Week 4: Connecting to Diverse Identities

The Desarrollo Integral de La Familia (DIF) de Morelos is comparatively the Family and Child Services of Morelos. A woman who works for the DIF explained the general areas of service are to provide social assistance. The influence of the church and traditional values in Mexico are still very apparent when highlighting specifically who qualifies for assistance and what is the definition of a qualified family to adopt. When it came to adoption fees in Morelos there are none, which is very different when compared to the lawyer, court, and agency fees you may encounter in the U.S. Contrary to the progressive idea that adoption should be “less expensive”; the criteria are still very traditional and intentional in creating the “traditional family.” To adopt you must be a heterosexual couple who are emotionally and economically stable, under the age of 50, and usually try to place children with racially similar parents. While the DIF is very active in providing its services it was interesting to still feel the influence of the church in polices.

The Costa Chica is one of two regions in Mexico with significant black communities. Nadia Alvarado Salas is an Afro-Mexican woman that shared her life experiences of being an Afro-Mexican in Mexico and the importance of what she referred to as the “third root of race in Mexico.” Nadia struggled with being discriminated against in private school and within her own family. She emphasized the internalized racism that exists within these communities. While discrimination and identity issues may be similar in the U.S. the struggle in Mexico is emphasize by the government and cultural denial that Africans even exist in Mexico. This denial of an entire existence of people only contributes to the loss of African heritage and racism within Mexico.

Giselle Stern Hernández opened the eyes of us all when she performed here monologue “The Deportees Wife,” a narration of her own experiences. She painted a new picture of the abuse of power by the United States and Canadian Immigration offices. As a result of extreme circumstances Giselle’s husband was deported not once but twice from the United States banning him from returning for twenty years. The charges were not the most moving or worst part, but how her husband was treated in the process. Undocumented individuals are treated like, if not worse, than vicious criminals. She described the bulletproof glass windows when going to visit, waiting in lines that seemed never to end, and no guarantee or advice for what to do next. Now when people ask her the surface deep question “what brought you to Mexico?” she hesitates not because she is ashamed but because she feels people really aren’t ready to here the answer. She is here because her husband can’t go there, but after this experience the real question is, if they could live in the United States would they? One of the most moving quotes was when she described her Master Degree graduation in Colorado. “Many people say, well he was there in spirit, BUT HE’S NOT DEAD! It would be different if he was.”(Giselle, group monologue presentation, February 22,2008)

-By Tiffany Ramm