I know a good deal about Mexico’s history. But my son Chris, who works for a charity, Pasitos de Luz, in the Bahía de Banderas tourist resort area on the Pacific coast, has learned about Mexico not from books and documents, but from his participation in the lives of Mexicans, from impoverished parents of disabled children to wealthy residents, the Canadian and American expatriate community, the state bureaucracies of Nayarit and Jalisco, local and national media, and his neighbours in San Vicente, Nayarit.
For example, during our recent stay in a hotel in Nuevo Vallarta, Chris chatted to the waiter who served us lunch and asked if he was de planta, meaning whether he was a year-round member of staff, or one of the many employed only for the six-month high season. This fortunate young man is de planta, but his colleagues who are not live especially economically precarious lives. Chris took us for a drive in the Ameca River valley, through the suburban towns beyond San Vicente. We noticed a number of smart buses emblazoned with the logo of the Vidanta Group, an enormously influential vacation resort company. Chris explained that these were taking resort staff home after the end of their shift. The homes were often public housing: small, identical homes built in rows, with no public space other than the street, and only a small concrete yard at the back, their whitewashed walls stained black in places. Chris told us that several of his Pasitos colleagues also live in these grim developments.
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| In the morning hotel workers sweep the public areas of the building, the gardens and the beach. The hotel business model is based on cheap labour. |
If you are a poorly paid worker in the tourism sector, a disabled child is an unexpected economic burden, your home is almost certainly poorly ventilated (and certainly not air conditioned) in an exceptionally hot climate, and generally unsuitable for a child with special needs. In theory, the family might be entitled to help from the Sistema Nacional Para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (National System for the Integral Development of the Family), or DIF, the body charged with the constitutional duty of protecting the rights of children, “principally those who, on account of their physical, mental or social condition are vulnerable, to enable them to live a full and productive life.” I have seen DIF offices in towns with populations of only a few thousand people, so its network seems to be extensive. DIF issues identification cards that entitle disabled people to discounts in certain businesses. Chris tells me that DIF also offers therapy for disabled children, but charges a fee, which prevents the children of poor families from receiving vital support.
Pasitos de Luz celebrated its 20th year during the pandemic. Its registered legal name is
Mamás Unidas por la Rehabilitación de sus Hijos A.C. (Mothers United for the Rehabilitation
of their Children Civil Association). Twenty years ago, Pasitos was a cooperative of mothers
operating from a building in the Bobadilla district of Puerto Vallarta. When I visited
Bobadilla in 2014 it was bursting at the seams with equipment, a kitchen, a nursery, staff
and children. The front door advertised what Pasitos offered to parents desperate to
improve the life chances of their child: “FREE professional care for disabled children [with]
cerebral palsy, Downs syndrome, myelomeningocele, autism, impairment from meningitis
early years stimulation, special education, other syndromes, special nursery.” Care was
provided Monday to Friday from 7am to 7pm.
Chris at the Bobadilla building of Pasitos in 2014
The front door at Pasitos
Pasitos now operates from a spacious, cool and well-ventilated building, with spacious gardens, and recently a hydrotherapy pool, set among fields of watermelons and cucumbers just outside San Vicente. Physiotherapists help the children to lift their heads, to sit, to walk. They learn basic skills: at Bobadilla I met a tall fifteen-year-old boy who had recently learned to hold a pencil so that he could be taught to write. They are also given a nutritious breakfast and lunch. Such life-enhancing work does not cost a fortune in our terms – the annual budget is a little more than US$250,000 – but charitable giving is not a well-developed social practice as it is in the UK, the USA and Canada and raising that money is hard work. Much of the funding is raised at events for expatriate residents during the high season. Covid-19 stopped that funding stream dead, although Chris is now organizing the annual River Café Fashion Show, the biggest fund raiser, since March 2020. Pasitos survived by drawing on its very modest reserves and putting the staff on half-time work and pay. When the children returned in September some had regressed, so the pains-taking therapy had to begin again. 
The new Pasitos building, known as The Castle
Chris has been touring gyms promoting his 21K challenge, to run from “Old Pasitos” in Bobadilla to “New Pasitos” on 11 December. His goal it to recruit from the gyms’ customers more sponsored runners. He tells me that the gym members understand the concept of a personal running challenge, but the dea of seeking sponsorship for a good cause is quite foreign to them. Nevertheless, a friend, Rodolfo, who is running the Mexico City Marathon in November will join Chris to run the 21 kilometres from Bobadilla to San Vicente. 
Physiotherapist Eliseo teaches Alexis to walk. Both are blind
If readers of my blog would like to sponsor Chris, those in Mexico can give at: https://carreravirtual.recaudia.com/ayudadesdecasa/21k_2021/pasitos_de_luz/chris_jacobs,
Readers in the USA and Canada can donate here: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/pasitosdeluz
Readers in the UK should contact me at ianjacobsipswich@gmail.com. If you know of any organization, such as a local church, gym or disabled children’s group that might sponsor him please send them a link to this blog.
A session in the physiothrapist room
Thank you,Ian Jacobs
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