Student´s Personal Spring Break Story

By Lauren Goff Bethel University

Over Spring Break, students from CGE-Mexico traveled to places including Oaxaca, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, Acapulco, San Diego, and El Salvador. Some students visited Mayan ruins, watched professional cliff divers dive with torches in the night, and one in particular enjoyed U.S. American candy once again in California.

I got the chance to go to Zihuatanejo, Guerrero.

Zihuatanejo is a beautiful town located on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. It is a sweet little city surrounding a beautiful bay with incredible sunsets each night. Fishing boats line up along the northern side of the bay and add charm to the little Mexican city. I came here for Spring Break with my parents, my fiancé and future in-laws. What I loved about Zihuatanejo is that it still seemed like a part of Mexico, whereas many vacation spots here have become tourist areas with high-rise hotels and resorts. Because of this, I was still able to expand my knowledge of Mexican culture while staying in this beautiful city for a week.

Also, I was able to share my experience of Mexico with those I had been describing it to over the past couple of months. My boyfriend (who proposed on the trip and now, fiancé), Ryan, has been studying abroad this semester in Guatemala. We talked about our new cultural experiences together. Ryan was able to point out what differences he saw in Guatemala compared to Mexico. I pointed out the differences of language in Mexico compared to Guatemala and warned Ryan of some common Spanish words he may use that would be inappropriate in Mexico.

Ex: you can say “excitado” in Guatemala describing “excited” but, in Mexico it expresses excitement in a very different context (sexually).

Our parents were impressed with our new Spanish-speaking skills; completely unaware of how bad it actually was(!). It was very interesting for both of us to learn about the cultures we had been living in for the past 2 months. It was also great to share these new cultural experiences with our parents and have them learn more about Mexico.

Zihuat after the setting sun

One of the greatest experiences I had on my trip was talking with the woman who cleaned the condo we rented. Olga made delicious dinners for us and during this time everyone was able to ask to her about life in Zihuatanejo. It was wonderful for me to see my parents so interested in learning more about Olga’s life. What was really cool was seeing my parents trying to speak Spanish with her (successful after assistance from Ryan and I).

These talks with Olga opened up later conversation with my parents and Ryan’s where they asked me more about Mexico. As I was answering, I realized how much I have learned here in Mexico. All of the answers relayed back to what I have seen this semester through speakers in Cuernavaca and my other experiences in Mexico. I have treasured sharing the beautiful parts of Mexico with my parents and future family.

Part 2: Mexican Social Work Students come to Cuernavaca

Continued from last blog post by Rachel Takazawa, St. Olaf College

Also throughout the week we had many speakers and a panel. The panel consisted of three sexually diverse individuals. They advocated for the acceptance of character and the differences each person chooses to live regarding their sexual preferences and diversity. It was a moment in which we heard personal struggles regarding discrimination, prejudices, and frustration. As social workers, I felt we had a chance to hear about the hard moments and how through those experiences they were trying to change society.

Panel on Sexuality

During the week there were good times, great times, and hard times. One hard time was that there was discrimination against some of the UNAM students while they were out in Cuernavaca. This experience was something we wished wouldn’t have happened however it also opened our eyes to the reality of discrimination. We were all affected by this experience and now we strive to work together in order to fight discrimination and racism.

CGE and UNAM Students with Profesors

Both students of UNAM and CGE will keep the knowledge and time we spent together as a learning experience and a way to move forward towards a better relationship between Mexico and the United States.

As Social Workers we have promised to learn from good and bad experiences in order to better situations, to fight against injustice and to work towards social justice and equality.

Mexican Social Work Students Come to Cuernavaca

By Rachel Takazawa

St. Olaf College

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¡Bienvenid@s, estudiantes de la UNAM! Welcome, UNAM students!

Throughout the week of March 22^nd to the 26^th we (students of CGE-Mexico) were visited by students of UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico). UNAM is a public university in D.F. (Mexico City). These UNAM students were Social Work students, here in Cuernavaca to learn about aspects of Social Work in the United States, as well as come to know fellow Social Workers from another country. They were a group of 7 whom, upon arrival made their presence known with pleasant greetings. We as an entire group tossed around yarn in a get-to-know-you game. This was the beginning of a great week and some great relationships.

Class Activity with UNAM student

The first night at dinner the room was buzzing with conversation. People had successfully integrated and Spanish was heard much more than English. The language barrier didn’t keep anyone from having a great time. This intercambio (exchange) was not only great for the two groups but also for those from UNAM b/c most of the 7 didn´t even know each other.

Throughout the week Social Workers from CGE gave the UNAM students presentations on VAWA, Medicaid and ICWA.

VAWA is the Violence Against Women Act, which promotes a better life for domestically abused persons. It provides resources, grants, support, and laws through the federal government.

Medicaid is a health care system that is intended to help provide assistance to persons living below the poverty line in the United States.

ICWA is a program to promote cultural identity of Native American children through adoption laws and court assistance. All three of these were great tools to help create conversation about the similarities and differences between the United States and Mexico.

More Class Activities with the UNAM students

It was interesting to find out that Mexico has shelters and important acts set in place in order to assist persons of domestic abuse. The Mexico system has some advantages in regards to payment of such services, nonetheless, it appears that the United States makes it more accessible. The medical system however, was described to us as more accessible to people here in Mexico. Yet on the other hand the quality of the services are less adequate. On the topic of ICWA, Mexico doesn’t really have a program similar, but there are programs that try to teach people about their indigenous cultures and create a place to perform rituals and ceremonies.

What do you know about VAWA, Medicaid and/or ICWA? How do they affect minority groups?

To Be Continued...

Institutional Family Development in Morelos, Mexico

By Brittany Naida

St. Thomas University

We have been learning much about the social programs available to vulnerable people living throughout the state of Morelos. A representative from the DIF organization (Desarollo Institucional de la Familia = Institutional Family Development), came to share with us the programs and resources available through the agency. She explained to us that DIF works with all people regardless of their social class. One of the programs within the organization is social assistance, which makes up about 90% of their work.

This program provides resources for people with disabilities, food support for families, school breakfasts, and overall support for the vulnerable. Knowledge regarding nutrition can be insufficient for many underprivileged people, so representatives from DIF often travel to various communities to provide food baskets as well as information about a balanced and healthy diet.

One major difference from the United States that I saw in this area of their work was that there is no financial limit to who can receive service. Assistance is given based on the needs of the family. This more personal approach was interesting to me because the needs of a family are not always parallel to their financial situation, so in this way more people can be given resources for what they really need.

Another major aspect of the programs within DIF is the shelters available, especially for children.DIF has a temporary shelter for children ages 0-11 years at their location right outside of Cuernavaca that we were able to visit. For us social work students, it was very difficult at times to see so many children, some even with major disabilities, without a home or a family. But after learning about how the organization works, I could see that the children were treated well and all of their immediate needs were met.

Photo taken from the National DIF website: http://dif.sip.gob.mx/

When we visited the room which housed about ten infants, some of whom had disabilities or disfigurements, the workers there explained to us that each child needs to receive the same amount of attention and care, no matter what they look like. I found this comforting as these children could easily be neglected without this equality.

Since there are not many orphanages such as these in the United States, this organization raised many questions in my mind regarding child welfare. In the U.S., children removed or abandoned from their homes are placed into foster care rather than group homes, but if this was the case in Mexico, there may not be enough families to be able to take in the children.

Would it be better to erase group homes in Mexico and attempt to move towards a foster care/adoption focused system, or would this cause more problems for these children?

Immigration from Mexico to USA

By Lindsay Hale

Bemidji State University

This week here in Cuernavaca, we had the great opportunity to listen to a variety of speakers, one of them including Giselle Stern-Hernandez [1] who spoke of her struggle as a deportee’s wife. Her father is an Eastern European descendant living in New York and her Mother is a middle-class Mexican woman. Both parents had an income which left them cozy but not wealthy.In 1966 it was a snap to renew her mother’s visa and in 1990, she applied for U.S citizenship.Giselle had always considered herself an American but that image would slightly change when she met Roberto, an undocumented worker from Mexico.

As the relationship progressed and eventually resulted in marriage, Roberto and Giselle would face numerous struggles with immigration, deportation, and acceptance. Roberto and Giselle were married right before the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services) 245 deadline was placed. Filing these papers did not come at an easy task.

United States Embassy in Mexico

In our visit to the United States Embassy in Mexico City, prices of visas and the time and effort that it takes never came up in any of the conversations we had with the representatives. To me it was perceived as an unanswerable question and was avoided.

Finally after struggle to get through all this they see an INS officer. Giselle handed him every piece of information she had: a marriage certificate, her passport, etc. and they were told that Roberto would not be able to enter the United States for 20 years. “Don’t these documents mean anything?” Giselle watched as her husband was led away in hand cuffs. She was sent home to pack a bag for Roberto, “what do you pack for your husband who is going to be deported, something funny that will make them laugh, or something serious to tell him that you love him?”

“The United States immigration does not work in the complicated areas.” What I took away from our visit to the U.S Embassy regarding immigration was that obtaining a visa was easy and anyone who applies and has the correct paperwork is able to receive a visa. However Giselle and Roberto (like many others) did not experience that in motion. So in reality, much of the information obtained in our visit to Mexico City is not reiterated from life experiences here.

Giselle with CGE-Mexico Director Anita right after monologue

Throughout the monologue that Giselle shared with our group, she generously shared her passion, grief, and anger that have proved to be challenging to her marriage and to fellow Latinos. She revealed points of racism and classism, power and positionality. It was shocking to be pulled in a story such as Giselle’s and be blindsided by reality. This does happen. Applying for a visa is very difficult and time consuming, unlike what the U.S Embassy described to us.

As an American, I feel guilty and angry for the way our government is handling their affairs. So I will leave with a final quote in the hopes that you will reflect on the reality of struggles that many immigrants face. “Who will be next; who in your life will be next; who in this room will be the next deportee’s wife?”

ALSO visit Giselle´s website and BLOG

www.gsternhernandez.com (find out MORE about her monologue!)

http://thedeporteeswife.wordpress.com/

1] Giselle Stern-Hernandez, A Mexican-North American writer and performer of the monologue “The Deportee’s Wife;” www.gsternhernandez.com. Performance in Cuernavaca, Mexico on March 11, 2010.

Rural Homestay Part 2

By Annie Ashby

St. Olaf College

Morelos is one of the only Mexican states that has preserved “heritage” corn – the same strands used by ancestors of 4,000 to 7,000 years ago. The government’s new agricultural programs and corporations like Monsanto try and try to get indigenous farmers to adopt their genetically modified corn seed so they can have a national monopoly. However, most farmers in Amatlán have shown a commendable resilience in holding onto their heritage crops.

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A rare female farmer, with student Alex Peterson

Using their exquisite corn harvests, our rural home stay families filled us to the brim with home made tortillas, pozole, chilaquiles, tacos durados and much more. Personally, it was the freshest, most delicious food of my life. I appreciated each bite, thinking of all the land rights and food justice struggles Amatlán went through to provide us this food. It was also astonishing how sincerely loving and welcoming our families were amidst perhaps a monetary poverty.

Living simply in Amatlán was a nice change of pace and un gran descanso compared to the more rapid city life of Cuernavaca. From talking to my fellow students, this homestay has by far been one of our most meaningful experiences thus far in Mexico. The hospitality that Amatlán families showed us was fantastic, and the indigenous rights issues and cosmovision we were infused with were equally as mesmerizing.

Our trip has left me wrestling with many questions. Will Amatlán be able to preserve its indigenous cosmovision and beautiful way of life into the future? Will globalization ruin the preservation of indigenous culture? Why doesn’t the Mexican government care about indigenous poverty and lack of voice in politics and society?

Rural Homestay with Indigenous Families

By Annie Ashby

St. Olaf College

Upon arrival to Amatlán, a small indigenous pueblo in our state of Morelos, none of us knew what life-changing experiences were ahead. In fact, we were all a little nervous to meet our first home-stay families. Even though we would only be visiting for four days, our Spanish language skills and lessons on cultural sensitivity had never been as essential as they were with these indigenous families.

The surrounding mountains of Amatlán

The trip began with an immigration panel where three local men shared their heart-wrenching stories of migration to the United States. One man worked in the U.S. on a seasonal worker’s visa, but the other two traveled without documentation. These two men would have to leave their families for years on end in order to send back enough money to construct a small adobe house or support their children. This is the irony of being a migrant worker – one must leave what they love the most behind in order to sustain it.

We soon found out that essentially anyone who lived in an adobe or concrete-block home, rather than a lamina shack, had paid for their home with remittances from the U.S. Every family in Amatlán had been touched by migration, which more often than not meant they had also been touched by tragedy. So many children had grown up without fathers, and so many mothers had lost adolescents to the pull of U.S. opportunity.

In Amatlán, we also became more informed on land rights and agricultural issues. Most people who remained in the community lived off of a campo for their corn supply and perhaps a little money on the side. However, ever since NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), the corn markets of Mexico have been skewed in such a way that it is often more profitable for consumers to buy U.S. corn than local, indigenous products. Thus, the people of Amatlán have evolved to just producing corn for their families. And, this corn was amazing!

Our trip has left me wrestling with many questions. Will Amatlán be able to preserve its indigenous cosmovision and beautiful way of life into the future? Will globalization ruin the preservation of indigenous culture? Why doesn’t the Mexican government care about indigenous poverty and lack of voice in politics and society?