An upcoming film about native experiences in public education and one family’s decision to opt out of public school.

Via Uncolonized

Uncolonized is a short documentary film about a native family who decided never to enroll their two daughters into the public school system, choosing instead to homeschool them from birth. Chris is Potawatomi and Chasity is Navajo. Their daughters Nathaney and Mimicah, ages 11 and 7 at the time of filming, carry both of their parents’ lineages in the their blood, but also in their way of being. The film takes a critical look at the historical experiences of native children inside of the US public education system, and brings clarity to the decision of this family to keep their daughters out of the public school system, and therefore keep them UNCOLONIZED.

Please DONATE to support the Uncolonized film tour: https://www.gofundme.com/UNCOLONIZED

Film by Comunicación Combativa

A Xica Nation featured interview with the founders of Akat Café Kalli and Sin Fronteras Coffee.

What is your name, age, location?  How do you ID?

We are Rocio Cervantes Garcia, Mexicana and Jose Rodriguez Xicano.  We live in Oakland, California.

What is the story behind the project?

Akat Café Kalli is a community-based café in Oakland, California. Without our community, we would not have been able to get to this point. Much love and respect to each and every person who has supported our little coffee shop.  Before we opened up our doors, as a family, we took a risk yet an active role to create our own income and have more autonomy over how we engage in economic activity.  We were on unemployment, trying to finish up our M.A. programs and trying to be active present parents.  While it sounds overwhelming, when we considered the relationship between ourselves and our potential means of gaining income, we decided that the best option would be to work for ourselves and keep our values intact. We know that there are many folks out there who do what they love, contribute to their community and get paid for it too; much love and respect! They deserve it. We know there are also many folks who would rather actively participate in generating their own income but face many barriers. Inspired, we did what we thought was necessary and took on the struggle to become more self-determined.

We began in 2012, making artisan coffee and hosting poetry readings for community members and arts and crafts workshops. We hosted workshops that shared skills, music, and art and informed of the empowering actions happening in the community. The community also organized their own events and gatherings at the café. Akat Café Kalli became a place of connection for us and our community, this is where Sin Fronteras Coffee started.

What is the Sin Fronteras coffee project?

As a Mexicana/Xicana Family, we are creating solidarity relationships and economic justice.  Sin Fronteras Coffee imports, roasts and serves organic Zapatista coffee to community. Sin Fronteras Coffee is about the relationship to self, each other, production and land.  It’s about creating solidarity economics with community in the Bay Area and autonomous communities in Chiapas and other regions. Sin Fronteras Coffee aims to build agency and shift the value back to the relationships.

In January we had a chance to work part of the coffee harvest in autonomous Zapatista territory. We learned about the production of coffee and how it helps to build autonomy and self determination in those communities.  It was a humbling experience and we came back with a deeper understanding of the importance of supporting their coffee work and how to apply the essence and values we connected with to our own geography. The work, time, energy and resources that go into harvesting coffee and preparing it for exporting is extremely difficult.  Each harvest is a struggle and victory, then the market comes into play and for many producers, the market literally devalues that specific struggle.  Sin Fronteras Coffee is about understanding the production process and valuing the work people put in by sharing their story, sharing resources and paying a fair price for their coffee.

Once the coffee arrives to our café, it is on us to roast, brew and share the experience of the different steps of the production process. Imagine a coffee space where one’s relationship to production is valued appropriately, where there is opportunity and support to grow, where the coffee and espresso served in the café directly contributes to autonomous Zapatista communities and self determination in the communities where the coffee was harvested. This is what Café Sin Fronteras is about.

We are raising resources to import a ton of coffee, purchase a coffee roaster and build a taller de café, a coffee workshop. We are dedicated to creating this community space to roast and brew coffee, highlight the relationships involved in the production of coffee, create “sustain to gain” opportunities for coffee workers all while doing it in a good way- based on collaboration and participation. The key ideas here are relationships and solidarity economics.

The goal is the creation of a community coffee workshop and café, the tallercito, where the community and those who have migrated to the Bay Area from their coffee homelands can share and gain knowledge about the:

• production of coffee
• operation of an autonomous coffee business
• social/cultural/political implications of our interactions with coffee

Why should folks support the Sin Fronteras coffee project?

Too many times in coffee the focus is on the branding and quality of the end product, rather than the quality of the relationships involved in producing a drip coffee, latte or a bag of coffee. The community does not generally have enough information about the production process of coffee and the important relationships involved.  Our aim is to shift the value back to these relationships by highlighting the stories, and the message of the coffee producers – from their struggles and victories, based on their location, societal and cultural realities.

There is a lack of coffee spaces which offer solidarity coffee with a welcoming artistic and cultural environment which builds with the community from the coffee lands from which the coffee originates. We aim to do this work in a vibrant community cultural space where people come together to create and engage in positive interactions not only the transaction. Finally, it is vital to shift resources to projects like ours where growth starts from below and expands horizontally and circles back through collaboration and active participation.

Essentially, we will:

• Collaborate with coffee producers and workers to create opportunities for economic sustainability and agency – “sustain to gain”
• Contribute in generating sustainable income by shifting the value back to the relationship between producers, coffee shop workers, coffee drinkers and the land.
• Build a tallercito, a coffee workshop space where community and people from the coffee lands living in the Bay Area can share and learn about all things coffee.
• Promote the growth of autonomous coffee spaces operated by graduates/workers of the tallercito.

How can folks support the Sin Fronteras coffee project?

Understand our project, the work we have been doing and the work of the coffee producers and how it is all related and how it directly connects to building autonomy. We encourage folks to pre order coffee from us online and to make a donation at www.sinfronterascoffee.com

You can also check out www.akatcafekalli.com and our facebook page: Akat Cafe Kalli to get updates regarding the project and our work.

An extended version of the original article published in the Arizona Daily Star
by Roberto Rodriguez

Half of the MexIcan American Studies trial in Tucson’s federal court is now complete, and yet the historic trial will never get the national and international coverage it merits, nor will its significance be properly understood, given the limiting court rulings by Judge Tashima of the 9th Circuit Court. The first part of the trial produced few surprises, though confirming the pettiness of the state and its representatives.

The trial is to determine whether the 2010 anti-Ethnic Studies HB 2281 legislation, which resulted in the elimination of Tucson’s highly successful K-12 Raza Studies Department, was motivated by racial animus? The legislation was initiated by former state schools’ superintendent, Tom Horne, and then followed by his successor, John Huppenthal, who was one of the state’s [weak] witnesses this week.

Testifying for the plaintiffs was former MAS teacher Curtis Acosta, student Maya Arce and former MAS director, Sean Arce, putting in a strong defense for Raza Studies, and also, Nolan Cabrera, testifying regarding a study he co-conducted that proved the effectiveness of the highly successful program.

One of the things at stake here is whether the state of Arizona can determine what constitutes permissible v impermissible knowledge in its schools, this within the context of a “civilizational war,” and even more specifically, whether an Indigenous curriculum can be taught within Mexican American Studies. To be remembered is that the elimination of the program also  involved the banning of the program’s books.

Asking whether there was racial animus involved in eliminating the MAS program is akin to asking whether former Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio is biased against Mexicans? He too is also facing a federal trial as a result of defying between 2011-2013, a federal judge’s 2011 orders, to stop his discriminatory and draconian immigration raids and practices,

It is also akin to asking whether the state of Arizona, as exemplified by former Gov Jan Brewer, has been motivated by racial bias in its continual campaign against DREAM/DACA students? The latest development has come by way of an arizona court of appeals, which ruled that Arizona DREAM students, unlike in other states, are ineligible to receive in-state tuition. Also, the Maricopa Community Colleges have decided to appeal the decision to the Arizona Supreme Court. The Arizona Board of Regents have decided to continue offering the lower in-state tuition.

Is there any conscious, sentient being alive today that doubts the answer regarding Arizona’s racial climate, especially in regards to the state’s war against Ethnic Studies and its war on [Mexican] migrants by way of the state’s 2010 racial profiling SB 1070 legislation, which put Arizona on the map, while triggering an international boycott of the state?

One thing is to be motivated by racial animus; another thing, and they are related, is to create racial animus in the state, based on their very public campaigns against “La Raza,” including Huppenthal’s surreptitious and anonymous media campaign to destroy Raza Studies.

To document the highly charged racial politics of the state, I conducted a study several years ago, examining all the letters to the editors and comments section of the Arizona Daily Star and the Arizona Republic for the years 2010-2012, in regards to both of these pieces of legislation.

Did I find any evidence of racial hate in these thousands upon thousands of letters and comments? A resounding yes, and generally, for every 10 hateful letters, there was but one positive letter, this virtually on a daily basis. And this was Arizona’s mainstream media, not the even more rabid, extremist media.  These were the kinds of letters one would not want K-12 students to read, even though it was children and students and their parents who seemed to be the primary object of this vicious hate. These included veiled and not-so-veiled death threats and incitement to race war and of course, racial slurs, directed primarily at the Mexican and Mexican American population of the state, and Mexico itself. The undeniable racial hostility created at this time in the state of Arizona begs the question regarding the need for the trial itself. How could any serious person living in Arizona actually doubt that HB 2281 was not motivated by racial hate?

The real question is why the drive to eliminate the program? This is what is generally overlooked; Horne and Huppenthal and a number of legislators, were obsessed with the notion that the department was teaching things outside of Western Civilization and outside of Greco Roman culture, thus advancing the notion of a civilizational war. To be noted is that the notion of “Western Civilization” has always connoted that everyone within it is civilized and those outside of it, are “uncivilized.”

Yet what did they actually object to? Truthfully, everything, but apparently what drew a special ire from them was the program’s Indigenous philosophical core, which included the concepts of In Lak Ech and Panche Be – You are my other me (the Golden Rule) and To seek the root of the truth (critical thinking). These are maiz-based concepts, Indigenous to this very continent, though outside of “Western Civilization?” Hardly (unless this continent has shifted Eastward), but to ban this knowledge in Arizona is definitely par for the past 525 years on this continent.

The trial resumes July 17 and a decision is expected no later than 3 months later.

Rodriguez is an associate professor in Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona. While several of his books were banned, he was also arrested in a protest against HB 2281, the day after the legislation was signed the day after it was signed by former Gov. Brewer.

Our rights as womyn and mothers to assert jurisdiction over our own bodies and lives are being deconstructed at an alarming rate – dare I say as alarming as the miles of ice cracking and melting off the poles of our Mother Earth.

With no more lands to conquer on the U.S. mainland, the personal landscape has become a frontier.  The 21st century geography of colonization and population control: the body of womyn and in particular, womyn from marginalized communities.

It is true that legislated dominion over native peoples bodies has gone on for over 500 years.  But generations of wasichu methodologies in law and capitalist structures have reached a point of refinement that demands our attention because of its power to creep so deeply into the personal, affecting our realities and influencing if not outright controlling our sacred personal decisions.  The State of Texas is of particular reference and leads the attack but it is certainly not the only one.  The current situation is inextricably intertwined with colonization, thus impacting native womyn across borders.

But within the context of the U.S., this imposition of state control over a womyn’s body manifests in the forms of womyns right to choose, access to healthcare (including mental health services), access to assistance programs, womyns right to (and access to) choose the form of maternity medical care, womyns right to (and access to) determine the birth experience, family law legislation, domestic violence, litigious abuse, access for non-citizens and mothers/kids in FAMILY PRISONS to obtain birth certificates for U.S.-born children, trans and LGBTQ rights, and in other ways with intersections too numerous to describe.

And of particular importance is that at every single crossing point between the State and marginalized communities  – and in particular womyn  – from the greater MeXicanx community, there appears increasing forms of legislation imposed upon the living geographies and landscapes of the brown female bodies in ways which overtly and covertly carve pathways to unjustly deny access and exercise of our human rights.  The system seems be in a rush to find ways to justify taking power at any moment over our bodies, quickly legislating definitions/layers of illegalities and constructing legal, economic, and geographic barriers that directly work against us to obstruct our ability to exercise our human rights, our health/well-being, our families, and our life experience on this planet as we know it.

Perhaps this article is only a drop in a bucket, but there is simply no other way to deconstruct and decolonize this mechanism without having a few critical conversations.  And today’s topic is no exception: the right to choose (and access to) maternity care, asserting jurisdiction over the self in determining the birth experience, and working with pregnant womyn and mothers from marginalized communities.

Our featured guests include yaocihuame (warrior womyn/community leaders) and come from Houston, El Paso, Austin, San Antonio, and Guadalajara, Mexico.  We are honored to have with us:

Maribel Valdez Gonzalez, Educator, San Antonio, Texas  Donate
Gisela Sarellano, Danzante, El Paso, Texas  Donate
Marisela Orozco-Herrera, Danzante and educator, Houston, Texas  
Emerita Citlalli Ramírez Grande, Danzante and culture worker, Guadalajara, Jalisco  
Rachel Caballero, Student midwife at Mama Sana clinic in East Austin, Texas
Nana Yvette Mendez, Elder, San Antonio, Texas

Maribel Valdez Gonzalez

Gisela Sarellano

Marisela Orozco-Herrera

Emerita Citlalli Ramírez Grande

Rachel Caballero

Nana Yvette Mendez

You are invited to read and listen to their stories, they are critical and important.  You are also personally invited to counter the systemic attack and effect change NOW through donating to the fund drives for these hermanas.

Author’s note: I can personally testify to the fact that online donations towards the birth of children really DO make a direct impact at a time when pregnant womyn, and in this case community leaders, need it the most.  Thank you.

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[su_spoiler title=”Maribel Valdez Gonzalez” anchor=”Accordion-1″]

​What is your name? How do you ID? Where are you at/from?
My name is Maribel Valdez Gonzalez. My family is from La Laguna Grande, Zacatecas, Mexico. My mom, brother, sister, and I are living in San Antonio, Tejaztlan for the first time, together. Many of my extended family members still remain in Zacatecas, while others have migrated to other cities in Texas, Illinois, Georgia, and California. I identify as Mexican, Xicana, and part of an alterNATIVE peoples residing on this side of the arbitrary, but enforced southern border of the United States. I am indigenous, colonized, and different from white America. Relatively speaking, I am light-skinned, but not white passing. I am in a strong cishetero-appearing companionship with Antonio Manuel Castillo Gonzalez. The foundation of our companionship is based on our relationship with our closest relative, the land.

What community movements are you involved in?
I am an educator. I teach 7th grade English Language Arts in a historically looted community. I teach at a school that is homogeneously brown. Being a teacher in a public school is extremely difficult because I have to reconcile being an oppressor (if I want to keep my job) with doing my best to help students love themselves. I believe in teaching culturally-relevant curriculum, social emotional skills that deviate from white supremacist norms, and encouraging my students to express themselves with informed opinions. My humble purpose in life is to be an example for others. I am honored to be in the presence of youth and I take that responsibility very seriously. At this time, I have taken a break from getting involved in movements beyond my school community, so I can focus on my home altar. I am currently 30 weeks pregnant and very much focused on my spirituality and faith to ground our family in a good way before our baby, Aztlaneci, enters this world.

What type of birth experience are you choosing to have and why?
I am choosing to have the birth ceremony in the comfort of our home. I have a doula, who is my ceremonial sister, and a midwife who will assist in the ceremony. The birth ceremony is the first ceremony. I consider it a ceremony because it is a way to demonstrate honor for the ritual, gratitude, humility, and strength. I have no fear because I understand my womb to be my connection to the earth, my ancestors, the dreamworld, and the life force that will give us our child. I have faith. It will be a sacred experience that will not be tainted by the traumas that many womxn of color experience in hospitals. We will be singing prayer songs and there will be medicines present. It will be an answer to a prayer. I want to be in the presence of folks who want to help me give birth to my child. I do not want to be controlled, or forgotten. By having the ceremony at home, my family and I will be given the autonomy to demonstrate our responsibility to our child, future generations, ancestors, and community as a unified commitment.

What other birthing experiences have you had?
My companion and I had a daughter by the name of Ayotzintli Valdez Gonzalez. She remains an ancestor after I miscarried at 3 months. We remember and honor her on a daily basis. She is with us always.

Does politics and/or economic play a role in this decision? How?
As a Xicana, woman of color, and mama-to-be in the United States, every choice I make is political. My decision to have a home birth was informed by my spiritual beliefs and the fear I carry as a young Xicana in institutions such as hospitals. In those spaces, my body is objectified in ways that take away my dignity and the sacredness of the birth ceremony. My body and my home are sacred ceremonial sites.

How can folks support you?
I am asking for folks to help with donations to cover the costs of midwifery services. We believe that having access to midwifery services is birth justice. With every $50 or more donation, we are giving away a WE THE PEOPLE Defend Dignity 24×36 lithoprint signed by the photographer, Arlene Mejorado, and myself. We will also ship 4 stickers of the same print. While my likeness is used for the prints that were seen all over the world, my family and I are not getting compensated for any of it. We are very fortunate to be able to share some of the prints with those who support our campaign as an incentive. We are deeply grateful for those who choose to support us.

What is the link to your fundraiser?
https://www.gofundme.com/support-maribels-home-birth

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[su_spoiler title=”Gisela Sarellano” anchor=”Accordion-2″]

What is your name? How do you ID? Where are you at/from?
Gisela Sarellano, Mexica, El Paso, TX

What community movements are you involved in?
I have been entrusted with the responsibility of danza Azteca Omecoatl and serve them as their capitana. Additionally, I am a minister of Native American Church Teokalli Tlauizkalpantekutli Ketzalkoatl.

What type of birth experience are you choosing to have and why?
I chose to birth at home with the help of a midwife. Although I respect everyone’s personal preference, I believe that birthing with a midwife is the closest to how it was intended. Going through the experience and actually being an active participant in said experience is very important to me. In my opinion, I believe it is the most natural way and the best way for both mother and child.

What other birthing experiences have you had?
My 9 year old son, Xicahua, was born in a hospital with an obstetrician. This was far from ideal as the doctor induced my delivery to fit her schedule instead of waiting for my baby to come on his terms and on his time. Though it was nonetheless life changing and unforgettable, I truly felt robbed of the birthing experience.

Does politics and/or economic play a role in this decision? How?
The fact that home birth is not covered by Medicaid or traditional insurance absolutely factored into my decision. Instead of simply being able to enjoy and celebrate the fact that I was being blessed with another child I had to try to figure out how I would be able to afford to birth at home. Thankfully, there is a midwife in our traditional community who first offered to greatly discount her services then changed her mind and offered me her services free of charge in appreciation for the service work I do within the community.

How can folks support you?
Thanks to the generosity of my midwife I do not assistance in paying for her services, however my danza circle has started a fundraiser so that I may have some bonding time with my child. I work for an attorney who is allowing me to take as much time off as I need, however he is unfortunately unable to provide me with paid maternity leave. Without financial assistance, I will only be able to take two weeks off, if that.

What is the link to your fundraiser?
https://www.youcaring.com/gisela-803046

Anything else would you would like to share?
Thankfully my pregnancy had been rather uneventful and without complications, until now. My baby has refused to turn and, at 39 weeks, is still in a breech position. We have tried all traditional and non-traditional methods we can think of, but she will not budge. Bearing that in mind, my wonderful midwife has suggested that birthing in a hospital is the safest thing for the baby. This is far from what I had in mind and most certainly not what I planned. It has, however, been a great lesson in surrender, and accepting that my child and Creation, have other plans, and that is ok too. Sadly, if we have to go through with a C-section, it entails a much longer recovery period for which I am not financially prepared.

UPDATE: The Xica Nation family would like to welcome the arrival of Matlalihuitl, who arrived on May 18th.  Congratulations, Gisela!

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[su_spoiler title=”Rachel Caballero” anchor=”Accordion-3″]

What is your name? How do you ID? Where are you at/from?

My name is Rachel Caballero. I am AfroLatina. I honor my African and Indigenous ancestors. I am currently in Austin, TX. I am from the US Mexico Borderlands/ El Paso- Cd Jz.

What community work are you involved in?

I am currently a student midwife involved in an organization called Mama Sana Vibrant Woman. MSVW is a community organization that works to facilitate access to culturally appropriate, quality, prenatal and postnatal care for women of color in Austin/Travis County based in Austin, TX. We exist to provide culturally respectfully and reflective reproductive health and wellness for Latina and Black women. According to the CDC, Centers for Disease Control data showed that for Black women, maternal mortality was 40.4 deaths for every 100,000 live births between 2011 and 2013. This is compared to 12.1 for white women and 16.4 for women of other racesOur focus is prenatal support. Currently birth outcomes and maternal health are worse for Black mothers in the U.S. we exist to change that. For Latina mothers issues around language and cultural respect come into play. For all women access to home birth is an issue. In Texas currently medicaid does not pay for home birth. The process for midwives to become medicaid providers is long and duly, midwives who are self employed and many have low volume practices, becoming a medicaid provider is not possible.

MSVW Our organization is a collectively ran non profit made up of Latina and Black women. My work with the organization is to provide birth support as a doula, and lead our birth companion program. Our Birth Companion program provides free one on one birth support. It is a goal of mine to create a community of birth workers of color who reclaim the practices of their cultures and ancestors and bring them to birth work and healing work. We trained 27 birth companions this past year in our first year of funded work. We connected 5 women to home births at no cost.

What services does your organization provide and what population do you serve?
Currently our organization provides holistic full spectrum support including weekly groups, birth companion support during all stages of pregnancy, quick access to prenatal care, and access to network of midwives. During the Pregnancy and Birthing Circles Program which is our weekly prenatal support group, mothers choose topics they want to learn about as well as going over more traditional pregnancy related information, participate in free yoga + movement, community meal, meat birth companions, receive a prenatal check from a midwife. On occasion we invite holistic practicioners to provide massage and acupuncture. The care given within the PBC Program is informed by the principles and practices of midwifery.

We provide Free Childbirth Prep Classes in English and Spanish. We provide monthly socials and events including Mama Spa Day, Kandake Circle by and for self identifying Black Women.
As a person on the front line of maternity care in Texas, in what ways do you believe politics and/or economics play a role in decision-making around maternity care and the birthing experience for WOC?

I think when it comes to health care in general politics always play a role in decision making. For many women of color our politics inform our choices about the way we live, what we eat and wear etc. In my experience as a doula/birth companion in maternity care decision making before or during the labor room comes down to two questions – Is it safe for my baby? Is it safe for me so I can care for my child? more so than politics or economics.

In my work I have known and supported many different women from different belief systems. Part of my work as a birth worker/student partera is that I listen and support all women in their choices. Regardless of politics or how much money they have they have the power to decide for themselves what they want and need. Being on the “front lines” of maternity care means upholding that wherever we are, hospital or home. I am “with woman” on her path. I walk alongside her during her journey.

Currently the political climate in Texas has made it clear that our bodies as woc do not matter. Genocide continues and we are here living within it all. The medical system in the U.S. is violent. For this reason the role of the birth companion and partera is even more important. It is a calling- and necessary role during these times. I have seen time and time again entering the hospital supporting a WOC she is dismissed or ignored, talked down to, or poked and prodded unnecesarily. There is little dignity. Specifically when I have supported Black Mothers birthing in hospitals there is alot of racism and I have witnessed many painful and traumatic experiences in the hospitals towards Black Mothers.

More mothers should have the option of having baby at home or a safeplace that is not the hospital. Decisions around maternity care are connected to economics in that a WOC who is homeless, has violence at home, not enough room, may not want to or be able to have a “home birth” not all women have “homes” in the physical sense, so they have no choice but go to hospital. And less so not able to even consider home birth since she will have to pay out of pocket.

As WOC our choices are already cut short in the U.S. and especially in Texas. We don’t have real choices. We are seeking to change that.

How can folks support this project?

In order to provide support and more homebirth we must continue to fundraise.
People can donate to our pay pal or mail checks. People can volunteer their time or expertise. People can refer more women of color needing support by visiting msvwatx.org , [email protected], 512-710-5729

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[su_spoiler title=”Emerita Citlalli Ramírez Grande” anchor=”Accordion-4″]

Como te llamas?  Como te identificas?  De donde eres/estas?
Emerita Citlalli Ramírez Grande. Me identifico con la naturaleza, con todo lo relaciónado al cuidado, conservación y resguardo del medio ambiente y cultura. Mi familia es de Jala Nayarit- Jomulco. Estoy viviendo en Guadalajara.

A cuales movimientos o circulos sociales te integras?
Grupos de danza Mexica y de conocimiento de calendario Mexica.

Que tipo de expereiencia de nacimiento desean tener?  Pueden tener?  No pueden tener?  
Tipo de nacimiento/ el mas natural acorde con lo tiempos naturales posibles y queria una experiencia en agua. / pueden tener; puedo tener el del seguro del ISSTE por el trabajo y otro llamado MetLIfe que es el que intentare a ver si me aprueban en los papeles para que juan pueda estar conmigo por que en el seguro no dejarian a nadie conocido mio a que me acompañe en mi parto, además de que en el seguro, hay muchos prácticantes de medicina, cualquiera puede intervenir o decidir si se va a sesarea el parto, y meterte la mano para ellos prácticar las medidas en tu vagina de las dilataciónes. además que te están precionando para decidir para la implantación de un metodo anticonceptivo implantado al final del parto. Y POR ESO NO QUIERO EN ISSTE.

De que manera influye el dinero y/o la politica en esta decision?  Como?
Por politica de trabajo tengo ISSTE eso si puedo acceder, y económicamente no puedo tenerlo con la que yo queria para que me apoyara en parto en agua, puesto que ella cobra $ 15,000 para recibir al bebe, más $ 4,000 para pagar la duola y $ 3,800 un curso prepedeutico y el hospital donde te permitan tener la tina $5,000 esto sale un costo de más de $20,000. No lo tenemos, yo gano $5000 a la quincena, contrapenas tendria unos tresmil sueltos para pagar uno privado y no tener que acudir al ISSTE. me es más barato en un hospital privado chico por el parto con un medico común que cobrarian entre $5000 a $10000, que un parto natural que está por arriba de los $20,000. La Duola Maricela que está trabajando en una asociación de Duolas para poder incertar una politica de que en el ISSTE se tenga el derecho de una duola (están en esa lucha ellas) me platica que en Jalisco (Norma caracola) es de las más baratas, que las demás parteras o parteros naturales cobran de $20,000 para arriba.

Como puede el publico apoyarte?  Tienes un enlace para donaciones o Paypal?
Con tan solo el hecho de leer lo que vayas a escribir (me es suficiente), para documentar la experiencia que a mi pensar se está lucrando con lo natural, al bolerse en estos tiempos venderse como moda como slogans de be natural- organic y por lo tanto triplican los precios, que yo que trabajo en una dependencia gubernamental =/ NO PUEDO PAGAR LO MÁS BE NATURALMENTE POSIBLE =(

Algo mas que gustas compartir?
Las raices que deverian estar accesibles al publico, se están convirtiendo en un medio mercantil para cobrar o obtener ganancias mayores, sin olvidar, que solo poca gente podria pagarlo.

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[su_spoiler title=”Marisela Orozco-Herrera” anchor=”Accordion-5″]

What is your name?  How do you ID?  Where are you at/from?
My full name is Marisela Orozco-Herrera. I didn’t mind adding on my duality’s last name but I’m pretty attached to my own so I made sure to keep it. At work I still go by Ms. Orozco. I was born and raised in Houston, TX. I identify as native, xicana, and indigena aunque mi sangre es de todas partes de este mundo, soy de estas tierras.

What community movements are you involved in?
I have been involved in la danza Azteca  for the past 11 years. I’m currently a part of a a Houston based group, Danza Azteca Taxcayolotl. Many of us are educators. I currently work as the librarian for a charter school where I bring in many of the Mexica teachings into the curriculum, the kids really connect to it. I’m also working with a group of like minded people to create a better learning environment… a type of school for our children and community. This past year I was also fortunate enough to be involved in the Peace and Dignity Journeys as a runner down the Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Houston. The prayer for the seeds was very powerful and means so much for us in the way of maintaining pure and healthy foods, coming together from many indigenous groups as one, sharing our knowledge of the seeds… the process of planting, harvesting, and continuing that knowledge through shared time together. Not only as physical planting seeds but as the seeds of humanity, as people healing ourselves, our families, and communities in order to continue life in a more trauma free existence where we can continue to nourish one another through our culture and traditions. We are the medicine that our ancestors left us, it’s embedded in us, we just have to continue to plant, harvest, and share this knowledge.

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The following is an oral herstory via phone with Yvette Mendez, elder from San Antonio, Texas

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