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Battling the psychology of fear in Mexican town of Anapra
Many of the hundreds of local women murdered in the past 15 years hail from this border town, one of the most violent and marginalised communities in Mexico.
- The Christian Science Monitor
- Published: 00:04 June 28, 2008
Anapra, Mexico: Life in Anapra has never been easy.
Many of the hundreds of local women murdered in the past 15 years hail from this border town, one of the most violent and marginalised communities in Mexico.
And while international attention on the "femicides" abates, the psychology of fear, the cycle of poverty, and a stubborn macho culture are now stirred by a wave of drug-trafficking violence in nearby Ciudad Juarez.
It's in this atmosphere that Linabel Sarlat, a slight woman with boundless energy, works to bring economic and spiritual renewal to the women of this gruff, grey desert community.
The former nun is the first to concede that her group - which calls itself "The Ants" - is not revolutionary. But the name itself, she says, reflects their deliberate approach to the enormous task.
"Against hopelessness, there is always hope; there are always spaces of hope," says Sarlat, driving around Anapra in a white pickup truck. "And our goal is that the women pick themselves up, and with a clear heart, we create a new social fabric of equality."
Amelia Gomez says that for years she felt spiritually dead - from the moment she believed she was about to be killed until she heard about the "The Ants".
Gomez - whose name has been changed to protect her identity since not even her family knows of her ordeal - moved to Ciudad Juarez 12 years ago, at the height of the femicides.
Her husband, like so many in the community, blamed the victims themselves: their supposedly provocative clothes and flirting eyes.
So, seven years ago, after she was picked up for her night shift at an electronic parts factory, when the bus driver drove her up a deserted road of Anapra, pulled her out of the bus, and raped her - a pattern that fit the profile of so many murders she had heard about - she never told anyone, not even her husband. "I want to tell him," says Gomez. "But instead of understanding me, he'll blame me."
She never reported the crime. She quit her job. She could barely care for her children. And then someone told her about a new therapy group, a notion she'd never even heard of.
Tepid at first, she has since become a leader within the group and enrolled in high school classes with dreams of becoming a psychologist.
Simply sharing her story - and hearing so many others just like her own - is what has given her strength to move forward.
"Here I can express myself as I am," she says. "I truly feel like I am a miracle."
The group has helped women set up a small day-care centre and restaurant.
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