Martha Patricia Pimentel García

Patricia Pimentel has found a way of helping rural Mexican women to create community-based businesses that give them a livelihood while also affirming their self-esteem and improving their social status.

Changes in Mexico's rural economy are making women critical resources for the community, yet many women are unable or unprepared to respond. Patricia understands that rural women who want to improve their lives require more than simple job training: they need basic education and self-confidence. She has founded Citlamina, an organization devoted to helping women become economically independent community members. Her approach is unique in focusing on the community's physical center as a beginning point. Rural communities so lack infrastructure that few have a school building or other large structure in which to meet. Concluding that efforts such as hers would have to begin not with services but with constructing a place in which the services could be offered, Patricia has made a virtue out of necessity by using the center's construction to engage members of the community in a common effort. While her organization donates materials for construction, the community donates land and labor, which gives local residents ownership of the project and makes them more likely to participate.

The migration of men to big cities has left some areas of rural Mexico with only young boys and older men. The women, once relegated to the home, are cultivating fields that only men once worked, and are becoming family breadwinners and critically important workers in the local economy. The financial and social changes, however, have also increased the number of women and children facing extreme poverty. Rural and indigenous women have very low levels of schooling: a third of them are illiterate. Indigenous women have the highest mortality rates in the nation, owing mainly to unsafe birthing practices and preventable infectious diseases. Indigenous women typically cannot obtain a foothold in the economy because of social stereotypes, pressure from husbands, and the lack of skills to succeed in the marketplace.

While projects aimed at the development of rural and indigenous women were started as early as the 1950s, most failed because they trained women for unprofitable or nonexistent jobs or, more importantly, did not take into account the special circumstances of women workers. Not one provided day care or considered that most women workers remain the primary caretaker at home as well. The lack of infant and child care options reinforced traditional social practices and kept women from effectively participating in the market economy.

Patricia's approach helps the citizens construct community centers and then establish services in a three-step process. First is the development of a community business run by local women and the provision of sufficient training and long-term support to insure success. Second is establishment of a preschool for children from birth to age six, and third is creation of an educational program for children, teen, and adult women. The center houses a school and preschool or daycare center, as well as the collective enterprise, be it a bakery, a tortilla shop, or a clothes-making business. Mothers who attend training sessions but would never agree to leaving their children in a daycare center are comfortable bringing them to the community center, where the children are not only close to their mothers but can also receive the benefit of early development education.

The center's training begins with basic education, self-confidence, business options, and assistance in deciding on a cooperative business. The next phase includes development of the business idea, preparation of financial details, management, and product development. Several women also receive training in administering the daycare center and providing the other education programs housed in the center.

The program provides support throughout the business development process, which may span three to four years, until the women can operate on their own. Citlamina's community trainers, referred to as Promoters, actually live in the community with their clients for the duration of their training and support services. The Promoters typically come from the same region, but volunteer to move into the community in which they provide training and education. They come to know their clients and the community intimately. Promoters are able to communicate easily with Patricia to request assistance for needs beyond their competence.

Citlamina operates in six communities in the state of Mexico as well as nine communities in the state of Oaxaca. To date, it has reached three hundred women and fourteen hundred children. Funding is not a long-term concern. Patricia can often obtain donated construction materials, and the communities themselves provide the land and labor. The Promoters receive full-time salaries while living in the project communities. As each local business begins operations, its profits are used to pay for building maintenance, programs, and, if possible, a subsidy payment to Citlamina.

Patricia expects that her program will grow quickly once her developing network reaches a critical level. She wants to expand to three sites in the state of Mexico and seven more in Oaxaca. Only sites that have applied for Citlamina's program are chosen. Notably, it is usually the local authorities that send in these applications. Her strategy is to always work with the local authorities first, i.e. a group of two to five people elected by each indigenous community and recognized by the government as their official representative.

Patricia Pimentel attended school with the support of her mother and without her father's knowledge, since he was completely opposed to the education of women. This experience marked Patricia for life and has been an important factor in her own development and her desire to create programs that enable women and children to become self-sufficient. Patricia has always understood that men and women have different positions and privileges in Mexican society, especially in rural and indigenous communities.

Before she turned eighteen, Patricia worked in small communities in Chiapas, where she became aware of the plight of native women and children. She quickly realized that the programs in the area were aimed at providing temporary assistance and not at empowering the vulnerable. This realization eventually led her in 1987 to create UCIEP, a citizen organization devoted to improving the social development of rural and indigenous communities.