The Next Adventure: Juventino Rosas, Guanajuato, Mexico

Itinerary:
January 26, 2008 – depart for Juventino Rosas, Guanajuato, Mexico
Conduct community visits, visit with the municipal government, gather background data
February 23, 2008 – return to Durham, NC

Well, after only 6 months at home in North Carolina, we are once again crossing the border, this time to Juventino Rosas, Mexico. While back in Durham/Chapel Hill we happened across an opportunity to work on a public health project here in Mexico and jumped at the opportunity. However, before giving you the details, let me give you a little background information:
Catholic Church in Juventino Rosas
Background:
There are about 600,000 Hispanic people living in North Carolina. Of those, about 75% are from Mexico. Within the Carrboro/Chapel Hill community, there are close to 50 families that attend Saint Thomas More Catholic Church who are all from the same small municipio in Mexico, Juventino Rosas. When it was discovered that so many people from the same community in Mexico were congregated in Carrboro/Chapel Hill, a brotherhood of sorts between the two church parishes began to form, and within this context, over the past five years, different groups from the UNC community have visited Juventino Rosas to try and support the local people there. More specifically, groups of physicians and medical students have traveled to Juventino Rosas to offer medical services; and this past October, a delegation from Juventino Rosas came out to Chapel Hill. While in Juventino Rosas, UNC medical students worked on a depression screen and found extremely high rates of depression, especially among single women.

Given the high rate of immigration from Mexico into the United States, there is an ever increasing number of single women who are left behind, who depend on remittances from their family members in the US. Many who leave to the US are able to send remittances back to their families when work is good; others, unfortunately, leave and never look back. It is these women, who are living alone in Juventino Rosas, without jobs, whom we primarily hope to serve. However, there is also a tremendous opportunity to work with the other side of the coin – the men who are living in North Carolina.

Landscape on the way to La Huerta, another small town outside of Juventino Rosas

With this background, we were asked to come to Juventino Rosas to live among the people, learn their stories and their life struggles, and to gather background information about the culture, economy, and health. Our overarching goal is to provide support for the rural poor here in Juventino Rosas, specifically those affected by immigration. The high rates of depression among the women are thought in large part to be secondary to the split family structure and the dependence on remittances. We also know that to implement change, these women need not only medical help, but the ability to be independent. Because of this, the long-term plan is to establish microenterprise ventures within some of the poorest communities to empower the women, improve their financial stability, and by doing this improve their mental and physical health. Our specific goals for the here and now, therefore, are to gather the needed background information which will help determine if and when a microenterprise project would be feasible, and what the product might be. We are also laying down inroads and helping to locate other communities which might benefit from medical consults this summer, when there are another 14 medical students and a few physicians from UNC coming down for 6 weeks.
Mesas de Acosta - a small outlying town

Hitting the Road:
We’ve been here for five days now, and boy are we tired! We have already met with the delegation that came to the United States in October, the municipal president and all of his department heads, and a group of professors from the nearby technical institute in Celaya to discuss microfinance opportunities in the region; and we have visited five outlying communities to chat with the people. No one here speaks English, so our Spanish has been tested (and hopefully improved) daily. The days are long, but the work is enjoyable. We hope to visit two communities a day for the next 3 weeks (not including the weekends). We’ll see if we can keep it up!

The people here are wonderful, incredibly generous, and exceptionally kind. The President has loaned us a car while we are here; one of the department heads, David, is helping us compile data regarding population statistics, economic status, and local resources pertaining to the communities; and another department head is collecting data on water. With each visit to a new community we are welcomed with open arms, offered food and drink, and invited to people’s homes. The generosity of the people, despite their economic well-being, offers a lesson to be learned for us all. These are people who earn perhaps $4 dollars a day and who can barely sustain their own families, and they open wide their doors for strangers to come and visit and eat. Their generosity and compassion are beautiful in their sincerity and simplicity. In many ways, life here is beautiful, simple.
Local well in Agua Zarca - this supplies water for about 50 people

We’ll write more, hopefully this weekend. Take care.