a house on the beach we were going to
all the holidays with my uncles my
cousins and among the cousins we organize
play the shows and we had to do
three teams one of them in the jury and
the other two we had to present a
show the jury and the team that won
the parents took us to the store
opposite and they gave us a minute to
choose all the sweets that we could
in that minute and it ‘s the prize and that was
my biggest concern in life to
the eight years of age that I’m going to
invent this holiday to earn me the
award of sweets and that is that as well
I could invent a different show and a
different character each occasion
so from my little one my dads
they taught that I could do what I
I would like in life and since I had
three years
they put me in kindergarten special school
after he studied the degree they converted
lawyer and today I’m studying a
expertise and that is that my family gave me
so much love and all the tools that
they allowed me to have confidence
to stand in front of all of you to
tell him his story but this is not the
lucky that runs the life of most
of the women who live in this country
and let me tell you the story of Maria
whom he met a few years ago abused
sexually by his stepfather since
I was eight years old with scars
of cigarette burns and abuse
in the arms and in the face
Maria tells you that since she was little
they taught him that the only way to
to make a living in this country was a
through crime and that’s why she
since he was little he was taught to go out
ask for money to the street and she tells you
that his mother told him digital among
what sad you put better and when the
person is distracted sticking his hand
bag what can happen to them running and
Maria’s biggest concern to the
eight years old was beating him
was going to put her mom and she did not get
that night
with the money they needed and after a
adolescence earning a living selling
your body because it’s for the only thing that
they taught that it was worth Mary knows something
similar to love in a hit man in a
member of organized crime
that offered him that protection that maría
I longed so much but that was also
matter of time when the police
will grab for his crimes committed and
also to maría to consider her his
accomplice maria gets to prison at 23
years and with two daughters that were left
homeless six months pregnant and 27
years of sentence to comply is
contrast not two women of the same
age living in the same country with
stories so different and I want that
help me or and raising my hand to all
those people who in a way
consciously chose in which family
born or want to attend or if
will attend the kindergarten nobody and is that the
most of the circumstances that
they forged that today we are who we are not
they depended on us but they were
opportunities that they gave us in life by
the simple fact of being born in certain
family or decrease in certain
circumstances and I began to understand
the importance of environments
family and the opportunities that you
give life or that you are given in life
the first time I met a
prisoner at 21 years of age and
I remember as if it was yesterday when I entered
at the feminine end in the state of mexico
and a lady who looks like
innocent
I had a very noble look and I thought that
what this lady could have done to
being here is seen so noble and I was
ask lady hear what you
crime accuses him by domicile
she answered me and I thought home
will have gotten to steal a house but not
It does not sound like this lady
there are houses then intrigued me so much that
I was asked custody because the
sir was there for murder
he answered me and that fact the fact that
a lady had more than 30 years of
prison and I had no idea why
what was there
it was something that really impressed me and this
visit aroused many questions in me
I wanted to know who those were
people where to come had children that
they did all day that was going to happen
when they went in and I started going with more
frequency to the prison as part of
this university project while the
law student and first of all
I discovered that our jails are
full of hundreds of marinas and joseph
xiv of pedrós that by circumstances of
life and most of them
intimately related to the environment
in which they grew up they ended up in
prison and that nobody is born being a
delinquent criminals is made
but well those people were in the
jail and I remember thinking what
go with your children and your mom or dad
they are in jail who take care of the
children whom they see as an example of
lifetime
there is a study that shows that if one
of the parents is in prison
the son or daughter has 70% of
more likely to end up in the
same circumstances as a child who
grew up away from the criminal environment and
this is worrisome if we consider
than more than 70 percent of the
people who are in prison have
economic dependents and the case of
85% women are nothing more and worse yet
there are more than 500 children living in
prison in the cell with their moms
and we have to understand that the
jail has a cost not only
monetary but social and very expensive
the state spends more than 13 billion
of pesos per year to maintain a system
penitentiary that far from functioning
generates more crime and that’s why
important to talk about the expensive
of the prison we love to see in the
news that they tell us we grab to the
band of the most dangerous raiders of the
country and we’re going to put 60 years
reclusory
first of all we do not even know if
those were really the assailants
because our justice system is
good is another subject but we love to see
that sends people to jail and gives us
same what happens next and we even say
not good that already grabs us are in
the jail then let me tell you something of
nothing is good for us
all the people to jail if that
jail not function
Did you know that more than 80 percent
of the extortion calls come from
prison
in just seven penalties of the 338 that
there are 5.5 million reported in a year
of calls for criminal purposes
then what is the use of closing
all these people and that is not going to prevent
continue to commit crimes and in that visit to
prison made me understand that if
we do not do anything to stop this
no one was going to do it and that the
insecurity in this country can not
resolve by isolating and separating
facing and attending to the causes
structural and psychological reasons
social and family issues that led to a
person act in a certain way and
for this reason I ventured and gave this
word because it has really been a
adventure to create a project with some
friends of the race that today are my
members that is called the cane in order
to carry productive activities to
prison and that these people achieve a
effective reintegration process and
we decided to start by attacking the
need that at that time we saw more
urgent that was the economic because I
I remember that I was very shocked to know
that everything costs in jail from the
salt and hot water the food that does not
they mistreat you that they let enter your
family to see you and we saw that many
women already knew how to weave and we thought good
It’s just a matter of bringing a design one
little bit more commercial
is the material that they do here not
we sell and we give them the money and good
there were many failed attempts the curve
of learning was much greater both
for the inmates as bread as for
we bring you a design
it was fatal and we brought you this hunger
and they stole it or they resold it they use it
to barter to exchange
favors or we leave you material for
make rabbit stuffed bears
we got to see that they had knitted
new sweaters with our tambre
I was very motivated at a point of
that things are not coming out like
we had planned and we wanted to help
but we could not and a lady had
made an order and for the first time that
lady was neither more nor nothing and my aunt
nobody from the people who buy you
because it gives you tenderness but a client of
true and I had lost 50 teddy bears
stuffed to use them as for those of
fotis or his daughter and I arrived at
prisoner and I told them I need you to
make 50 cuddly quotes for the
Friday because Saturday is the baptism
of this girl and her parents decide better
resell the material to become a
sweater for the last time I go to
come because I’m already sick of it
I’m trying to help myself in that
I had a job and it goes on Saturdays
I did not have to be doing there and I
I said no good without you make me
well it ‘s the last time we’re going to
see and I went expecting the worst and when
come back the next Friday I
encounter with 1,050 teddy bears
perfectly aligned in the
door of the prison and gave me a lot
I was very happy and well
I told them, I’m leaving, I need
take the baptism flights to the sra
thank you very much and they told me today aninoto
the filling
I do not because it did not reach them I know I’m
seeing that there are 50 teddy bears
and they tell me we did not have to grab
filling our pillows for
fill the bears and now we do not have
pillow and that gave me great pleasure
obviously not the fact that he stays
at the end
and then I learned to calculate the
materialism I’m going to happen but that
demonstrated the commitment that they had
with me and that were willing to
run out of pillows in a place of
so much discomfort to avoid that
we left and that is and we continue
giving them chamba and that fact made
this project grab a lot of strength and
we managed to surround ourselves with an extraordinary
work team not only of the
partners but of the inmates of the
people who work with us and from
the volunteers who are people who
works with the heart and that’s why this
project has had such results
pretty and I want to show you some of
the wonders that today do in the three
penalties in which we work today the
channel has managed to provide employment for more than
250 women in prison and ten women
that they already obtained their freedom and that
they are still working with us
away from crime and we gave ourselves
mind that he just gave chamba was not
enough to break these circles
vicious of recidivism and
crime and we put workshops
complementary topics in psychology
education art and culture and sport
today the inmates are not only going to
work but they take workshops
art therapy individual therapy
group therapy
meditation yoga writing reading
drafting
but more importantly we have managed to create
strong women empowered women
women who today say no more
I do not want to go back to what I was before
I do not want to be what I was before
today I can move my family forward
alone and today I can sun
I remember an internal the most rebellious
all that every time I reached the
measure me or you are not in me
your things I’m going to leave here and I’m going to
keep stealing portfolios which is what
there are
before because I tried to work and I
It was fatal and not enough for the
my daughter’s milk
then I’m going out to steal purses
and I remember that my first reaction was
ask him hey what mall
red gave not to go through there but it ‘s
that is the subject that the victims can
be any of us and then to
this woman
I said good because you do not get into
weaving workshop and you have much good
what to do
it’s going to happen faster
that you are here and that they go out to steal
wallets again my son goes today that
internal is what enables the others and
he gives them weaving classes
but not only that, he started to like the
reading in one of our workshops
reading and now works in the library
of the prison and they teach others to read
and recommends books depending on the
state of mind and who is and of
what they need emotionally in that
moment and that same woman
a few months ago he approached me with
tears in his eyes and he told me that
I was very happy because for the first
his daughter had told him when I was
great I want to be like you
and that because if I’m here he said
because I want to learn how to knit things
as beautiful as the ones you make and
sell them to my friends I’ve done
showed that that girl no longer sees her mom
like someone who is in jail but
who sees her as someone who is an example
to follow someone to whom you aspire
do if someone who with their hands create
products full of humor and is that you are
people are also part of our
society
the earthquake of September 19 that all
we suffer like Mexicans
the inmates were very desperate
because they did not know how they could help
from inside they felt a lot of impotence
of not knowing what was happening and when
I went to visit her
a few days later they had created
this
to frida the dog rescuer of those who
we all fell in love and they said no
they arrive and why not better
we sell these losses and with what
We collect what we donated to the victims of
earthquake and so we help and I told them goes and with
those same hands that some good
they hurt this society with those
same hands
we managed to raise enough funds
to donate five houses to families that are
had been left homeless by the quake
then why not better
we knocked down those mental walls that
we have and those stigmas and we understand that
these people are also part of
our society and that if we do not
we give the tools so that they can
build a better future
this country is not going to change and that
guarantee opportunities not
only for an effective reinsertion
but so that people have a better
quality of life
It is an issue that goes beyond charity
if you want to see it in a very cold way it ‘s
a need that we have as a society
if we want tomorrow
our children go for a walk
freely through the streets without fear
that they can be victims of the
delinquency
there is a phrase of dostoievski that
I really like what it says if you want to know
a society visits their prisons
I ask him what kind of society
we want to be
thank you very much
[Applause]
3
”
Be First to Comment