Anahí and I hope that the readers of this blog strive to be responsible travelers. We recognize that there are many issues involved, including economics, (U.S. and E.U.) foreign policy, the environment, and cultural relativism, to name a few. Therefore, I’d like to introduce a new series of articles about responsible tourism and what it means to be a responsible tourist. We’ll discuss different issues and ways that you can plan your traveling, modify your behavior, and get involved in becoming a more ethical tourist. Because our focus is queer women travelers, this articles will mostly be from a queer and feminist perspective.
This first article is about giving back to the communities you visit. Anyone who has travelled in Mexico knows that (mostly indigenous) women begging and children selling gum and trinkets on the street are far too common a sight. I myself have often weighed the pros and cons of giving money to women and children on the street, and about ways of using my economic privilege as an American to help improve the lives of Mexican women and children. The question is: how?
In reading the feedback to this post I wrote on Feministe about responsible traveling, I found one comment particularly astute and helpful. In response to my suggestion that aggressive haggling is unnecessary given the economic disparity between (foreign tourist) buyer and (local) seller, semi-anonymous commenter “aram” (comment #27) wisely writes:
The problem with not haggling, or with accepting enormous tourist premiums on prices, is that it distorts behavior. So all the taxis will hang around the tourist hotels, sitting idle 90% of the time in the hopes of one big fare, instead of serving the whole city. Or people will quit low-paid jobs as teachers and engineers to become tour guides.
I know it sucks to quibble over pennies with people who are far poorer, but why should the beneficiary of your generosity be the same person who is selling you something in the market? If you instead give your money to a clinic for the poor then you give people incentives to work as nurses and doctors, which is probably more socially beneficial than paying them to learn how to chat up tourists.
The problem is that you can’t help the person right in front of you, who w/o your business isn’t going to immediately retrain to do something outside the tourist sector. But you should feel just as much obligation to the poor people that you don’t see, especially if you can help them in a way which is overall better for their society.
This comment, as well as the writings of other bloggers such as Saorla at “Foreign Affairs” about why you should never buy things from children on the street, has pushed me to publish a list of places you responsibly give your money to help improve the lives of women and children in Mexico. This batch of worthy organizations all focus on women’s health and reproductive rights. We will post links and contact information for other good causes with different focuses in future posts.
Foto by Adolfo Pi
But first, a short history of legal abortion in Mexico City…
In April of 2007, Mexico City legalized abortion during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, making it the only municipality in Mexico to legalize first-trimester abortion without restrictions. Mexico’s Supreme Court spent the last few weeks debating whether Mexico City’s law was constitutional, and on August 28th ruled to uphold Mexico City’s law.
While this is an important victory, there are still many obstacles to reproductive freedom, even in Mexico City. Anti-choice activists are proposing a referrendum in Mexico City for residents to vote on the law, which will be a hard battle for pro-choicers in the coming months. And, of course, there are the women in the rest of the country who still lack access to legal abortion. According to government estimates, more than 110,000 women get illegal abortions every year in Mexico, although activists say that this number could be higher than 500,000.
Consider giving money to one of these organizations fighting to make abortion safe and legal for women throughout Mexico.
Mexfam: Fundación Mexicana para la Planeación Familiar
The mission of this not-for-profit is “to provide quality, cutting-edge services in family planning, health, and sex education, prioritizing populations that are most at-risk in Mexico: youth and the poor, in both urban and rural areas.” Although their headquarters are in Mexico City, scope of their campaigns include all of Mexico, including rural areas where access to contraception is limited and there are many barriers to reproductive choice. Mexfam is also involved in the fight to pass laws protecting the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS as well as the struggle for access to quality medical care for HIV postive people.
Mexfam has clinics all over Mexico, included six in the greater Mexico City area, and macha friends have told me that the clinics are gay-friendly and that lots of lesbians go there for their women’s health needs.
You can make a donation using PayPal or a wire transfer here.
Red Latinoamericana de Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir
The link above leads to the (Spanish language) website of the Latin American Network of Catholics for the Right to Choose, which is composed of sister organizations from Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and Colombia.
CDD is a partner organization of the U.S. based group Catholics for choice, which describes the work of CDD Mexico as follows:
Since 1994, Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir in Mexico-an organization committed to women’s empowerment and rights-has engaged in educational efforts that offer the progressive church community, policy-makers, legislators, health providers, educators, opinion leaders, women’s rights advocates and the general public, liberating Catholic positions on sexuality and reproductive health, gender and the rights of Catholics to make decisions based on their conscience. In a predominantly Catholic country such as Mexico, CDD’s contributions to public debates are particularly important since they reflect the diversity of perspectives that exist within Catholicism, especially on the topics of reproductive rights, sexuality, and women’s roles.
As an independent Catholic non-governmental organization (NGO) skilled in public education and advocacy, Católicas helps to bring these perspectives to public debates on democracy, gender equity, health and reproductive rights, drawing on its principles of individual conscience, Catholic social justice, women’s rights and democratic pluralism.
To contact the Mexico branch of CDD, follow the contact information here, or e-mail cddmx@cddmx.org.
ELIGE Youth Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights
This Mexico City based organization’s mission is to empower young people by promoting and defending their sexual and reproductive rights. They believe that youth deserve the rights of full citizenship and seek to educate young people about those rights as well as to get them involved in feminism and reproductive rights activism. They offer “cursos de verano” (summer classes) for young people about feminism, youth empowerment, and sexual health. They also create opportunies for young people to get involved in the process of lobbying government about reproductive rights.
You can contact them through their website or by e-mail at elige@prodigy.net.mx.