The wound and the mend
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Dates2021 - Ongoing
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Author
- Locations Guerrero, Oaxaca
The Costa Chica of Guerrero has historically been characterized by intense processes of struggle and community organization. Indigenous and Afro-Mexican women who share this territory, have been a fundamental part of these movements, building both from mixed organizations and from their own spaces for reflection and strengthening.
There are two problems that directly affect the health and integrity of women, these are pregnancies of girls and adolescents, and maternal death. This situation is due to various factors such as cultural practices rooted in machismo that violate women's bodies, the marginalization in which vulnerable groups in the region live and the poor health infrastructure of the state, among others. In this sense, traditional midwives together with activists in the region play a very important role to make visible and lessen the consequences of this situation.
In this project I follow the stories of different women who wanted to share a part of their lives with me. They have been mending their wounds through resistance and the struggles they undertake every day to improve their own lives and those of their community, regardless of which social or ethnic group they belong to. Likewise, through ancestral knowledge such as midwifery and the use of healing plants that their indigenous and Afro-descendant grandmothers inherited from them and that represent respect for memory and self-management of health.