Casita Linda builds shelter and hope, By Holly Wilmeth and Jean Gerber, photos by Holly Wilmeth, Aug 4, 2006, ALSO program comes to San Miguel, Being Jewish in San Miguel, By Pat Hirschl

Casita Linda builds shelter and hope
By Holly Wilmeth and Jean Gerber, photos by Holly Wilmeth, Aug 4, 2006

A family in Los Galvanes, a small community stretched out on the main highway toward Dolores Hidalgo about 15 minutes from San Miguel, will soon be moving into a new home with the help of some sanmiguelenses.

The family was selected by the community as being one of the most in need and deserving of help, and the Casita Linda volunteers are working hand in hand with the family and Los Galvanes neighbors putting the finishing touches on their new, solid cement home.

María Ermelinda, a 47-year-old woman from Los Galvanes, supports her family with the help of her mother, her two sons and what little work she is able to find.

She bore 14 children, of which only six are living, and she tells us the agonizing tale of the death of her other eight children, especially that of Samuel, who at the age of 20 was hit by a truck. He was her friend as well as the major provider and role model of the family. They settled on this piece of land over 16 years ago, but one evening her mother-in-law kicked them out of her home. They began walking, she and her then-five children, until exhausted they came upon an empty parcel of land. It was here that they slowly began setting up their meager home, brick by brick, and carving out a life for themselves.

Now María Ermelinda lives with her six children and their three children in a two-room adobe shack with a leaky roof, no plumbing and a small fire room that serves as a kitchen.

Two half-starved dogs and a cluster of cacti protect them from trespassers. They are eagerly awaiting the completion of their home that we are building on the premises. María Ermelinda has suffered with an abusive, alcoholic husband, who now lives with his mother. He is unable to help them financially. It is very difficult for the family to find work, and they are barely subsisting on what the she and her children can earn and what the community has been able to help them with.

Her 17-year-old daughter, Yareli, has two children. She also has dreams. She wants to learn English, and she used our time together to practice the few words she knows.

She would love to be able to take a course in English in San Miguel, but with barely enough money to buy masa for tortillas this is outside the realm of the possible.

Her 23-year-old daughter, María Elena, has a six-year-old son named Juan. He, too, was helping with the construction, in between throwing a little rubber football with any of the volunteers whom he could rally to play.

He walks to school in Los Galvanes, and with the help of the Feed the Hungry program, he gets a good meal there.

There are two other beautiful children, Elisa (13 years old) and María de la Luz (11 years old).

"Why did they choose us?" María Ermelinda asks. "We are one of the poorest families in this community, and they do try and help as much as possible, but this is something unexpected. Now that they have given us this house, I believe we will be much better off, there will be more room for my family, and when it rains we won't get wet."

Casita Linda is a volunteer organization that builds simple cement houses for people living in extreme poverty. The use of volunteers is essential to the achievement of Casita Linda's goals. Volunteers are needed for hands-on assistance with house construction and to help with fundraising and public relations. Please contact Jean Gerber at 154-9446, or you can email mnjgerber@yahoo.com or Chris McLane at gcmclane@yahoo.com .

Open House, Saturday, August 12, 1-4pm

PACE Center, Mesones 38

A 15-member international team of physicians and midwives, led by Dr. Larry Leeman, a professor from the University of New Mexico, will be in San Miguel August 5 through 11 to establish Guanajuato as the first center in Mexico for the American Academy of Family Physician's two-day Advanced Life Support for Obstetrics (ALSO) course. The team is mostly from the University of New Mexico but also includes members from Ecuador, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as other parts of the US. The program is the latest effort of the Pan American Collaborative Emergency Medicine Development Program and the Colegio Medico de Urgenciologos del Estado de Guanajuato.

The course aims to train healthcare workers (specialists and generalists) in the latest obstetrical and neonatal management techniques. It uses specialized training equipment to develop the psychomotor skills needed to optimize care in these situations. The program is part of an aggressive plan by the state health minister, Dr. Gerardo Ortega Martinez, to decrease the number of deaths of women and babies during childbirth in Guanajuato and the surrounding states.

Thanks to generous support from the mayor's office, the former Presidencia will be turned into a medical training center for the week. The inauguration will be held at 9am on August 5, and the public is welcome. Eighty physicians, nurses and midwives will be trained and certified as providers, and a core of twenty instructors will continue the dissemination of the program in Mexico.

About sixty health ministry physicians will be trained, as well as physicians from IMMS and the private sector and two midwife leaders from CASA. The CASA program at the PACE Center will be directed by Dr. Lourdes Tejeida, who is also the training director for the Hospital General, with additional medical direction from Dr. Sandra Gutierrez, an Ob-Gyn doctor who practices at Hospital de la Fe.

The PACEMD Program recently graduated its first class of emergency nurses (many of whom work in San Miguel) and began a training program for local emergency physicians. The program for development of emergency medicine throughout Latin America is led by Dr. Haywood Hall and Dr. Noe Arellano Hernandez, who are both residency-trained emergency physicians. Dr. Hall is also an Ashoka Fellow. The program is collaborating with the health ministry and the Sistema de Urgencias del Estado de Guanajuato (SUEG) to develop other PACE training centers throughout the state. The program also collaborates with local medical societies and the Red Cross, and it has a strong relationship with the University of Guanajuato Medical School and the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center. The PACE Program also manages the MedSpanish Program in Guanajuato.

There will be an open house at the PACE Center at Mesones 38 (Meson de San José) from 1 to 4pm on Saturday, August 12, where the public can meet the instructors and learn more about the programs. Online information is available at www.pacemd.org

A visitor, learning I was on my way to Torah study last Saturday morning, asked, "In San Miguel? There are Jewish people having services here?" When I arrived in January 1998, I was similarly stunned.

Who expects to find a Hanukah party, a morning minyan or a Bat Mitzvah in this very Catholic colonial town in the middle of Mexico? Ni modo, as we Mexican Jewish folk say, Hineini. "Never mind, here we are."

It may be equally surprising that we are beginning to prepare for the New Year when Rosh Hashanah is not until September 23. Celebrating the High Holidays (from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur) takes careful planning, and we are beginning early to solicit input from as many as possible on what kind of services to have.

For Shalom SMA, this upcoming Jewish New Year of 5767 will be the first anniversary of its founding. For many years prior to 5766 (2006), a group of Jewish residents came together for services and holidays, under the title of The Jewish Community of San Miguel. Last Yom Kippur, Miranda Nadel, the leader of that group for more than 15 years, surprised the community by announcing her retirement. The then-current board members, many of whom had served for long periods, decided to retire as well, so the community needed to find new leadership.

There have been a number of chairpersons since last fall, as members took their turns at heading the group. The present officers, Larry Stone, president; Arie Arazi, treasurer; and Carole Stone, secretary, elected informally a few months ago, will serve until a general election can be held.

The community is now organizing more formally. According to temporary president Larry Stone, "We have been jogging along comfortably on the path laid out by the community over the past 15 years, and feel now is the time to seek new members, new ideas, and begin to add activities. We would like our agenda to come from our membership. What kind of a Jewish community evolves in San Miguel is up to those who want to join us in shaping it." An election of officers is scheduled for early September, after soliciting membership from now through August. Information and membership forms are available every Saturday at regularly scheduled services from 9:30am to 1pm and at Talmud study, on Mondays at 10:30am, both in the TV Salon of the Hotel Quinta Loreto. Forms are also available by email to shalomsanmiguel@yahoo.com.mx mail to La Conexión, Box 613A, or by phoning Larry or Carole Stone at 154-6760 or 6761.