"This home is the only home some of us have"--translation of news story about the attack on Oaxaca's Home for the Protection of Young Women

This is an English translation of a story by Yuri Sosa that appeared in the Oaxaca newspaper Las Noticias on November 29, 2016. It personalizes the impact of the illegal attempt by the State Government, apparently at the urging of the Church, to evict the Home for the Protection of Young Women of Oaxaca from the building it has occupied for more than 40 years:

For Marcela Santiago Antonio, the Home for the Protection of Young Women of Oaxaca (a Civil Association) means a better future.

The young woman, from San Pedro Jicayan, on Oaxaca's coast, came to the City of Oaxaca, the State capital, at the age of 18, with the goal of studying towards a professional career. Thanks to the support that this organization provided, she has achieved her goal and is now a college graduate with a license in Intercultural Education.

"The only thing I ask is that they don't throw us out of this space; for some of us it's the only way we have to go forward," pleads Ms. Santiago Antonio, a few hours after the Monday pre-dawn raid by elements of the State Police with the intent of evicting the residents and staff of the shelter, located in the Historic Center of Oaxaca.

Since the young women still do not know how this attempt to evict them will end, they remain barricaded in the building.

Through a window beyond which can be seen one of the young women's rooms, Marcela caled for the authorities to allow the center to remain open.

If she had remained in her village, she would have had to end her studies after high school, the highest level of education available there. But one day the village doctor, who had come from the Capital, told her about the Home for the Protection of Young Women in Oaxaca, where she could stay while attending the university, she explained, surrounded by her companions.

"This is a safe place, where you meet other people with the same goal, which is to better ourselves," she said. "Here we're not alone; we're part of a group."

Marcela said that one of the goals the young women share is to spread the word about the existence of the shelter in the communities they come from, so that other young women can have the same chance to better themselves.

She is eternally grateful to the director and staff of the Home since she, at the age of 26, can still live there and be provided with the necessities of life.

"If the Home were to close, I don't know what I would do, where I could go," she said. "The doctor who helped me died six years ago." As she spoke, her companions indicated with their expressions that they would be in the same desperate situation.

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You can read more about these events at the following URLs:

http://viva-oaxaca.blogspot.mx/2016/11/chronicle-of-illegal-and-failed.html

http://viva-oaxaca.blogspot.mx/2016/11/cronica-de-un-desalojo-ilegal-y-fallido.html

http://viva-oaxaca.blogspot.mx/2016/11/church-and-state-vs-vulnerable-young.html