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Camila Fagen Guitron Word Count: 1307 HYPERLINK "mailto:camila_fagenguitron@emerson.edu" camila_fagenguitron@emerson.eduFirst North American Serial Rights(619) 816 87-48Women for EmpowermentMayte Cuahutle Avalos, 46, walks around her kitchen in workout clothes as she prepares different pies to sell during Thanksgiving. She is, among many things, the founder of “Mujeres Migrantes Sembradoras de Sue?os” (Migrant Women Sowers of Dreams), a group that helps migrant women produce and sell their embroidery.?Her journey to founding this association was a long one, with many professions in between. She was born and raised in Tlaxcala, Mexico. Later in life she moved to Mexico City to study military infirmary. She originally wanted to be a graphic designer, but this career was only offered in private institutions at the time. Not being able to afford it, she joined the army school where she studied and worked for nine years as a military nurse. This allowed her to study graphic design during the days while she worked during the nights. After she decided to go into culinary school. “I studied it because I realized that my husband loved to eat,” she says laughing. “But also because I wanted to be independent and be able to make my own money without having to depend on an office.”Cuahutle moved to Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico in 2007. Her husband, who was still in the army, was born in Ensenada and had always wanted to return and be close to his family. “So we all moved to Ensenada,” she says as she pours heavy cream into a mixer. “I’m also a migrant.”?While she lived in Mexico City, she frequented the Otomi indigenous communities. There she realized the disadvantages that they lived in and how it was especially hard for the women. “They wash by hand, embroider, and have to walk miles to get water and wood to cook with. On top of this, they usually have abusive and alcoholic husbands,” Cuahutle says without stopping the pie-making process. She wanted to keep supporting indigenous communities after moving away from Mexico City, and she realized that a lot of the indigenous people in Ensenada are the same indigenous people from Mexico City who migrated to work on the field.?She first got involved in raising money so that the schools would have funds to give the migrant children breakfast. These schools have a special system created for migrant children. “They move constantly with their families chasing after jobs,” she says. “So, they could arrive at one school on a Tuesday morning, leave a few weeks after on a Wednesday night when the working season is over, and arrive at another school on a Friday, and the schools have to take them in any day.” Because the parents have to leave early in the morning to work on the field and don’t come back home until late in the afternoon, kids usually don’t get breakfast. “I started raising money for the schools so the kids could eat, and because the schools lack…everything,” Cuahutle says. “And that’s how I met the mothers.”Even after working 10-hour days on the field, these women were still eager to work. [They] have a traditional style of embroidery, but the tradition was being lost in the community. Because of this, Cuahutle decided to found the Migrant Women Sowers of Dreams association. In this association, Cuahutle’s job is to go to these communities to pick up the embroidery the women work in their homes. After giving the pieces a few final touches, packing them up and selling them, she returns and gives the money earned back to the women that worked in the embroidery. This association helps preserve the tradition and also helps the women of these migrant indigenous communities have extra income. “We also want to give these women a sense of support,” says Cuahutle. “Make them feel appreciated and important.”The association’s philosophy is fair pay for their embroidery, while also trying to make the women feel proud of what they do, giving education and support on health topics while also respecting their beliefs. “We all get together and I try to talk to them about health and other issues in a low-key way,” she says, speaking a little louder over the sound of mixers.???Cuahutle has had similar revealing experiences with the women that do embroidery. One of them was with Maria Garcia. She used to go to the meetings when she was in town for the summer season, but one time she had to leave unexpectedly and Cuahutle didn’t have a chance to give Garcia the money for her embroidery. “She knew that no matter what that we would save her money for her and that she would have a job for when she came back,” Cuahutle says. But even when she came back to the city the next summer she did not come back to the association. “Her husband didn’t let her come back,” Cuahutle says. “He realized how happy she was with us and that she was making extra money, and he believed that as a woman she did not have that right. Luckily her cousin was also in the association and we convinced her to talk to him. After a while, we convinced him that we weren’t doing anything bad and that the money would help them. Eventually, he let her come back with us.”Cuahutle realized that she was not only supporting these women economically but also emotionally. “Maria Vazquez…a lot of them are called Maria,” she says with a small laugh, “she has seven kids and a drug addict and alcoholic husband. But when she is working with us, she is always happy and smiling. They all laugh all the time.”Melisa Cabello Cuahutle, 20, Cuahutle’s oldest daughter, accompanies her mother to the communities from time to time. She was shocked to see how different and difficult the lives of these women can be. “I remember when I went when I was around 12 years old. There was a girl slightly younger than me and she had just had a baby,” says Cabello. “Her name was Lucy.”?Cuahutle’s dream is to be able to have their own place where they can all get together to work. “I wish they could all just do their embroidery and go back home to their families, but for that, we need an infrastructure we don’t have now,” she says. Cuahutle also wishes to be able to help the indigenous communities from her hometown in Tlaxcala. Indigenous women in Tlaxcala work on handmade wool, “I want to buy the wool from them and then bring it here so we can do some embroidery on it and sell them as handbags, that way I can help both communities,” she says.Because of the current Honduran immigrant crisis, uncertainty has arisen in the indigenous migrant communities in Ensenada. “It’s getting worse every day for the people in Honduras,” says Cuahutle, “most of them will probably never make it to the US, and they can’t go back either…or most won't. So, they’ll probably come here. Work is already hard to find, and they don’t get paid much. I think what the association is doing to try and help these communities is more important than ever.”Cuahutle reflects for a moment while she pulls pie crusts from the oven and fillings from the fridge. “Making them happy is the ultimate goal,” she says, spreading banana filling over a pie crust. “I know that I’m not going to change their socioeconomic status or help them no longer need to work on the field. But it makes them happy for a few hours and for now that is enough.”Sidebar - Where to Support “Mujeres Migrantes Sembradoras de Sue?os”If you are interested in making a donation towards the association of purchasing a piece of embroidery you can do so by going to their Facebook page at @BordadorasMigrates or . You can also contact maytetlx@.mx and maria@ ................
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