OPINION
Tinig Migrante
By E. Maestro
Avelina Vasquez looks
straight at you and smiles
from her black and white
portrait photograph, made
more striking by the only
coloured accents of the red
and green from the flowers of
the crocheted blanket in the
background. She sits on her
living room couch, her legs
crossed,her hands joined
together, resting on her
knees. Her smiling face does
not tell you that she is battling
cancer.
Belen’s portrait was
taken by photographer Rita
Hernandez as part of the
photo exhibit co-curated
by Hernandez and the
Fresh Voices Youth Advisory
Team (YAT) for My Mother’s
Home 2017, a celebration
of migration, motherhood
and diversity. In the words
of Alejandra Lopez-Bravo,
Manager of the Fresh Voices
Grants
and
Community
Initiatives of the Vancouver
Foundation, it was “to honour
the stories of resilience and
diverse migration journeys
of racialized immigrant and
refugee mothers in British
Columbia.”
Belen’s only child, Ieroll,
described his mother with this
accompanying passage:
Belen, as my mother
is fondly called, arrived in
Vancouver as a caregiver in
1991. Like many women
before her who had already
worked somewhere else, my
mother started as a domestic
worker in Singapore in
1983. She knows first-hand
the physical and emotional
hardships of migration as
a worker and as a young
woman of color. When she left
for Canada, she was a single
mother who had to leave
me with my grandparents
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY July 1 - 15, 2017
Spotlight on Belen Vasquez: Mother
and So Much More
when I was a baby.
She knew her roots
were in the working-class
movement. For many years,
she was a shop steward in the
Hospital Employees Union
and worked hard for the
Living Wage Campaign. For
her outstanding trade union
work, my mother received
the 2013 Diamond Jubilee
Medal. We learned that my
mother has breast cancer and
needs surgery. She faces this
new challenge with her usual
strength, courage, humor
and zest for life. She is my
inspiration. She tells me that
she is proud of me because
I am now a registered nurse
and I am slowly getting
involved in my union. I am my
mother’s son and happy that
I make my mother proud of
me. I am what I am because
of my mother Belen.
Two days before the
Fresh Voices launch of the
“My Mother’s Home” event
at the Van City Theatre last
May 19th, Belen checked into
the hospital and underwent
surgery for her breast cancer.
Unable to be at the event,
several women from Migrante
BC’s Women’s Organizing
Committee (WOC) attended
on her behalf. Marjorie Eda,
one of the young Migrante
women whose mother also
came to Canada as a caregiver
said, “I was struck by the
stories of our mothers. No
matter the language barrier
and differing cultures we
come from, it’s very inherent
how the love of a mother has
impacted their children’s lives.
It was very moving hearing
their stories being translated
by their son, daughter or
close friend.”
The
portrait-story
of Belen is a glimpse into
the continuing life story of
an ordinary woman made
extraordinary by the roles and
commitment she took on
as single mother, domestic
worker separated from her
young
child,
low-waged
worker, union activist in the
Hospital Employees Union,
community organizer of
Migrante BC, and just recently,
a cancer survivor.
Belen does not define
herself in what she did when
she arrived in Canada. She
worked as a caregiver but
she used her struggle and life
experience to do other things
and be in other roles. She
has many stories to tell and
finds the humour in retelling
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