Deportados Unidos en la Lucha (Deportees United in the Struggle) is an organization based in Mexico City that works to connect Mexicans recently deported from the US. We had the opportunity to visit with Ana Laura Lopez, one of the main organizers in the collective, about DUL’s mission and what their work looks like.

Ana Laura Lopez had lived undocumented in the US for many years before her deportation. She spoke proudly of her life there both as a mother and as a leader of a union campaign with her undocumented women co-workers. However, Ana’s growing notoriety as an activist made her vulnerable to ICE, and ironically, as Ana attempted to return to Mexico in order to obtain legal US residence, she was detained in the airport and eventually deported. Now Ana cannot return to her life and children in the US for 20 or more years.

This traumatic experience encouraged Ana to start a collective to help recent deportees, and DUL was born. The collective of deportees started out selling candy, then quickly learned screenprinting to make bags and T-shirts for fundraising. Ana said that one of the missions of DUL is “to create people of change, and for people to understand their own power in activism.” New members of the collective are taught screenprinting skills, and also contribute their ideas for new designs.

The funds from DUL merchandise are used to support newly arrived deportees. Because of the harsh rhetoric of criminality around deportation used in the US, Ana explained that Mexicans can be somewhat wary of offering help to deportees. Therefore, many deportees are dropped in Mexico City without money, a place to stay, or a way to contact relatives. Deportados Unidos fills this gap by meeting deportees at the airport and providing solidarity as well as temporary shelter.

In the US, mainstream debates about immigration policy do not include the voices of those experiencing deportation and the pain of family separation. Deportados Unidos was a glimpse of the solutions that organizing can offer for people rejected by the system.

Engaging with migration and immigration in the context of Mexico has opened my eyes to many social issues. During a week in Mexico City, my class visited a migrant shelter (Tochan), a deportee shelter and the US Embassy. All three visits provided images that worked together to create a picture of immigration. Tochan consisted of mostly of people trying to migrate from Central America to the US, while the deportee shelter consisted of people who have been deported from the US. The US Embassy simply served as an extension of the current administration in the United States.

We listen to Tochan shelter’s migrants as we stood in front of one of their gorgeous murals

The most impactful part of both visits to shelters was hearing all of the very unique but similar stories. All the stories provide a different perspective on the policies about immigration that seem so removed from real life. We spoke with one young man who lost his whole family in Ecuador and is on the journey to reestablish his independence or freedom in Mexico City.  From the deportee shelter, we heard a story of a woman who lived the US for 16 years but she was undocumented. While trying to obtain legal status she was deported and told she could not return to the states for 25 years. Her whole life including her kids still live in the US and essentially have no way of seeing their mom.  As I experience more immigration stories the foundation of all of them are family separation. So the immigration stories juxtaposed with the policies enforced by the US government are very distant from each other. What I mean by that is the needs of the people are not being met while the governments insist they are enforcing policies to benefit the people. My understanding is either the governments involved don’t know or they don’t care, and in the meantime, families are being ripped apart and destroyed. 

With only a month left in Mexico, MGE went on a four day long visit to the State of Mexico. On the last day we visited the towns of Metepec and Toluca. In Metepec, we visited the workshop of a couple that create beautiful clay art. They talked to us about the many challenges they faced as artists. When they first came to Metepec, the other sculptors discriminated against them. This is because the couple had very little sculpting experience, were lighter skinned, and many believed that a women couldn’t be a great sculptress. However, with practice and innovation they were able to become some of the most talented and sought-after people in their craft. One of their specialties is the tree of life. There are many variations of this. It can have flowers, butterflies, skulls, and Catholic and indigenous symbols. Originally it was supposed to tell the story of creation, but now some feature indigenous gods, or aren’t linked to religion at all. After talking with the artists, my cohorts and I got to make pieces of our own. We soon realized that the process of putting clay into molds and then getting it back out was way more difficult than it looked. It was clear to us that a lot of passion and hard work went into creating the beautiful trees of life.

Next, we went to Toluca, which is famous for a different type of art. It features the biggest piece of stained glass in the world. It is called the Cosmovitral. The theme of this stained glass museum is humanity’s relationship with the universe. One panel features the center of the universe with a man and women around it. On the other side there is an androgynous human with fire coming out of their legs, arms, and head. Along the sides of the building, different stories are played out. Most notably, the one of the eagle and the owl. The eagle represents light and strength while the owl represents darkness and wisdom. These two end up fighting, and the owl wins because its wisdom overcomes the eagle’s raw strength. In the next panel, the eagle and owl become humans. Overall, this art shows humanity’s duality like male and female, wisdom and strength, and darkness and light. Going to both of these towns was a great way to get a better understanding of Mexican art, culture, and cosmovision. With the trees of life, we saw how the Mexican people mix their Catholic religion with their indigenous heritage. At the Cosmovitral, we learned that duality is also an important aspect of Mexican culture. This trip was a great learning experience and also a fun excursion.

The funniest part of my first week with my Mexican host family was the conversation about my type of vegetarianism. One day I came home and cooked broccoli and rice, but only under the supervision of my host grandmother. She made sure I used the right cup and kept checking to make sure I wasn’t burning the food. In the end, she watched how I set my plate with the rice and broccoli separate from each other and chiles on top. In unison, my host grandmother and mom said, “Awww,” acknowledging that they were starting to understanding how and what I eat. Food in my new home is a conversation starter that leads me and my host family towards learning new things about each other.

The biggest task I’ve had during my homestay is managing exception with reality. My host family is vegetarian for me, they love Louis Armstrong, and my host father likes rap music from Compton. My host family consists of my mom, dad, fifteen-year-old sister, two uncles, six cousins and spunky grandmother.

Before I arrived at their house they probably ate lots of meat but because of me, they are vegetarian for every meal I am a part of. They also go out of their way to make sure that I feel welcomed and involved in the family.  When my extended family is present, they also make an effort to make sure I understand the conversation and feel welcome to contribute. Going into the homestay I didn’t have any set expectations for my family, but I did anticipate that it would be very awkward for a long time. However the second day that I was there, my host cousins and father began to play me their favorite types of music. For the very little Spanish I knew, this type of show-and-tell relieved some pressure for me because I could contribute to the conversation. With all nerves aside, my homestay has been above and beyond anything I could have expected.

On a sunny afternoon in March, my cohorts and I were supposed to go on an excursion to three different towns to tour churches. However, all of the churches that we were supposed to see were closed because of the earthquake in September of 2017 even though the web sites said that they were open. So there we were, standing in a sleepy mountain town two hours away from home with nothing to do. We decided to just go with it and moved on to the next town to see what was happening there.  The town of Totolapan was having a huge fiesta. There was food, music, and costumed people doing intricate dances. After observing the outside of the church we were supposed to visit, we explored the town and took part in the celebration.

Soon, it was time to go to Tlayacapan. While we were driving, the art teacher suddenly had us pull over next to a field of cacti to give us an impromptu lesson about an insect that is used in red paint dye. My cohorts and I were skeptical at first. It was pretty hot outside. However, when we emerged from the van, we found that the lesson was actually pretty interesting. It also helped that there was a mountain looming over the cactus field, which made for a majestic sight.  When we got to the third town of Tlayacapan, there wasn’t a fiesta, but there was still plenty to do. The market was open since it was the weekend. There were a bunch of cool places to shop, eat, and drink. We split off into groups and explored the town once again. After doing some shopping, my group found a cute little restaurant were we enjoyed food, drinks, and conversation. We had a good time there, but soon it was time to leave. We met up with the rest of the group. Some had spent the whole time shopping and some got food and drinks like us, but it was clear that we had all had a good time. This excursion illustrates a strong cultural value in Mexico: just go with the flow. It might be annoying when things don’t go as planned, but you shouldn’t let that ruin your day. We could have just driven back to Cuernavaca when we found out that all of the churches were closed, but if we had, we wouldn’t have had any of those experiences. I personally am glad that I chose to go on the excursion that didn’t go as planned.

As I’ve gotten more comfortable in my homestay, all of our conversations lead to deeper topics.  The biggest task I’ve faced during this time is managing expectations with reality.  Recently my hair has been a big topic amongst my family because they feel it is ever changing. When I entered their home I had braid extensions. Part way through my stay I removed my extensions and revealed my dreads. The conversation about my hair led us to a conversation about political revolutions. I contributed to the conversation my knowledge about the ways black hair is often used as a form of resistance. Then my host mom began to talk about the different revolutions in Mexico and what people have been fighting for. Since my host mom likes documentaries and history as much as I do, we now have ‘documentary nights’.

The first documentary we watched was What Happened, Miss Simone? The film provided some context to Black resistances in the States. My host grandmother made the connection between how I identify and what I attribute to my blackness with the similar ways Miss Simone defines her identity, in the film. A conversation that started with my hair quickly turned into a discussion about how I identify. The main point of our conversation was me explaining that I don’t perceive my identity as a Black person to be negative. From my family’s perspective Black isn’t an identity, and people should be more than a color. However, for myself, I am just Black and everything negative and positive that it means. After we saw our movie and had our conversation, my family stopped correcting or trying to project their own perspective of identity onto me. We’ve created an understanding of how I identify, all with the help of movie night.

This week, MGE and International House convened for our weekly meetings where we exchange various intercultural subjects, this time to discuss the spread of colonization through English and Spanish. Within the span of only two hours, we tackled various challenging but necessary questions together. Presenting first was the IHouse group, which discussed the erasure of indigenous languages in Mexico through the dissemination of Spanish. During this presentation, we practiced our Spanish listening skills with a lively exercise in which we listened to and identified a variety of Spanish dialects. With this exercise we explored the vast diversity of dialects and phrases within the Spanish language; a direct result of the myriad colonization and migration patterns in Latin America. Following this discussion, we moved onto the advantages and disadvantages of the spread of colonization through English, led by some students from CGEE.

In my group, I noticed that the majority of the CGEE students maintained a negative perception of the international spread of English. Many of us associated the dissemination of English with a hegemonic concept among Americans that those entering the United States should only arrive if they know English. On the contrary, the IHouse students discussed the spread of English, not as a burden, but rather as a tool which can be utilized to build stronger social connections, seek better job opportunities, and pursue international cultural experiences. As a group, we ultimately reached the consensus that we’d be conducting an incomplete analysis of this question without considering the complex factors that drive many Spanish speakers to acquire the English language.

Divided in our groups we discussed the significance of the connections that languages can bridge despite its history of colonization. We questioned why it was easier for us to critique the spread of colonizing languages than critique our own failure to take active steps towards reclaiming our indigenous languages. Those of us trained in the social sciences are perpetually urged to think critically but at times these patterns of thought fall into idealism which clouds our perception of multi-dimensional issues. While idealism is not an inherently negative concept, it can lead us astray from reality particularly when we imagine idealistic societies from a U.S.-centered perspective. In the process of essentializing the spread of English as oppressive, we dismissed the structural issues which make the acquisition of English for some as simple as a means for survival.  The poignant perspectives we exchanged together on this subject highlight the importance of continuously engaging in intercultural dialogues in Mexico and the power in translating our academic knowledge of complex subjects into substantive and concrete lessons.

During our weeklong visit to Amatlan, we were lucky to have the opportunity to speak with Vica, the first openly trans woman in Amatlan, and her friend Lesley, another trans woman from a nearby town. Vica and Lesley had similar stories — both felt that they did not fit the gender roles they were prescribed as children, but faced criticism and hostility for their gender fluidity. But soon, each became involved in the queer community and found reassurance of their identities as trans women.

Lesley and Vica were both forced to become young heads of household in their families, and over time, this continued support of their communities brought trust and acceptance. “[My mother] accepted me because I always helped her with my brothers and sisters,” said Lesley. “I was both mother and father to them.”

Lesley and Vic

Both women expressed that despite past hostilities, they now felt safer in their respective towns than they might feel in cities, where machismo and transphobia run rampant. “In Amatlan, people know me,” Vica explained.

Despite the difficulties of gaining acceptance in their communities, Lesley and Vica continue to struggle for trans and queer rights. Their work involves fighting for healthcare, visibility, and an end to discrimination. Both hope to be mentors for queer youth in the area. “We’ve opened up the path for others,” said Vica. They participate in marches, put on events, operate community businesses, and Vica was crowned Miss Trans Tepoztlan in the regional competition.

Vic during a Trans parade in Tepoztlán

Vica and Lesley’s stories radiated with hope and struggle. While they spoke of discrimination, they spoke optimistically of their work and accomplishments. In the US especially, we must always remember that the modern movement for LGBTQ liberation would never be possible without the contributions of trans women of color like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and others struggling around the world. As Lesley said,”Our struggle continues, and we aren’t going to stop until people stop discriminating.”