The Inspiration

Trafficking Survivors, the Inspiration 

Here I offer you the story of just one of the survivors of trafficking who influenced my work in Mexico...

I met Claudia* through Mexican Congresswoman Rosi Orozco and Fundación Reintegra while carrying out research for my Master's dissertation. Claudia bravely and eloquently gave an account of her experience of trafficking.

She had been living in America (USA) with her mother for eight years, but when she finished studying and decided to work she realised that she had been living there illegally and would not be able to find a job there. Having no other choice, she decided to travel back to Mexico alone in order to find work. When she was in her late teens she moved back to Mexico City (DF) to live with her grandmother and sister.

Not sure of where to begin searching for work, she saw a well-dressed man walking in central DF who actually approached her, offering her a job in a restaurant. He took her to the restaurant to show her where should would be working and bought her whiskey. She was impressed by the tour, seeing the rooms and all the tables, as well as of the treatment she was receiving. She was given more alcohol – tequila, and quickly began to feel strange, dizzy. She remembers El Capitan (the big boss) taking her to the VIP area and helping her to walk, as she was unable to do so alone. She didn’t know what ‘VIP’ was or understand any of the Mexican slang, having lived in America for most of her adolescence, but it seemed glamorous.

She was unable to concentrate properly and she soon realised that El Capitan was touching her and attempting to kiss her, so she feebly tried to push him away. Following this she remembered falling asleep and waking up to another man trying to kiss her. She pushed him away to see his face. She couldn’t remember much immediately after but she woke up in a hotel room without her clothes, with the man who had abused her.

She was scared but tried to act normally. She asked him to let her go or to call her a taxi. He drove her himself and asked for her address, she realised her phone and purse were missing so there was no point lying as he would already know. She asked him how much he had paid for her and he said “nothing” because he was “testing the merchandise”. He took her home.

For some reason (I’m not sure exactly why as there was understandably more emotion in her voice by this point and I daren’t ask her to repeat as she was clearly distressed) she ended up back at the restaurant.

From this point in the conversation she stopped going into so much detail but remembers being abused by many men. She was not sure of how many but knew it must have been a lot as she was unable to sit for the next fourteen days.

I couldn’t believe how quickly the teenager’s story turned from a normal conversation with her talking as if nothing bad had happened to a confession of hopelessness and despair. She changed from being an innocent, funny girl to someone I could no longer recognise, upset and powerless. Following her story she looked at me in tears and said, seemingly out of nowhere, “Sometimes I just ask God 'why?' Why would he do this to me?”. I am not religious but this struck me like nothing ever had. For a girl to feel so helpless, to doubt the thing she believed in most… how could something so awful happen to her? Why would anyone deserve that, let alone a young girl, courageously leaving her family to find work. I just couldn’t fathom it. For the first time I also felt helpless, staring at her (whilst wanting to look away) I knew I had to say something. All I could muster myself to say was “You’ll get them, she’s going to help them (gesturing towards the girl by her side) and they’ll be prosecuted”, knowing full well that it was a guarantee I could not truly make but with no idea what else to say. I realised all I could do was to do everything in my power to take this experience, learn from it and follow my passion to support organisations that combat trafficking through prevention, protection and prosecution.

Thankfully, with the help of Fundación Reintegra, she was able to move into a safehouse and is currently studying and building a case to prosecute her traffickers with their support. Without this support she might have become revictimised, with no one to support her recovery from this awful experience.

I heard many stories from Survivors and their supporters while I was in Mexico but this one struck me the most and I hope by sharing this you'll understand my inspiration for working for El Pozo de Vida in Mexico City.

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(Claudia* - false name used for the protection of the survivor)

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