June 2, 2024, will be a historic day in Mexico with the almost-certain election of the country’s first woman president. The two leading candidates are former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum from the Morena party of the current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and Senator Xóchitl Gálvez, representing an alliance of parties.
Whoever wins will hopefully bring much needed additional focus on women’s issues. Having said that, I want to briefly profile four women who have already changed the lives of many in the Juárez area quietly and with little recognition.
The first is Viridiana “Viri” Torres who arrived at the mental asylum, Vision in Action, about seven years ago. Although she had been in and out of several mental institutions earlier, Pastor José Antonio Galván, the founder and director of Vision in Action quickly recognized her talents and put her to work organizing their finances. She soon recognized that a key employee was stealing and he was dismissed.
She became an advocate for the women patients – about 40 of the roughly 120 total patients. Her first step was to propose separating the men and women with dementia who had been living in the same dormitory area. With the financial help of many of our friends, we were able to construct a separate living area for these women followed by a project to build a dormitory for 20-24 other women so they could live without being harassed by the men. Now Torres is focused on improving medical care there.
Grecia Herrera founded a shelter for transgender migrants in November 2018. Located in a rickety looking five story building it is near the international bridge in the center of Juárez. The transgender-based non-profit Respettrans is dedicated to migrants who are awaiting asylum hearings, most of whom are women with children. The organization is mostly run by the migrants themselves since Herrera has a day job as a nurse and cannot be here physically much of the time.
The migrants are an ever-changing population because they will eventually get their asylum hearings and then leave for various locations in the US. Nonetheless, the interior of Respettrans is spotless, there are no disciplinary problems, everyone is well fed, medical care can be arranged, and there are often classes for the children so they can continue their schooling and learn some English. She has helped many of the men get day jobs so they can accumulate funds for a future life in the U.S.
Respettrans depends heavily on external support and one of the key supporters is a non-profit named Dignity Mission located in Placitas, just west of Albuquerque. Volunteers there led by Jack and Cheryl Farrell put together huge loads of food, clothing, medical supplies and other key items and make deliveries by rental van every four to six weeks. Each load is about three tons.
Because of the impossibility of getting these vans across the border, all the items are stored in the garage of Professor Eva Moya in El Paso. She is the crucial link between the needs of Respettrans and the generosity of the Dignity Mission because she then arranges for volunteers to take these items across the border to Respettrans, carload by carload. An associate professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at El Paso. Her role is essential to the survival of Respettrans.
“Do you miss your family?” I ask Lorena Solares, the teacher for a small school for Tarahumara kids on the westside of Juárez near Vision in Action. Her family lives in the city of Chihuahua, many miles to the south.
“My family? This is my family,” she said, putting her arms around two of the Tarahumara boy students. “You know that I have been here 10 years.”
For eight years I have been visiting this school, bringing fruit and yogurt to help vary their bland diets as well as needed school supplies. It’s a one room classroom with a casita next to it where Solares lives, all enclosed by a white wall for security. The surrounding area is grim – dirt streets, houses made of patched together plywood and cardboard. Education is the only way out for these kids but it isn’t easy since many of them only speak their Tarahumara dialect. So they have to learn not only the basics like math but Spanish as well. Without Lorena’s quiet dedication this would never be possible.
No matter what happens in next year’s Presidential elections, these five women will continue their essential work. As of now, however, their various programs receive little or no support from the Mexican government. Maybe that will change with a woman president.
Morgan Smith writes frequently about border issues and can be reached at Morgan-smith@comcast.net.
