Best Margaritas 2009
A benefit for C.A.S.A.
Fri, Aug 7, 5:30-7:30pm
Casa Santa Julia
154-6090
CASA’s enrollment doubles
By Patricia Hirschl
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CASA’s School for Midwives faces a new hurdle after the many it has met successfully in its 12 years of existence. This August, 30 new students arrive for three years of clinical training. |
They come from all over Mexico—many from the poorer indigenous areas of Oaxaca, Veracruz, Guerrero and Chiapas—as well as one each from Guatemala and Puerto Rico.
They need housing, but the CASA on-campus dormitory is chock-full, with 24 students already on site. Where will the new 30 sleep? Cook and eat? Study? Their quarters must be ready for their August arrival, equipped with beds, sheets, stoves, refrigerators and all the household essentials. Most arrive with so little money that even having to buy a fork or spoon will stretch their already tight food budget.
The challenge of increased enrollment is welcome, but it raises other questions: Why this sudden influx? Why would enrollment double in one year?
Training midwives to serve rural areas is an idea whose time has come, not to the surprise of the CASA team. In 2000, Nadine Goodman, CASA’s founder said in the Wall Street Journal, “The professional midwife is the best option for accompanying women in their reproductive cycle.” Goodman recalls that in the eighties, a group of aging traditional midwives from rural areas in the state of Guanajuato approached CASA to seek instruction in advanced midwifery skills and to seek help for young women wanting to study professional midwifery. The midwives were generally elderly and most hadn’t completed primary school. Many were illiterate. Still, they were devoted to their communities. With this impetus, CASA’s course of study was devised, a curriculum that would later be compared favorably to similar training in Mexican medical schools.
Nevertheless, support from official sources was slow in coming. A spokesman for the Guanajuato health department publicly criticized the CASA vision as unworkable, since it demanded that midwives be recognized as professionals. “The idea that good, low-cost service could be provided by indigenous women without a college education really shook things up,” Goodman said.
The modernization of maternal care was well under way in Mexico by 2000: A vast web of rural clinics had been set up. The nation’s infant- and maternal-mortality rates had dropped sharply, and the use of contraceptives had soared nationally, cutting Mexico’s birth rate to 2.4 births per woman, down from 7.3 per woman in 1965. Unfortunately, modernization included soaring rates of Caesarean births and pressure for all women to give birth in the new clinics.
But in Mexico’s poorest regions, access to the clinics was limited by money, transportation and local custom. Moreover, few doctors or nurses wanted to live in rural areas and many village clinics were left unattended for months on end. Rodolfo Tuiran, a demographer who headed the government’s National Population Council, admitted that: “In many villages, we are where we were nationally 30 years ago.”
The CASA Midwifery School had opened its doors four years earlier (1996), embodying new ideals for maternal and family health. Since then, the CASA Midwifery School and Hospital has been cited by the World Health Organization, the United Nations and the International Confederation of Midwives as a successful and replicable model for the developing world.
More recently, the need for the CASA model was convincingly documented in a major governmental report, An Integrated Strategy for Reducing Maternal Deaths in Mexico (Centro Nacional de Equidad de Género y Salud Reproductiva, April 2009.) To lower high maternal mortality rates, a “new paradigm is necessary and urgent,” the report concludes. Although the Mexican Constitution guarantees the right of every citizen to health care, many barriers limit access to adequate care, according to the report. In the matter of maternal health, the barriers are especially high in three critical states—Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca. The new approach recommended by the report puts the woman and her family in charge of deciding where to give birth and what helpers should assist them. It respects local customs (for example, in what position to give birth) and it recommends training local staff wherever possible. This culturally sensitive approach is a pillar of the CASA program, which emphasizes listening to women and their famili
es as well as training young women to return to serve their communities whose culture and language they share.
The 30 new CASA students are the advance guard of a future army of midwives marching from their far-flung homes to study in San Miguel. Until now, enrollment has grown slowly: 38 graduates over 12 years. The new national emphasis in the cited report is a boost. The graduates who have returned to work as midwives in their communities encourage others to follow their path. This is why the corps is growing—this year at a dizzying pace.
Debora Clavé, Director of the Midwifery School, emphasizes that the midwives are often lonely, struggling, far from home, unused to rigorous study and unable to afford trips home for visits. The drop-out rate is high. Adequate housing is essential to supporting the students. She urges anyone in the community who has space available at a reasonable rent near the Santa Julia campus to contact CASA immediately. Furnishings of any kind for the new students or cash donations to buy the necessities also are needed. Call or email Development Director Cynthia Silva Villagran at 154-6090, or cs_villagran@hotmail.com.
Patricia Hirschl escaped from Indiana in 2001, and has been living and writing in San Miguel ever since.
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Nonprofit Conference on Excellence
Sustaining Communities through Philanthropy
Mon–Wed, Aug 3–5
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
400/500 pesos
We live here and we give here
By Dr. Cynthia E. Lynch
The San Miguel Project, in conjunction with the Biblioteca Pública, hosts the second annual Nonprofit Conference on Excellence. All nonprofit organizations are invited to register and participate in the three-day series of workshops.
This year’s conference is titled “We Live Here and We Give Here (Vivimos Aquí y Damos Aquí): Sustaining Communities through Philanthropy.” It is intended to celebrate and enhance the understanding of philanthropy. This signature anthem of The San Miguel Project salutes the dedication and drive of San Miguel’s nonprofit service sector. “From the board chair to the event volunteer, the spirit of the nonprofit community is what makes San Miguel a unique place to live,” said Ali Zerriffi of The San Miguel Project. “These people, especially within the expatriate community, sustain many of the nonprofit organizations here. This past year has seen deep economic difficulties for them as well as for Mexico. We hope this conference will help nonprofit organizations ride out the financial storms and work together to contribute even more toward serving the needs of the people of San Miguel.”
The conference is designed as a networking and educational platform. It is considered the largest annual gathering in San Miguel of nonprofit, foundation and corporate professionals, as well as nonprofit board members, consultants and volunteers. Like the annual Volunteer Fair sponsored by The San Miguel Project, the conference offers an opportunity to learn something new, meet someone new and find new inspiration. “Once again,” says Gregory Diamant, president of the Biblioteca board, “we are delighted to be hosting the annual Nonprofit Conference and hope that many organizations will attend. Relative to population, San Miguel arguably has the greatest concentration of nonprofit organizations in the world. We look forward to their continuing success, especially in these uncertain economic times, and to the increasing success of The San Miguel Project that aims to serve the entire nonprofit community through its annual events as well as other endeavors.”
This year’s conference has two distinct tracks. The first one is directed at Program Development and Implementation. We all have good ideas on what we think needs to be done, but how do we know we are making a difference? The second track focuses on Boards, Board Development and Fundraising.
The third day of the conference is dedicated to Grant Writing. It includes an orientation session on the new Foundation Center’s Cooperating Collections located in the reference area (English Room) of the Biblioteca. This satellite operation (the second in Mexico), offers two dedicated computers and printed directories provided by the New York-based Foundation Center. The collection includes a database covering 90,000 foundations that offer grants to organizations and a huge database of groups and organizations that offer grants to individuals, including students, artists, writers and researchers. The facility is open to everyone in San Miguel. The San Miguel Project provides financial support for its operation.
The cost to attend the conference is 500 pesos per person. Representatives from organizations that are members of The San Miguel Project pay 400 pesos. The fees cover two days of workshops, breakout sessions, lunch and the orientation program on August 5.
Program details, including guest speakers and workshop topics, appear in next week’s edition of Atención. The information also is accessible at www.thesanmiguelproject.org. Organizations wishing to become members (300 pesos a year) of The San Miguel Project should contact Ali Zerriffi at
azerriffi@yahoo.com.
Questions, conference registration information and inquiries about receiving further conference notices should be directed to Dr. Cynthia E. Lynch at
clynch@UTPA.edu, 514-5254 or (956) 467-5292 (Vonage).
Dr. Cynthia E. Lynch is a professor at the University of Texas-Pan American.
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UTPA Week
Art and Creative Writing Workshops
Mon–Fri, Jul 20–24, 9am–9pm
Sala Quetzal
US$600
Summer Lecture Series
Deciding Death: Living Wills
Tue, Jul 21, 9–10:30am
Bach: Greatest of Composers
Tue, Jul 21, 2–3:30pm
US Economy and International Markets
Wed, Jul 22, 9–10:30am
Chopin: Romantic Genius
Wed, Jul 22, 2–3:30pm
Health Disparities and Rising Costs
Thu, Jul 23, 9–10:30am
Economic Crisis and Retirement Accounts
Thu, Jul 23, 2–3:30pm
Sala Quetzal
180 pesos per lecture
UTPA concert
with university musicians
Fri, Jul 24, 7pm
Free
About the UTPA lecturers
By Sylvia Aldape
The University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) visit to San Miguel de Allende promises to be interesting. UTPA Week includes lectures, workshops and free musical performances offered by faculty and talented musicians.
Art and Creative Writing Workshops
Art Workshop: Reynaldo Santiago was born in Münchweiler an der Rodalb, Germany, but it was his parent’s small and mountainous hometown of Naranjito, Puerto Rico that provided the inspiration for many of the topics treated in his early art works—topics that have been revisited in paintings and serigraphs throughout his career. He pursued his graduate studies in printmaking, painting and ceramic-sculpture at Rochester Institute of Technology School for the American Craftsman in New York. Santiago has had numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the world and currently directs the MFA program at UTPA.
Creative Writing Workshop: Steven Schneider, a professor in the UTPA Department of English, also directs new programs and special projects for the College of Arts and Humanities. Schneider’s poems and essays have been published in Critical Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, Tikkun and The Literary Review. He was featured in American Life in Poetry; his new collection of poems is Unexpected Guests. Schneider received a BA from Syracuse University, and an MA and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa.
Summer Lecture Series
Philosophy: Dr. Cynthia Jones currently teaches philosophy at UTPA where she is the co-founder and co-director of PACE (Pan American Collaboration for Ethics in the Professions). Dr. Jones regularly offers ethics lectures to professional groups such as rehabilitation counselors and nurses. She also has lectured and published extensively in intelligence ethics, biomedical ethics, vegetarianism, lying and torture. She received a BA from Creighton University and Ph.D. from the University of Missouri.
Music: Dr. Peter Dabrowski says, “A true concert leaves the audience and musicians on the edge of their chairs,” and this conductor leads his concerts with that aim in mind. Full of magnetism, charisma and love for music, Dabrowski is devoted to his art. Described by critics as exceptionally talented, his artistic personality wins over audiences and musicians alike. Dabrowski is the music director and conductor of the Valley Symphony Orchestra and Chorale in Edinburg and the associate conductor of the Chicago Chamber Orchestra. He studied conducting at Northwestern University, the University of Utah and the Warsaw Music Conservatory in Poland.
Business: Dr. Teofilo Ozuna is the dean of the UTPA College of Business. He received his BS and Ph.D., both in agricultural economics, from Texas A&M University. Ozuna’s distinguished academic career includes positions at the Universidad de las Americas in Puebla, Mexico, Texas A&M University and ITESM in Monterrey, Mexico.
Musical performances
Mariachi Aztlan, a UTPA group that has won numerous national awards, performs throughout the week. The performances are free and are hosted at the Casa de la Cultura for children, as well as in a neighboring community and in the Jardín.
UTPA campus
Located 10 miles from the US/Mexico border in Edinburg, Texas, the UTPA campus has more than 17,000 students who are predominantly bicultural and bilingual. For more information about UTPA Week, go to www.utpa.edu/sma or call the UTPA office at (956) 381-3661. Tickets for the Summer Lecture Series are available at Teatro Santa Ana and all proceeds benefit the Biblioteca.
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