Refugees and Immigrants in Mexico Fight Stigma Through Cultural Education Mayela Sanchez - Global Press Institute
go to original April 20, 2013

Casa Refugiados aims to integrate refugees and immigrants into Mexican society through cultural awareness projects. (Mayela Sanchez/GPI)

MEXICO CITY – Ana Lucas Álvarez, 53, fled civil war in Guatemala 29 years ago and resettled as a refugee in Mexico City, Mexico’s capital. A member of the Quiché people, a Mayan ethnic group, she still speaks Spanish with difficulty after growing up speaking Quiché.

Language has been just one barrier Lucas has faced since she was forced to leave her country during its civil war from 1960 to 1996.

“It is very difficult,” Lucas says in her non-native Spanish. “You leave your place of origin. You leave your family. You left many things.”

Lucas remembers the exact date she arrived in Mexico – Feb. 10, 1984. She says she was fleeing state repression in Guatemala, which intensified in the 1980s against indigenous communities during the civil war between the government and leftist guerrilla insurgents.

“In the 1980s, the repression became stronger,” Lucas says. “If you want to save your life, we have to leave.”

She says she used to have to hide in the mountains by day, returning home only at night.

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