Conforme vamos conociendo las historias de estas mujeres, vamos encontrando cómo un sistema de procuración y administración de justicia se ha ensañado con ellas. Estas mujeres tienen características comunes, tales como:
Mujeres pobres, mujeres con escaso acceso a la educación formal, mujeres con escasos recursos económicos y herramientas de vida para la defensa de sus derechos básicos, mujeres con familias tradicionales en donde persiste un temor al ejercicio pleno de la sexualidad, así como una deficiente comunicación entre hijas y padres y madres. Escaso conocimiento sobre el funcionamiento de su cuerpo, su reproducción, su ciclo menstrual, su derecho a ejercer una sexualidad libre y placentera, falta de acceso a métodos anticonceptivos, falta de herramientas para la negociación en la relaciones de pareja. Hombres que no se responsabilizaron de su reproducción, (parejas sexuales que no se responsabilizaron del uso de métodos anticonceptivos para prevenir una ITS, un embarazo no deseado y mucho menos pensar en el ejercicio de la paternidad). Familias donde existe un temor fundado a quedar embarazada, mujeres que se la juegan solas a continuar o interrumpir un embarazo en soledad, desolación, tristeza, abandono y sobre todo, miedo. Mujeres que ponen en riesgo su vida y su libertad al practicarse un aborto en condiciones de clandestinidad.
Del 2000 a 2009, hemos ido constatando elementos, que nos van mostrando a niñas, adolescentes, mujeres, mujeres con alguna discapacidad mental, que son víctimas de violación donde el “agresor” abusó de la confianza, abusó de su poder, de sus recursos económicos para someter, engañar, dañar y violar a estas mujeres. Y lejos de encontrar en quienes administran y procuran la justicia, el reconocimiento y la consideración de estos elementos en la vida de las propias mujeres para valorar las razones sociales, jurídicas, médicas y “actuar”, encontraron desprecio, saña, misoginia y machismo a la hora de aplicar “la ley” y en estas mujeres encontraron a las idóneas para “ejecutar castigos ejemplares” como mensaje para el resto de las mujeres que pudieran considerar ejercer su derecho a Elegir, el derecho a decidir su reproducción, la maternidad y a practicar libre y plenamente su sexualidad, tal y como consagra el derecho constitucional establecido en el Art. 4. “El varón y la mujer son iguales ante la ley. Esta protegerá la organización y el desarrollo de la familia. Toda persona tiene derecho a decidir de manera libre, responsable e informada sobre el número y el espaciamiento de sus hijos”.
Mujeres pobres, mujeres con escaso acceso a la educación formal, mujeres con escasos recursos económicos y herramientas de vida para la defensa de sus derechos básicos, mujeres con familias tradicionales en donde persiste un temor al ejercicio pleno de la sexualidad, así como una deficiente comunicación entre hijas y padres y madres. Escaso conocimiento sobre el funcionamiento de su cuerpo, su reproducción, su ciclo menstrual, su derecho a ejercer una sexualidad libre y placentera, falta de acceso a métodos anticonceptivos, falta de herramientas para la negociación en la relaciones de pareja. Hombres que no se responsabilizaron de su reproducción, (parejas sexuales que no se responsabilizaron del uso de métodos anticonceptivos para prevenir una ITS, un embarazo no deseado y mucho menos pensar en el ejercicio de la paternidad). Familias donde existe un temor fundado a quedar embarazada, mujeres que se la juegan solas a continuar o interrumpir un embarazo en soledad, desolación, tristeza, abandono y sobre todo, miedo. Mujeres que ponen en riesgo su vida y su libertad al practicarse un aborto en condiciones de clandestinidad.
Del 2000 a 2009, hemos ido constatando elementos, que nos van mostrando a niñas, adolescentes, mujeres, mujeres con alguna discapacidad mental, que son víctimas de violación donde el “agresor” abusó de la confianza, abusó de su poder, de sus recursos económicos para someter, engañar, dañar y violar a estas mujeres. Y lejos de encontrar en quienes administran y procuran la justicia, el reconocimiento y la consideración de estos elementos en la vida de las propias mujeres para valorar las razones sociales, jurídicas, médicas y “actuar”, encontraron desprecio, saña, misoginia y machismo a la hora de aplicar “la ley” y en estas mujeres encontraron a las idóneas para “ejecutar castigos ejemplares” como mensaje para el resto de las mujeres que pudieran considerar ejercer su derecho a Elegir, el derecho a decidir su reproducción, la maternidad y a practicar libre y plenamente su sexualidad, tal y como consagra el derecho constitucional establecido en el Art. 4. “El varón y la mujer son iguales ante la ley. Esta protegerá la organización y el desarrollo de la familia. Toda persona tiene derecho a decidir de manera libre, responsable e informada sobre el número y el espaciamiento de sus hijos”.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Rape Victims and Abortion in Mexico
But even the existing inadequate protections are not properly implemented.Police, public prosecutors, and health officials treat many rape victims dismissively and disrespectfully, regularly accusing girls and women of fabricating the rape. Specialized public prosecutor's offices on sexual violence, where they exist, are often in practice the only place to report sexual violence, further impeding access to justice for rape victims in more remote locations.Many victims of violence fear retribution from the perpetrator, especially if he is a family member.As a consequence, the vast majority of rape victims do not file a report at all.Generous estimates suggest 10 percent of rape victims file an official complaint.The real proportion is likely even less.
For rape victims who become pregnant but do not report the rape, legal abortion is ruled out.All jurisdictions in Mexico treat abortion as a crime-and some states indeed jail women who have illegal abortions-though access to legal abortion is considered a rape victim's right everywhere.Only three of Mexico's thirty-two independent jurisdictions have issued detailed legal and administrative guidelines on how to guarantee this right, and all require that the victims report the rape as an essential first step.In the remaining twenty-nine jurisdictions, confusion reigns.
When pregnant rape and incest victims do report the assault and insist that they want an abortion, they are sent on a veritable obstacle-course that materially diminishes their possibility of obtaining a legal abortion.The worst abuses occur in jurisdictions without administrative guidelines, where the void of guidance seems to terrify officials into inaction and leaves justice and health officials free to claim they have no mandate to facilitate access to legal abortion.
The full horror of what rape victims go through in their attempt to obtain a legal abortion-often including humiliation, degradation, and physical suffering-is in essence a second assault by the justice and health systems. Some girls, like "Graciela Hernndez" who was made pregnant by a father who raped her in hotel rooms every week for more than a year, lose access to legal abortion when prosecutors charge a perpetrator with incest instead of rape.Others, like "Marcela Gmez" seventeen-year-old daughter who was raped by a stranger, are passed from one public agency to another as none want to authorize the abortion.Some are bounced back and forth until the pregnancy is too advanced to be interrupted safely and legally.Others are threatened with jail for procuring a legal abortion, and many are told, without cause, that an abortion at any time during the pregnancy could kill them.
Public officials at times aggressively discourage abortion after rape, including for very young rape victims.A social worker in Jalisco told Human Rights Watch: "We had the case of an eleven or twelve-year-old girl who had been raped by her brother. She came here wanting to have an abortion, but we worked with her psychologically, and in the end she kept her baby.Her little child-sibling."
Taken from- http://www.hrw.org/en/node/11460/section/2
For rape victims who become pregnant but do not report the rape, legal abortion is ruled out.All jurisdictions in Mexico treat abortion as a crime-and some states indeed jail women who have illegal abortions-though access to legal abortion is considered a rape victim's right everywhere.Only three of Mexico's thirty-two independent jurisdictions have issued detailed legal and administrative guidelines on how to guarantee this right, and all require that the victims report the rape as an essential first step.In the remaining twenty-nine jurisdictions, confusion reigns.
When pregnant rape and incest victims do report the assault and insist that they want an abortion, they are sent on a veritable obstacle-course that materially diminishes their possibility of obtaining a legal abortion.The worst abuses occur in jurisdictions without administrative guidelines, where the void of guidance seems to terrify officials into inaction and leaves justice and health officials free to claim they have no mandate to facilitate access to legal abortion.
The full horror of what rape victims go through in their attempt to obtain a legal abortion-often including humiliation, degradation, and physical suffering-is in essence a second assault by the justice and health systems. Some girls, like "Graciela Hernndez" who was made pregnant by a father who raped her in hotel rooms every week for more than a year, lose access to legal abortion when prosecutors charge a perpetrator with incest instead of rape.Others, like "Marcela Gmez" seventeen-year-old daughter who was raped by a stranger, are passed from one public agency to another as none want to authorize the abortion.Some are bounced back and forth until the pregnancy is too advanced to be interrupted safely and legally.Others are threatened with jail for procuring a legal abortion, and many are told, without cause, that an abortion at any time during the pregnancy could kill them.
Public officials at times aggressively discourage abortion after rape, including for very young rape victims.A social worker in Jalisco told Human Rights Watch: "We had the case of an eleven or twelve-year-old girl who had been raped by her brother. She came here wanting to have an abortion, but we worked with her psychologically, and in the end she kept her baby.Her little child-sibling."
Taken from- http://www.hrw.org/en/node/11460/section/2
The criminalization of children's sexual behavior-even where they may be victims of abuse-is the more troubling because of a generally low age of consent in Mexico.In two jurisdictions, children are considered capable of consenting to sexual relationships once they reach puberty with no age specified. In twenty-one of Mexico's thirty-two jurisdictions, children are considered capable of consenting to sexual intercourse at the age of twelve, in one jurisdiction the age is thirteen, in seven jurisdictions it is fourteen, and only in one it is fifteen.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Human Rights Watch Letter to the Governor of Guanajuato in 2009
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/03/05/letter-governor-guanajuato-mexico
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Las muertas de León, diez crímenes contra un núcleo dominante de mujeres jóvenes y pobres
Los diez asesinatos en agravio de mujeres tienen varias constantes que dominan: muerte con saña en todos; violación o intento en nueve. La mayor parte eran de pocos recursos económicos. Las edades de las difuntas van de los 13 a los 72 años. En por lo menos cuatro hechos participaron dos o más hombres. Es el retrato de la violencia contra las mujeres en este municipio.
-Correo
-Correo
Loewenstern Journal entry #1
Although I have been volunteering fifteen hours a week for the past four months, this week school will end and my real work will begin and my fellowship will begin. In many ways, the past four months served as a preparation time, a time in which I absorbed the issues, the language, the culture and the work of Las Libres. This coming month I will use that knowledge to carry out my Loewenstern project and hopefully help this organization to achieve its greater goals.
Before I arrived in January, I imagined myself leading workshops on sexual health in rural communities, using my Spanish to teach about contraception, sexual rights and resources. After spending time in this community and the surrounding communities I realize that would be a waste of my time and theirs. To teach on such taboo subjects in a foreign language, as a young, American girl to a group of women, mostly mothers, between the ages of 18 and 60, would be little more than a joke. Gaining the trust and respect of those women, learning their stories and their culture, would be a much greater task that 6 months could afford me and would be much better left to the women they already trust, the workers at Las Libres. Realizing this I felt rather discouraged, not sure of how I could best contribute to this organization such that both the organization and I would benefit.
When I spoke with Verónica, the chair of the organization, about my dilemma she gave me the perfect task, a final project that aligns with all of my goals in coming here. Las Libres is about to embark on a huge campaign to raise money for the resources they need to help the women we work with in prison. In the state of Guanajuato, eight women have been imprisoned because of illegal abortions or because of alleged abortions; upon delivering still-born children the doctors accused them of intentionally “murdering their fetus.” Because these women are poor, with little education and no knowledge of the legal system in Mexico, they had no means of defending themselves against these accusations and are now imprisoned because of crimes they didn’t commit. Instead of being tried under abortion laws, these women were penalized for homicide and will spend between 15-40 years in prison instead of the normal abortion sentence of 1-3. On top if the injustice in their incarceration and excessive punishments, some of these women were rape victims. The politicians in Guanajuato design the laws which punished these women to criminalize the most vulnerable, those denied an education, denied opportunities to change their social status, and denied a just trial. It is another issue that wraps into the system of oppression which maintains the wealthiest classes here and exploits the ignorance of the poor.
We visit these women every Thursday, learning their stories and helping them to enjoy the short time we are there as much as possible. In our office, the lawyers at Las Libres have gone through their files, studied their cases and prepared to try to appeal their cases to a higher federal court in hopes of lowering their sentences and possibly freeing some of the women. This summer Las Libres will begin to gather the funds to pay for this gigantic process. Verónica gave me and two other volunteers from the US the task of writing grants to US donors, of creating a fundraising packet to distribute to English speakers, and of writing their yearly bulletin. As none of the women in Las Libres speak English, this is an ideal way in which I can best contribute. To write these grant applications, I will study each of the women’s cases and meet with them individually, learning their stories and conducting interviews which Verónica helps me prepare. Outside of the personal interactions, the other volunteers and I will formally study the laws in Guanajuato and the history of issues related to abortion rights in Guanajuato and Mexico. This job feels a bit daunting, but manageable and realistic for my last month working here and I couldn’t be more excited.
Lastly, if you didn’t see my last e-mail there is a very exciting article in More Magazine that includes my boss and the Executive Chair of Las Libres, Verónica Cruz. Her story is on page 8, and I translated the interview used to write the piece.
http://www.more.com/2050/22144-the-most-dangerous-women-in
If this link doesn’t work you can find the article if you google “More Magazine Veronica Cruz.”
Before I arrived in January, I imagined myself leading workshops on sexual health in rural communities, using my Spanish to teach about contraception, sexual rights and resources. After spending time in this community and the surrounding communities I realize that would be a waste of my time and theirs. To teach on such taboo subjects in a foreign language, as a young, American girl to a group of women, mostly mothers, between the ages of 18 and 60, would be little more than a joke. Gaining the trust and respect of those women, learning their stories and their culture, would be a much greater task that 6 months could afford me and would be much better left to the women they already trust, the workers at Las Libres. Realizing this I felt rather discouraged, not sure of how I could best contribute to this organization such that both the organization and I would benefit.
When I spoke with Verónica, the chair of the organization, about my dilemma she gave me the perfect task, a final project that aligns with all of my goals in coming here. Las Libres is about to embark on a huge campaign to raise money for the resources they need to help the women we work with in prison. In the state of Guanajuato, eight women have been imprisoned because of illegal abortions or because of alleged abortions; upon delivering still-born children the doctors accused them of intentionally “murdering their fetus.” Because these women are poor, with little education and no knowledge of the legal system in Mexico, they had no means of defending themselves against these accusations and are now imprisoned because of crimes they didn’t commit. Instead of being tried under abortion laws, these women were penalized for homicide and will spend between 15-40 years in prison instead of the normal abortion sentence of 1-3. On top if the injustice in their incarceration and excessive punishments, some of these women were rape victims. The politicians in Guanajuato design the laws which punished these women to criminalize the most vulnerable, those denied an education, denied opportunities to change their social status, and denied a just trial. It is another issue that wraps into the system of oppression which maintains the wealthiest classes here and exploits the ignorance of the poor.
We visit these women every Thursday, learning their stories and helping them to enjoy the short time we are there as much as possible. In our office, the lawyers at Las Libres have gone through their files, studied their cases and prepared to try to appeal their cases to a higher federal court in hopes of lowering their sentences and possibly freeing some of the women. This summer Las Libres will begin to gather the funds to pay for this gigantic process. Verónica gave me and two other volunteers from the US the task of writing grants to US donors, of creating a fundraising packet to distribute to English speakers, and of writing their yearly bulletin. As none of the women in Las Libres speak English, this is an ideal way in which I can best contribute. To write these grant applications, I will study each of the women’s cases and meet with them individually, learning their stories and conducting interviews which Verónica helps me prepare. Outside of the personal interactions, the other volunteers and I will formally study the laws in Guanajuato and the history of issues related to abortion rights in Guanajuato and Mexico. This job feels a bit daunting, but manageable and realistic for my last month working here and I couldn’t be more excited.
Lastly, if you didn’t see my last e-mail there is a very exciting article in More Magazine that includes my boss and the Executive Chair of Las Libres, Verónica Cruz. Her story is on page 8, and I translated the interview used to write the piece.
http://www.more.com/2050/22144-the-most-dangerous-women-in
If this link doesn’t work you can find the article if you google “More Magazine Veronica Cruz.”
Monday, May 31, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
some fun photos
Me with our new puppy
Ana my host brother and I at a Mescal bar. Mescal is quite a beast. I recommend it to all with caution.
Ana came to visit for a week and we had the most amazing time!
My adorable host sister and our 2 month old puppy. The other day the puppy peed on the floor and she wagged her finger at it, scolding "HOW could you do this to our house? HOW could you disrespect us like this? What is wrong with you?" and it was hilarious. Also a few days ago I came home and the puppy had spots of blood on its neck. When I asked what happened my host mom told me it had been attacked by birds and needs to be kept inside now.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
We finally finished reorganizing the library around a month ago. A pile of disorganized newspapers now appears in neatly cut articles sorted in folders by year and category from 2000-2010 (photo in blog). My next side project (when I am not out at workshops or doing other activities) is cataloging and creating organized excel files containing the main facts of all documented feminicidio between 2000 and 2010 in Guanajuato State. When I started this side project, my motivation to come to Centro Las Libres shifted and I began dreading coming for some inexplicable reason. When I left in the evenings I felt exhausted and worn out. Crashing on my bed, I didn’t feel rejuvenated or excited as before, but instead my mind seemed to decay into a mush as I listened to The Moth stories(I highly recommend this podcast) and finished the little homework I ever have. At first I couldn’t place this lack of enthusiasm and my lowered energy concerned me.
Then one night, after a horrific nightmare, it hit me. Never before had hearing about the suffering of others drained me so significantly, but reading for between 10-15 hours a week about the needless mutilation and murder of innocent women in the state which had become a new home, broke my spirit. With each article my frustration turned into exhaustion and my perception of this beautiful city changed. Walking down the streets, the small indignities, the cat-calls, the stares, the way I see couples interacting, they took on a new light realizing they too contribute to a culture which apathetically accepts the emotional and physical genocide of half of its population. If hundreds of women were beaten to death, strangled by strangers, found in bushes, in Massachuesetts every year, it would be a national catastrophe. The government would work with police officials to find the culprits rather than ignoring the cases or complacently accepting it as a reality of our culture. In Guanajuato state, the government won’t even fund resources for these women or for their families and often the police participate in the crimes.
Last week I helped the women in Centro Las Libres submit a proposal to the government to create these laws that would provide specific resources for victims of domestic violence and the families of victims of femicide. Guanajuato, despite having the 10th highest rate of femicide of the 32 states, is the only state which did not pass laws like this in 2006 when femicide in Mexico became an international concern. The government said it wasn’t needed. Violence against women is no different from violence against men they insisted. I can only hope that our proposal has potential to change this, but with our conservative governor and the history in Guanajuato, it feels hopeless. Returning to my cataloging today, more than exhausted, I felt sick to my stomach. Despite being here for 4 months now, despite having soaked in the culture and the people, I will never begin to fathom the factors which lead a male politician to think that violence against a woman is not worth his time, not worth his compassion and not worthy of a simple signature. The apathy of the politicians here renders them equally guilty and I have never felt more disgusted.
Then one night, after a horrific nightmare, it hit me. Never before had hearing about the suffering of others drained me so significantly, but reading for between 10-15 hours a week about the needless mutilation and murder of innocent women in the state which had become a new home, broke my spirit. With each article my frustration turned into exhaustion and my perception of this beautiful city changed. Walking down the streets, the small indignities, the cat-calls, the stares, the way I see couples interacting, they took on a new light realizing they too contribute to a culture which apathetically accepts the emotional and physical genocide of half of its population. If hundreds of women were beaten to death, strangled by strangers, found in bushes, in Massachuesetts every year, it would be a national catastrophe. The government would work with police officials to find the culprits rather than ignoring the cases or complacently accepting it as a reality of our culture. In Guanajuato state, the government won’t even fund resources for these women or for their families and often the police participate in the crimes.
Last week I helped the women in Centro Las Libres submit a proposal to the government to create these laws that would provide specific resources for victims of domestic violence and the families of victims of femicide. Guanajuato, despite having the 10th highest rate of femicide of the 32 states, is the only state which did not pass laws like this in 2006 when femicide in Mexico became an international concern. The government said it wasn’t needed. Violence against women is no different from violence against men they insisted. I can only hope that our proposal has potential to change this, but with our conservative governor and the history in Guanajuato, it feels hopeless. Returning to my cataloging today, more than exhausted, I felt sick to my stomach. Despite being here for 4 months now, despite having soaked in the culture and the people, I will never begin to fathom the factors which lead a male politician to think that violence against a woman is not worth his time, not worth his compassion and not worthy of a simple signature. The apathy of the politicians here renders them equally guilty and I have never felt more disgusted.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Prevalece la violencia
Durante el 2009, al menos 11 mujeres han sido asesinadas al sufrir violencia de género, sóolo unos cuantos casos han sido aclarados y los responsables de los crímenes no han sido castigados.
El 59 por ciento de las mujeres guanajuatenses mayores de 15 años han vivido incidentes de violencia física (no incluyendo violencia psicológico) por parte de su pareja, ersonas en su familia, en la comunidad, en el trabajo o en la escuela; lo anterior se desprede de un estudio de Violencia contra las Mujeres en el estado de Guanajuato que realizó el Instiuto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía.
~Correo 25 de noviembre de 2009
El 59 por ciento de las mujeres guanajuatenses mayores de 15 años han vivido incidentes de violencia física (no incluyendo violencia psicológico) por parte de su pareja, ersonas en su familia, en la comunidad, en el trabajo o en la escuela; lo anterior se desprede de un estudio de Violencia contra las Mujeres en el estado de Guanajuato que realizó el Instiuto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía.
~Correo 25 de noviembre de 2009
Saturday, April 3, 2010
More workshop photos
The main road in Maravilla
In Maravilla
Sylvia and I spoke after the one workshop
Workshops with Centro Las Libres
With the women of Centro Las Libres
Group of women in San Jose la Luz
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Health Care Reform
http://www.cspan.org/Watch/Media/2010/03/15/HP/R/30674/Health%20Care%20Reconciliation%20Action%20Begins%20In%20Congress.aspx
I finished Who Killed Health Care by Regina Herzlinger, a professor of business administration at the Harvard Business school (where Bryce is going! congratulations!) and this video, and that I'm sick (just a cold) inspired me to write a few quotes from the book:
~"Our $2 trillion health care system is as large as the economy of China. And yet, despite all this spending, millions of people cannot get the care they need because it costs too much or because our fragmented health care system cannot efficiently supply integrated, multifaceted treatment for their chronic diseases or disabilities. If they are uninsured, our primarily nonprofit hospitals all too often then use criminal-like collection tactics to ensure payment"
~"Dr. William W. McGuire, the former CEO of the United Healthcare, one of the country's largest health consumers, not only received $1.7 billion worth of stock options during his tenure, but also had a jet at his disposal and a red carpet reportedly rolled out to meet his limo so his tootsies did not have to meet the same ground on which we ordinary mortals step."
~"The key to an artificial kidney lay in the most mundane of materials- plastics: a membrane so porous that it allowed the impurities in the blood to leach out bud sufficiently strong to withstand the pressure created by the flow of blood. During World War II, in Nazi-occupied Holland, Willem Kolff found this membrane in sausage casing made of cellulose acetate. He wound yards an yards of it around a drum, seated it in a vat of liquid, used an engine scavenged from a lawn mower as a power source, and thus created the first artificial kidney"
~"When cultured organizations become uncultured- by distancing themselves from their internalized values, attitudes and approaches- they fail"
~"There ought to be a law that makes public the prices that hospitals are paid by their customres so that the uninsured customer does not get screwed"
~"GM spent $5.2 billion in 2004 on health care for employees, retirees, and thief families. They claim that adds up to $1,600 for every care they made last year, more than the spent for steel....Toyota their rival, only spent $110 per car."
~"Nixon's 1973 HMO act not only required firms that offered health insurance to include a managed care product, in which the enrollee must obtain a gatekeeper's authorization for the use of medical care, among their choices, but it also subsidized their price with hundreds of millions of dollars of tax money. The act enabled physicians to be paid for not providing health care."
~"After earning $23 million in 2004, the CEO of DaVita, a firm that owns a fourth of all dialysis centers, earned over $25 million in 2005."
~"Ideology does not transform how markets operate. Entrepreneurs and consumers do."
~"Providers must be paid MORE for treating those who are sick than for treating those who are well or relatively healthy."
~"The characteristics of control, choice, and information to guide provider selection are sadly lacking in most current health insurance plans"
~"Current health insurance does not protect people against financial catastrophe"
~"Doctors are so defeated by the present insurance system that a majority of them have lied to insurers so that their patients could obtain the medical care they need"
~"But businesses cannot do everything- they cannot fund the poor. That is appropriately the role of government."
~When it comes to health care the government should: 1- Prosecute fraudulent providers, enrollees, and insurers and assure the financial solvency of insurers.2- Use our tax money to subsidize those who cannot afford health insurance. 3- Require the dissemination of audited data about the performance of providers.
~"Physicians and hospitals should not be held responsible for things they do not control."
~"It was the bipartisan 2006 Massachusetts universal health care legislation: Kennedy got what he wanted, required universal health insurance coverage, while Romeny achieved what he wanted, consumer-driven health care solutions"
I finished Who Killed Health Care by Regina Herzlinger, a professor of business administration at the Harvard Business school (where Bryce is going! congratulations!) and this video, and that I'm sick (just a cold) inspired me to write a few quotes from the book:
~"Our $2 trillion health care system is as large as the economy of China. And yet, despite all this spending, millions of people cannot get the care they need because it costs too much or because our fragmented health care system cannot efficiently supply integrated, multifaceted treatment for their chronic diseases or disabilities. If they are uninsured, our primarily nonprofit hospitals all too often then use criminal-like collection tactics to ensure payment"
~"Dr. William W. McGuire, the former CEO of the United Healthcare, one of the country's largest health consumers, not only received $1.7 billion worth of stock options during his tenure, but also had a jet at his disposal and a red carpet reportedly rolled out to meet his limo so his tootsies did not have to meet the same ground on which we ordinary mortals step."
~"The key to an artificial kidney lay in the most mundane of materials- plastics: a membrane so porous that it allowed the impurities in the blood to leach out bud sufficiently strong to withstand the pressure created by the flow of blood. During World War II, in Nazi-occupied Holland, Willem Kolff found this membrane in sausage casing made of cellulose acetate. He wound yards an yards of it around a drum, seated it in a vat of liquid, used an engine scavenged from a lawn mower as a power source, and thus created the first artificial kidney"
~"When cultured organizations become uncultured- by distancing themselves from their internalized values, attitudes and approaches- they fail"
~"There ought to be a law that makes public the prices that hospitals are paid by their customres so that the uninsured customer does not get screwed"
~"GM spent $5.2 billion in 2004 on health care for employees, retirees, and thief families. They claim that adds up to $1,600 for every care they made last year, more than the spent for steel....Toyota their rival, only spent $110 per car."
~"Nixon's 1973 HMO act not only required firms that offered health insurance to include a managed care product, in which the enrollee must obtain a gatekeeper's authorization for the use of medical care, among their choices, but it also subsidized their price with hundreds of millions of dollars of tax money. The act enabled physicians to be paid for not providing health care."
~"After earning $23 million in 2004, the CEO of DaVita, a firm that owns a fourth of all dialysis centers, earned over $25 million in 2005."
~"Ideology does not transform how markets operate. Entrepreneurs and consumers do."
~"Providers must be paid MORE for treating those who are sick than for treating those who are well or relatively healthy."
~"The characteristics of control, choice, and information to guide provider selection are sadly lacking in most current health insurance plans"
~"Current health insurance does not protect people against financial catastrophe"
~"Doctors are so defeated by the present insurance system that a majority of them have lied to insurers so that their patients could obtain the medical care they need"
~"But businesses cannot do everything- they cannot fund the poor. That is appropriately the role of government."
~When it comes to health care the government should: 1- Prosecute fraudulent providers, enrollees, and insurers and assure the financial solvency of insurers.2- Use our tax money to subsidize those who cannot afford health insurance. 3- Require the dissemination of audited data about the performance of providers.
~"Physicians and hospitals should not be held responsible for things they do not control."
~"It was the bipartisan 2006 Massachusetts universal health care legislation: Kennedy got what he wanted, required universal health insurance coverage, while Romeny achieved what he wanted, consumer-driven health care solutions"
Sunday, February 28, 2010
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