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Prometeo Lucero

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12 images Created 28 Apr 2013

Discrimination and disease in La Montaña

In summer 2008, Maurilia was not strong enough to walk and spoke a disjointed speech between spanish and tu'un savi (mixtec indigenous language) while she was biting her fingers. She seemed to have lost the notion about time and space. She was born in november 12th, 1982, with the help of a midwife and studied until middle school, leaving studies to help her mother and her brother with the farm work.

In 2002, at 19 years old, she started suffering strong headaches and coughing up of blood. She later started to hallucinate and stopped eating. In 2003, her health had deteriorated. She was not attended by a medic, because there are no services avaible in her community. But her mother tried everything she could, even sold a plot of land to raise some money to for medicine. Her brother, migrant day laborer, spents almost all his time working in the north of the country and earns only enough for the everyday life.

Not being helped anywhere, her family, in desperation, tied a rope around his neck, when Maurilia became uncontrollably aggresive. On day she stayed walking around a tree or seated in the floor. On night, of when raining, she covered under a 'tapanco' (loft) made with wooden sticks. Her mental problems grew up.

Costilla del Cerro is located between the mountain range in the southern state of Guerrero. The region, known as “La Montaña” holds some of the poorest municipalities in all Mexico and, according to the Human Development Index issued by the United Nations in 2009, the human living conditions are comparable as the same in Subsaharian Africa nations. People there live by the harvest of beans, corn, chile and quelites and ofter emigrate to work in the fertile fields in the north of the country or to the United States, due to the ground infertility. Some people subsist on the harvest of poppy.

Maurilia´s story fullfills the discrimination in Mexico. Because of being woman, indigenous, poor and with mental problems. Due to the difficult context of violence in the region, it is still unknown if Maurilia is still alive.

These pictures form part of the exhibition “Mujeres campesinas, mujeres indígenas, defensoras ignoradas” by Amnesty International office in Mexico 3 years after they were taken for Tlachinollan Human Rights Center.
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  • Costilla del Cerro community in La Montaña range of Guerrero. People live of the harvest of corn, beans, quelites and chile and often migrate to work in the north of Mexico or the United States.  (Prometeo Lucero)
    Discrimination and disease in La Montaña
  • After a progressive deterioration, Maurilia was tied with a rope around her neck next to a tree when she got aggressive. .  (Prometeo Lucero)
    Discrimination and disease in La Montaña
  • A girl looks inside the kitchen in Maurilia´s home.  (Prometeo Lucero)
    Discrimination and disease in La Montaña
  • The 'tapanco' (loft) made with branches where Maurilia slept or keeped her away from the rain.  (Prometeo Lucero)
    Discrimination and disease in La Montaña
  • People look the passing of an ambulance that was assigned to pick Maurilia and take her into the nearest hospital, almost 4 hours away. Some said it was the first time ever they saw a vehicle like this.  (Prometeo Lucero)
    Discrimination and disease in La Montaña
  • Maurilia´s mother looks thoughtfully the arrival of the ambulance in the entrance of the community..  (Prometeo Lucero)
    Discrimination and disease in La Montaña
  • Maurilia is put in a stretcher inside the ambulance.  Prometeo Lucero)
    Discrimination and disease in La Montaña
  • Maurilia´s mother looks at the window of the ambulance. Although her efforts, she didn´t find help in due time.  (Prometeo Lucero)
    Discrimination and disease in La Montaña
  • Agustín, 11 years old, even his age, seems like 6, because he suffers from stunted growth.  (Prometeo Lucero)
    Discrimination and disease in La Montaña
  • Children sit in a step next to a door. Agustín (first plane, left) and his cousin (third) are unable to walk or to talk and are highly sensitive to sun radiation.  (Prometeo Lucero)
    Discrimination and disease in La Montaña
  • A woman holds her son, who has stains in his face. She thinks the baby can aquire the same symptoms that the other children.  (Prometeo Lucero)
    Discrimination and disease in La Montaña
  • In Tlapa, the main municipality of La Montaña region, and where is located the only hospital, it is usual that women and children sleep in the floor waiting for their turn to be attended, sometimes in the street. Even health is a public service, patients say they are often asked for money.   (Prometeo Lucero)
    Discrimination and disease in La Montaña