Lessons on human rights

By Michelle Newlands --- Written February 2009

After a nature walk and breakfast us girls sat in the yard and relaxed in the sun as we waited for human rights activist Juan Manuel to arrive. It was a beautiful day, probably the hottest one yet and it was nice to put on summer close and relax for a while.

When Juan arrived he taught us about different activist movements including the people of Auetapec, the Zapatistas and others. He taught us about community police and discussed the relationship between the struggling economy and its effects on violence and crime. He said that when the economy suffers, people have no choice but to turn to drugs and illegal labour in order to survive. He told us stories about children, no older than 8 or 10 years old, working in poppy fields all day. They pick with their hands leaving behind residue then they touch their face and mouth and they become accidentally high the majority of the day.
He told us what these different movements were doing and how we can help. He told us by listening and educating people on the similar subjects we can help change the cycle of violence and corruption.

We went to the plaza in Cuernavaca where we met with the Lopez family. They have a large family all of who sell things on the streets for money. They have a one room house with no toilets or electricity and must spend 55 pesos a day travelling to Cuernavaca to sell their things. If they do not sell anything that day they do not get to go home, nor do they get to eat. They sell necklaces, bracelets, weaved baskets and purses among other things.

He told us how he was married to his wife when he was 16 and she was 15. He was an orphan and needed to find a woman to cook and look after his many younger brothers and sisters. The Lopez family has been selling things on the streets their whole lives.

Most days they can’t afford to come into town and make about 3 - 4 trips a week and sell what they have. If they can’t afford the bus ride into town, they will walk through horrible conditions for three hours so the bus ride will only cost 25 pesos. They leave at 5:00a.m. to catch the 8:00a.m. bus to Cuernavaca.

None of the family can read or write and have never attended school. Their son has just recently had a new child and Mrs. Lopez has a tumor. She says some days she is in so much pain she feels like she is dying. Sometimes the pain will last for up to two weeks at a time. The family had to borrow 3,000 pesos from someone in their village for her medication and they are paying 30 per cent interest a day. Mr. Lopez says how can we pay them back when we have no money? Most days it is a struggle to simply survive. As he told the family story the two young children laughed and played in their dirt covered clothes and snotty faces. Their smiles were as innocent and pure as any barefoot child you've ever met.

When they were finished sharing their story we bought some of their items and Mr Lopez gave us each a finger-trap as a gift. He said it is for the girls boyfriends, and the boys girlfriends, this way they can’t get away he joked.

I thanked Mrs Lopez, wished her luck and told her she had a beautiful family.

Next we went to visit a school for street kids called Casa Tatic. It was amazing. Previously I had spoken to Gary about the possibility of me doing my internship with VAMOS!, the organization providing funds for the Casa Tatic to have their facility, and so I was introduced to Alajandro Lopez, the project director. We talked about different possibilities for me :) .

We were shown a short video on VAMOS and different struggles Mexicans living in poverty must face. Many people could not help but let out a few tears, no matter how hard we tried to hold it in.

I’m not sure what touched me the most; the sad truth of these unfortunate circumstances, the strength of people when they work together and how much people are doing to help or the fact that some people really just don’t care.

After the video we were given the privilege of having a tour of the school. We were introduced to the students, whom all said hello/good afternoon, “Hola, buenos tardes.”

For the next two hours we were given free time. Lynne, Chrissy, Jill and I stayed in town to do some shopping. We went to numerous stores and bought numerous things like dresses and purses. I suppose girls will be girls! Then we headed back to the market we visited the previous day and hoped in a cab back to the Abbey.

Please note: We can always tell when we start to grow tired because the laughter begins and doesn’t end, no matter how NOT funny things really are. Caitlyn and I have also realized we have one small problem: no matter where we are or what the occasion we can always break out into song, appropriate or not!