Many women migrate to Mexico for labor issues, some seek to improve their economic situation and others are rather trapped by the magnetism of the Mexicans. This is the story of three migrant women who arrived in the country for different reasons, but all looking for a better quality of life.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, at the end of 2022, 136,080 foreign women with “irregular immigration status” were registered in Mexico, 91,017 foreign women obtained permission to settle in Mexico temporarily or permanently, and a total of 9,578 obtained permanent residence as refugees.
Fight to get your kids back
After a month of facing dangerous and unknown routes, she arrived in Mexico and her children were taken from her. It is the anguishing story of Maira Alejandra Gelviz, who left Venezuela for the United States and faced the cruelty of the Mexican territory.
She left the state of Zulia, Venezuela, with her three little ones with whom she faced dangerous journeys, such as riding a boat at night, walking along paths with deep abysses, and sleeping in a tent as the only refuge. All this implied that they threw away all her belongings and traveled only with documents, cell phones, in order to reduce the weight.
Maira hasn’t seen her children for a long time. They were taken from them in Mexico City. Some subjects got out of two white vehicles, saying they were immigration, but they did not identify themselves at any time. She filed a kidnapping lawsuit with the Prosecutor’s Office, which, according to what they told her, found her three little ones and took them to the DIF.
Maira asks the Mexican government to return them to her, to continue on her way and forget about the nightmare she has lived on this land.
He left the desk and now the kitchen is his forte
Colombian Olga Beatriz Gómez arrived in Mexico as an accountant for a multinational. Due to the functions that she carried out in said company, she had to travel between the two countries with some frequency. But the company changed ownership and she didn’t feel comfortable with the new bosses, so she resigned. After three years, she decided to settle in Mexico and find a livelihood.
She took advantage of the knowledge she had about Colombian cuisine and wanted to keep the memory of her country alive, so she decided to open a restaurant with the culinary experience she inherited from her grandmother. Hence the name: Sabores y Tradiciones de la Abuela.
“For the Colombian (the restaurant) it is like a little piece of land because that has been the most beautiful thing, finding people with whom I have had the opportunity to share, helping them. Also showing the natives that there are many similarities in our gastronomy because we eat the same thing: rice, beans, corn, but prepared in a different way, which tastes different but is of the same origin”, says Olga.
The restaurant is located at Patricio Sanz 403, Del Valle, in Mexico City. Not only Colombian clients go, it is also frequented by many Mexicans and tourists who want to know a little about Colombia or who are attracted by its color, or by the almojábanas (baked cheese and flour cake) and buñuelos (flour, cheese and egg balls that are fry in hot oil).
Olga is very intrigued by Mexicans because of their love for their country and the way they celebrate September 15, because families get together as if it were Christmas.
Love was elusive, but she fell in love with a Mexican
Lida Isabel Montana Cárdenas arrived in Mexico a year ago to learn about its culture. She fell in love with a Mexican and that is why she decided to settle in the capital. She found a job at a cell phone store, Monday through Saturday.
The issue of food has not been easy. “Food has given me hard, there are flavors that I am not used to, I prefer Colombian food, I try to cook a lot of soups, lentils, rice and plantains that we Colombians like very much (…) (but) I cook with what that I find in the market and I try to make the meals very similar to what is eaten in my land”, he shares.
Communication with Mexicans has not been so easy either. He considers that some are “a bit fast” and many times he does not understand some terms, such as “pistear”, “winds”, “vato” and “morra”.
In his work he has had the opportunity to talk with different types of clients, for this reason he already has his own theory of Mexicans, he considers that women are hard workers and fighters and that men are very attached to their mothers and die to have a girlfriend. or a Colombian friend, they are also chivalrous and very detailed.
She enjoys frequenting the Plaza de la Constitución (Zócalo), the Ángel de la Independencia, the trajineras of Xochimilco and the Basilica of Guadalupe because she is a faithful devotee of this Virgin. However, she would like Mexico to be a little safer, as her phone has been stolen on several occasions. Even so, she feels comfortable, has a job and is in love. She hopes to find a future in this capital, where she has all her hopes.
Reasons to settle in the country
According to the temporary immigration category of the report of the Ministry of the Interior, in 2022, 38.2% of foreign women requested temporary residence for family matters, 22.3% for work and 14.2% to study. In 2022, 9,578 women obtained permanent residence as refugees and they come mainly from Honduras, Venezuela and El Salvador.
In Mexico, in 2022, the following were registered:
- 136,080 foreign women in “irregular immigration status”
- 34.1% more than the previous year’s record
- 30,781 women with “irregular immigration status” are under 18 years of age
- 91,017 women obtained permission to file temporarily or permanently
- 48.4% of them obtained a Visitor Card for Humanitarian Reasons
