Shaping the Motherhood of Indigenous Mexico

Conclusion: "I nurture them because I love them"

183 Conclusion “I nurture them because I love them” A few years after returning from Amatlán, while I was going through my field notes in preparing my book manuscript, I came across these words from Cristina. We had spent much of that day talking about her motherhood, her children, and Oportunidades. One of the questions I asked her was, “What happens if you do not follow the rules?” Cristina earnestly replied, “They take away your Oportunidades. As a responsible mother one has to take one’s child to the clinic. They would take [the money] away if we were irresponsible. We take [the money] away from ourselves.” She sat back in her chair with a self-satisfied smile playing on her face; Cristina knew that she was not one of the irresponsible mothers she was describing. I probed with another question, “What do they say at the clinic if you do not go regularly?” Her answer once again showed the internalization of compliance and responsibility. She said, “They report you. . . . There is someone there to supervise and check. The doctor and nurse are not to blame [for the money being taken away] but rather the patient herself.” Cristina’s notions of responsibility and irresponsibility regarding motherhood align with those of the state, and she has internalized the expectations of obedience. The women I met are good mothers; their actions speak to the love they have for their children. They invest emotionally in their children from the moment they are pregnant—and afterward they express their love through a physical nurturance of extended breastfeeding, bed sharing, and lengthy carrying and hugging. “I nurture them because I love them” was a common refrain for the women. All these actions (conscious and unconscious) form part of their reproductive and mothering habitus. These women have certain mothering dispositions that they have been inculcated in from previous generations—and in turn they inculcate their own (female) children 184 Shaping the Motherhood of indigenouS Mexico into these dispositions. In their interaction with a rapidly changing world, these dispositions change: some remain, while others “engender both aspirations and practice” (Bourdieu 1977:77). As Sulkunin would put it, the women’s habitus is constantly being formed in their daily practices, by their producing and using their systems of meaning (Harker 1984:120). But these mothers are repeatedly told that they are not, in fact, good mothers. They are told by Oportunidades that they will be good mothers only if they follow the conditions; they are informed that the only good mothering is the mainstream, modern, and nonindigenous form; and they are reminded that if their children are not perfect future citizens, the fault lies with their own poor mothering. During Mexico’s dance with eugenics and nationalism, mothers have been historically identified simultaneously as shapers and destroyers of the nation. Efforts—through health campaigns , media ads, soap opera spots, and puericulture—have been designed to curb any problems and indoctrinate good behavior. Humor becomes a tool for the women to manage their overly monitored lives. Esperanza, Cristina, Lourdes, Frida, and Alicia used good humor and many laughs to figure out their powerlessness. Humor also allowed them to regain some semblance of control and laugh at life as women and mothers, though most times, humor was just that—laughter at the funny things in life. These women are simply living their lives—at times they are agents, while at others they are not. The absurdity present in many of their interactions with the state apparatus became visible through their laughter. Their mirth defused any wrath, yet in practicing mirth, their compliance was assured. No righteous outrage emerged from these women; instead their laughs calcified their position within the domestic, unnoticed domain. As I wrote this book, I frequently despaired at the gloomy picture I was drawing—of a hopeless situation where indigenous mothers are oppressed by the very system intent on their empowerment. I was told by family members and friends how negative this view was, as they questioned whether a program aimed at developing the welfare of women and children could possibly be that bad. I found myself bending over backward in my effort to find positive attributes of the program. There is no denying that there are many good things that Oportunidades has brought to the community—an increase in cash flow, a rise in high school graduation, an improvement in children’s and women’s health, and an increase in women’s knowledge of contraceptive...