>>JOHN GODFREY:  On behalf of the Wallenberg
Committee and the Rackham Graduate School,
it's my pleasure to welcome you to the 19th
Annual Wallenberg Medal Presentation and Lecture.
I would also like to welcome President Mary
Sue Coleman, who is in the audience with us
this evening. Ra—
[APPLAUSE]
Raoul Wallenberg, the indulged scion of Sweden's
most renowned and influential family. An insular
dynasty of bankers, industrialists, and diplomats
may have seemed an unlikely prospect for becoming
one of the 20th century's most heroic individuals.
Indulged, perhaps he was, but Wallenberg certainly
was not pampered. At 23—in 1923, rather,
at the age of 11, he traveled by train, un
escorted, from Stockholm to Istanbul where
his grandfather and guardian was Sweden's
ambassador. Grandfather fostered his independence.
Young Wallenberg had an open and inquiring
habit of mind, unusual perhaps for someone
from his cloistered social background. He
had a talent for friendship and an inclination
toward the practical. He brought these traits
to Ann Arbor in 1930 when, on the recommendation
of his grandfather, Wallenberg arrived to
study architecture at this university. He
thrived here. He understood that a public
university in the heart of North America,
more than any elite institution, allowed him
to slip loose the constraints of class, privilege
and inheritance and provided him a fresh place
for departure. From here, he could follow
his own path. Wallenberg used his situation
to his greatest advantage. He loved Ann Arbor
and he also loved leaving it. Ann Arbor became
his stepping off place to explore North America.
He learned the art of hitchhiking to travel
to Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere. And
in letters to his grandfather, he boasts of
his skills. He beguiles drivers with stories
so they might be willing to take him further
along his journey. It made a good impression
on passing motorists, he realized, to wear
his Michigan ROTC uniform. He walked west
through the night along some empty highway
to Selena, Kansas. A trucker gave him a slip
of paper with the mysterious letters, "OK."
A pass that vouched for his bona fides at
truck stops through Colorado and on into California.
Strangers helped and fed him. He realized
he could rely on the openness he found at
every hand. He wrote his grandfather, "You're
in close contact with new people each and
every day. Hitchhiking gives you training
and diplomacy and tact. When you travel like
a hobo, everything's different." In May
1934, his grandfather wrote to Raoul. "The
opportunities accorded you by your global
education must not go to waste. They're to
be used to make you independent," and independent
he was. That summer, the last before he finished
his degree, Wallenberg and a friend from Owosso
here in Michigan, loaded supplies into an
old Ford truck they had borrowed and headed
south for Mexico City. They crossed the border
at Laredo, stopping to pick up a young Mexican
hitchhiker who had just been deported and
offered to travel with them as their translator.
They discovered that the Pan American Highway
was yet, only a promise and followed a nearly
non existent track up into the rain lashed
Sierra Madre Mountains and on to the city
of Saltillo. They got stuck repeatedly in
the thick mud and repaired a half dozen tires.
Reaching the arid Central Mexican Plateau,
the trio followed railroad tracks for five
days to reach San Luis Potosi, encountering
only three other cars, along the entire journey.
Finally, they reached Mexico City, from which,
after several weeks, they brought the truck
back to Michigan in time for the new academic
year. Wallenberg began to add Spanish to the
several languages he had already mastered.
Only 10 years after this, having now traveled
through a murderous looking glass, Wallenberg
arrived in the Budapest in the final months
of World War II, sent by the Swedish government
and the International Red Cross on an impossible
mission, to protect the last large surviving
Jewish community in Europe. He arrived oddly
equipped for a diplomat, but rather more like
a hitchhiker with two knapsacks, a sleeping
bag, and a windbreaker. Ever resourceful,
he invented a new kind of passport for these—for
those who were desperate to survive in the
city. As effective as that mysterious "OK,"
which had opened doors to trucks across Kansas
and Colorado, Wallenberg's for more ornate
confections with ribbons and seals, fabricated
by Jews put to work un—in the protection
of the Swedish Ligation, deterred murderous
S.S. and Hungarian fascist militias, and afforded
Swedish diplomatic protection to thousands.
He cool headedly pulled the lives from among
the dead in the mud and icy water of the Danube.
In a theatre of nerve, Wallenberg invoked
international law, where none existed. He
stipulated to General Gerhard Schmidhuber,
commander of the German forces in Hungary,
that if he did not prevent the murders of
the tens of thousands of Jews, now under the
protection of Sweden, he would see the General
swing on the gallows of the approaching Soviet
Army. Through great nerve, resourcefulness,
and resolve, Raoul Wallenberg saved perhaps
nearly 100,000 Jews until the Liberation of
Budapest. But Wallenberg's own journey ended
days later when he disappeared into the Soviet
Gulag and a final unknown end. It is perhaps
fitting, particularly for this evening's guest,
whose first book was a collection of poetry,
to invoke the verses of Antonio Machado, a
contemporary of Raoul Wallenberg, who was
one of Spain's great poets and a witness to
the horrors of the Spanish Civil War, "Wayfarer,
you only—you only know—you are only your
footsteps there is no other, Wayfarer there
is no way. You make the way as you go. As
you go, you make the way and stopping to look
behind you see the path that your feet will
never travel again. Wayfarer, there is no
way. Only foam trails in the sea." To introduce
tonight's Distinguished Honoree, Lydia Cacho,
and to present the University of Michigan's
Wallenberg Medal, I am pleased to present
to you Mr. Andrew Richner, Chair of the Board
of Regents and the University of Michigan.
[APPLAUSE]
>>ANDREW RICHNER: Thank you Dean Godfrey.
On behalf of my colleagues and the Board of
Regents at the University of Michigan including
my colleague Kathy White and Mary Sue Coleman,
our great president, I am honored to present
Lydia Cacho, a courageous and intrepid human
rights activist and journalist who comes to
us from Cancun, Mexico. Lydia Cacho is a fearless
defender of the rights of women and children.
She risked her life to challenge corrupt government
and business leaders who profit from prostitution
and child pornography. Hers is a voice that
will not be silenced. She speaks out, full
throated, against the brutal reach of organized
crime, the collusion of the powerful and the
cult of violence that threatens Mexico. In
her 2005 book The Demons of Eden, Lydia revealed
the criminal exploitation that exists in the
shadows of the resort hotels of Cancun and
the network of corruption that shields the
criminals. As a result of her revelations,
she was illegally detained, abused and threatened
with death. And subjected to a yearlong criminal
defamation lawsuit by the very men her audacious
work exposed. The Mexican Supreme Court ruled
that her book told the truth and yet justice
has its limits. The same court overruled the
recommendations of its own investigations
commission, dismissing the charges Lydia brought
against the officials and law enforcement
authorities who colluded in these crimes and
the efforts to silence her. Lydia works at
the grass roots, where the powerless and voiceless
live in risk. She is the founder of CM Cancun,
a shelter for battered women and children,
which provides refuge for many victims of
violence and exploitation. She speaks out
against the abuse of women in Mexico and brought
the world's attention to the unsolved murders
of dozens of young women and Ciudad Juarez,
which tragically presaged the horrific violence
which narco trafficking is visiting upon this
city that borders the United States. As a
journalist, Lydia Cacho faces the most acute
personal risk. Mexico is the most dangerous
country in the Americas for journalists. Since
2000, 55 Mexican journalists and writers have
disappeared, and eight have been murdered.
Others have been forced into exile. Few of
these crimes have been investigated. The perpetrators
go unpunished. Despite frequent thry—threats
against her life, threats, threats that continue
today, Lydia has declined offers of asylum
from the United States, France and Spain.
She refuses to leave her country and abandon
the women and children she has dedicated her
life to protecting. The Washington Post described
Cacho as one of Mexico's celebrated and imperiled
journalists. We honor her tonight as one of
the world's most heroic and passionate advocates
of human rights. In her life and work through
courage and character in the face of the dangers
she faces daily, Lydia Cacho exemplifies the
commitment to humanity and justice, and the
resolve and valor that Raoul Wallenberg showed
as he faced down the demons in Budapest. It
is may—it is my great honor this evening
to present the University of Michigan's Wallenberg
Medal to this very brave woman, Lydia Cacho.
[APPLAUSE]
>>LYDIA CACHO: Thank you so much. I feel truly
grateful. And, um...To the whole Wallenberg
group, and of course, the University, and
to everyone that has—that I have met during
all this conversation that we have with students,
I am amazed by the intelligence and the good
hearted people that live in Ann Arbor. All
the United States should be so proud of having
such a University, and such students as the
ones you have here.
[APPLAUSE]
I will not talk about the bad guys. I will
talk about the good ones. I, I want to share
a couple of stories with you and then we might
be able to have a conversation. First I will
tell you that tonight, during our dinner,
um, some friends asked me if, why don't I
leave Mexico. Why do I just go? I have all
these awards. Do the awards make me safer?
Uh, louder? Okay. Good, it wasn't that good.
The first part wasn't very good.
[LAUGHTER]
I was just trying to see if you are not sleeping.
So, um, why don't I leave my country? A lot
of people ask me. And, I was trying to explain
why not when somebody in my, in my table said,
"because it's your country." And then she
was right. I don't leave it, not only because
it's my country, but also because I have the
right to live happily there and I will work
for the right of fathers and mine to live
happily there without violence. That is something
that is truly important for me. And why is—ah,
thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
Happiness is truly important for me because
of the way I grew up, because of the education
I received. When I was little girl, my grandfather,
who was a Portuguese man, that had to flee
Portugal because of the war. He was in jail
in Portugal during the Salazar, um, dictatorship,
and then he was helping people getting out
of jail in Spain and Portugal during the war.
So they moved to Mexico when my mom was a
little girl. My grandfather use to talk to
me about Portugal and the Portuguese. He wanted
to keep the memory of his country in us. So,
I learned Portuguese sitting in the lap of
my grandfather and listening to the poems
of Fernando Pessoa and Camoes, who were his
favorite poets. Then he used to love to tell
me the stories about the sailors. The great
sailors of Portugal that went around the world,
but they had a little defect. They were little
defective. They loved to slave people. He
used to tell me the story. He had a huge book
with some amazing drawings and I still have
that book he explained how this great sailors
knew everything about the ocean. They could
read the ocean. They could listen to the winds
and understand how the path of the ocean would
lead them to new lands. Well, they were also
really, really greedy. My grandfather would
talk for hours about slavery. He explained
to me how they went to the island of Goree
in Senegal to take people away, women and
men, and drop them in this island in special
places and then take them away to other countries,
including to the American continent later
on. That story stick to me forever. So what
I do now is work against the slavery. Twenty
first century slavery. They call it trafficking.
It sounds very strange. People don't really
get what trafficking is all about. That's
why I like the word slavery because that's
what it is. When my grandfather told me about
these stories, when I was 15 or 16, I started
rebelling, against everything, establishment,
my grandfather, my mother, my father, and
everyone. One day he said, "You will always
be a rebel because in your blood is the blood
of the Mexican indigenous people that were
slaved by the Spaniards but also is the blood
of the Mexican brave woman that didn't allow
that their language and their abilities to
get lost in history. You will always fight
against authority." My grandfather knew something.
He was very, very clever. Um, "Because in
your blood is the blood of the Portuguese
people. Of the Portuguese sailors, that would
dare to go into the oceans and explore the
universe, but also because they knew they
were able to exercise violence. And they were
not really aware of that. You have to be always
aware that you as an intelligent human being
are, are able to exercise violence every time
you choose to." My grandfather was the first
person that ever told me that violence is
a choice. The exercise of violence, it's a
choice we make every single day of our lives.
In a love relationship, at school, on the
streets. Anywhere we go in the way we speak
to others. He talked about racism without
talking a lot about racism. He explained how
we use words to hurt each other. So he gave
me the knowledge of who I was. I knew there
was this blood in me of the Moors, of the
Arab men that, um, lived in Portugal, so I'm
a little Arab there. Every time I go to Arab
countries, they start speaking in Arabic to
me. Then I say, "No, no, I don't," and they
go, "No, don't deny your blood." I'm like,
"I swear I'm not." That happened to me in
Egypt and in Morocco. It's very strange, because
in most of the places, except Scandinavia
and some American places, they think I belong
to those cultures. So, that is really amazing
to me, because I do know that I am a citizen
of the world and I knew it since I was a little
girl. It was very hard for me to understand,
as I grew up, why people couldn't see each
other as equals and as different as they are.
As valuable as they are as different people,
women, men, and enjoy that difference. So
one day, I wanted to become a poet. I wanted
to be a novelist and live by the ocean as
my ancestors, the Portuguese sailors, and
I moved to Cancun 23 years ago. I did write
a book of poetry 18 years ago, it's not that
good, but... And, and then I started writing
the stories of the people there. I became
a journalist, thanks to a literature teacher
that told me, when I was a teenager, that
I would never be a good writer or a good novelist
or a good poet because I was too worried with
reality. And I guess he was right, so I guess
I'm a good writer as a journalist but not
other way. I don't mind; I like to be a good
journalist. Then living in Cancun showed me
what racism can do to a country, what sexism
can do to a country and to the world. The
first time I met a little girl that was a
victim of sexual violence, the first time
I met a little boy that was a victim of sexual
violence, I didn't know what to do. I really,
truly didn't know how to act and how to react
to that. How come? How could a human being
touch a child and use and abuse him or her?
I didn't know how to handle that, so I started
trying to learn. I read all these books. I
talked to my mother who was a psychologist
and a sexologist. I started writing about
it from a different perspective, of the perspective
the other journalists were using. I wasn't
talking about the fact itself, but what the
rapes and the violence did to the souls and
the minds of these children. I also learned
from them that they don't, they don't see
the world the same way we see it. And, they
have been my greatest teachers. So, if I am
brave, I am brave because of the children
I have interviewed, I have met through all
my life doing this work. I have the story
of Raoul and I thought about it because of
Raoul, and he, if he's somewhere, he might
like this story. It's this little boy, four
years old, that moved to the shelter in Cancun.
He was abused by his father and his father
was really violent to his mother. One day,
I come to the shelter and I see all these
chil—all kids that were there and they go,
"Lydia. Lydia," and we hug each other and
we give kisses. And, "How are you? Hola. Hola."
Then this little boy that was new in the shelter
just standing there, just looking, like, really
tough. I say, "Hi, how are you? What's your
name? I'm Lydia and I work here. What's your
name?" "Raoul." "Do you want to say hi?" "No,
I don't like people touching me. I am a dog,"
and he ran away. I went to the psychologist
and said, "What's the story on Raoul?" He
said, "His father abused him sexually and
then he abused the mother. He is not really
able, yet, to handle certain things and he's
really violent to other kids." I went into
the garden, he was there sitting by himself,
you know, really, really angry. I sat next
to him and I started touching, also, the grass.
I said, "Hey, Raoul, what's up with you? Why
don't you like people saying hi to you?" He
said, "Because I don't have a heart." I said,
"Really?" He said, "No." "Why don't you have
a heart?" He said, "My dad said so. He said
I am a heartless dog." I said, "OK, good.
Do you want to have a heart?" "Maybe. What
do you use a heart for?" and I'm like, "OK,
let's find out." I took him to the little
school we have and I draw two hearts and I
cut one of them and I gave it to him and I
took one for myself and we drew on them. I
said, "OK, let's play this game. We will both
have a heart and we'll pin it to our clothes
and then you will train your heart, your paper
heart, every day, trying to learn to feel
things, the good things that people do for
you. And you try to tell good things to your
mom and you try to hug the other girls and
the other boys, if you want to, if you feel
like. Then, one day, you will probably grow
a heart." He's like, "Oh, come on." I'm like,
"Well, you never know. See? You never know."
We kept playing this game and every time I
came to the shelter, we did a little of the
game of the heart. At the beginning, he was,
like, really cool, going,
[FACIAL EXPRESSIONS]
He spoke very well, and this is something
that happens to a lot of the children that
have been abused, they grow up really fast
because they had to learn how to defend themselves.
So anyway, he, one day, I come back after
the arrest and I was on TV because of everything
that happened and I went to jail and I came
back. Everybody knew that Lydia Cacho is famous,
she was on TV. I went to the shelter and all
of a sudden Raoul ran to me and he just stands
there. He doesn't touch me, but he goes, "Lydia
Cacho, you are real." I'm like, "Really?"
"Yeah, I saw you on TV."
[LAUGHTER]
I'm like, "OK." See, that's how kids think,
when people are on TV, then they are alive.
So, I said, "Where's your heart?" "Oh, hold
on." He ran and he got his heart, was a piece
of paper. He goes like this, he puts it in,
and he goes, "Here." I said, "How is going?
Is it growing?" He goes, "Eh, I don't know.
How about yours?" I said, "Mine is really
hurting." He said, "How come?" I said, "Because
the bad guys are really bad and they made
me cry a lot and they did bad things to me
and I don't like people doing bad things to
me." He did, "Yeah. Yeah. I heard my mom.
And them, they did bad things to you." "Yeah,
they did." The other kids that were in the
shelter, some of the kids, I wrote about in
my book, victims of these trafficking networks.
I went on and off to jail and all these things
that happened to me. Then one day, I go into
the shelter and Raoul comes running and all
of a sudden he jumps and hugs me. I'm standing
there and I start crying. I'm like, "God."
And I said, "Raoul, how are you?" He goes,
" [indecipherable 0:26:20] ." I go, "Where's
your heart?" He goes, "I don't need a paper
one. I have one." That is why I do what I
do. That is the reason why I do what I do.
[APPLAUSE]
Raoul's story is not the only one, of course,
but it is one of the most important ones for
me and I love to say thi—to tell this story.
Because it reminds me that love is something
that we don't talk about enough in the world.
We talk about war. We talk about violence.
We talk about differences. We talk about politics.
We talk about the military. But we don't talk
about love, how to rebuild love in the world.
How to globalize love. Everybody is talking
about globalizing war, globalizing the markets,
globalizing the banks, and nobody's truly
talking about globalizing love. How do we
invent a new language for love in a world
like ours? This is a thing that the children
are asking for all over the world. I traveled
around the world to write a new book on traffickers.
I want to show who is trafficking the one
million and six hundred children that are
sold and bought around the globe every year.
Who is doing it? Which banks are money—laundering
that money? Which politicians are allowing
this to happen? Which citizens are looking
the other way in the world? I went to Cambodia,
Central Asia, to Latin America, to the United
States, to Canada, to Russia, and to Africa,
of course, and the Arab countries. I found
pretty much the same thing. I found great
children trying to survive a world that does
not understand how to love them. I interviewed
children, little girls, 6 years old, in Cambodia,
8 years old in Thailand, 12 years old in Kirgizstan,
15 years old in Uzbekistan, that were sold
as sexual slaves so somebody from another
country and of their own country would be
able to buy sex with them. Everything they
needed, everything they wanted, and the reason
why they, in some ways and in some places,
stayed with their captors, is because their
captors are convincing our children around
the world that they love them. That this is
the way they show their love, by giving them
a little money, by feeding them, and by having
sex with them. Soldiers around the world,
from every country, are going to certain wars
and they are going to prostitutes, to the
brothels in which underage girls have been
brought and bought, so they can have safe
sex with them. They go there to make peace
or to control the war, and then they are being
part of this problem. When the American government
implements a new law against trafficking in
the United States, they start searching for
the men who fly to Thailand and Cambodia to
have sex with children. So they stop going
there and now they go to Mexico, so in Mexico,
it increases. Mexicans do, too, they consume
sexual tourism too, of course. So, this is
a global issue and we are not addressing it
as a global issue. It is political. It is
a criminal issue, yes. But basically it is
a humane issue. Trafficking and sexual slavery
of children and women, it's a humane issue.
Most of these children are poor. Most of them
are looking for someone to look at them in
the eyes and to recognize them as human beings.
The people who is recognizing them and saying,
"You are worth something," are the traffickers
and the clients of the brothels. People around
the world are truly not paying attention to
that. If you see any children, anyone in this
room that has children, that has nephews,
nieces, or grandchildren, would know. Kids
know things. And they are expecting adults
to help them and to protect them to go through
this very, very, strange and violent world.
And I guess that the answer to all the problems
has a lot to do, too, with the fact that we
have to re—rebuild the way we love. The
way we love each other, the way we love ourselves.
I love myself a lot. And I really, really
like to be alive. And I am here getting another
medal, and getting the same question I get
every time I travel around the world to get
awards. "Lydia, will an award make you safer
in your own country?" I said "yes, because
the criminals and the government know that
my head has a higher price for the international
community." That is a fact. But then again,
I will take a few minutes to tell you this,
my friends of Ann Arbor. I do what I do because
I love life. I do what I do because I think
every human being deserves to be happy. We
have to defend not only our human rights,
but our right to happiness, to a dignified
life, our right to a good sexual life, not
a violent life. We have to defend our right
to be loved, and to love each other. If any
day, I hope not, but if any day, they do get
me, and if they kill me, I want you to be
very, very sure that they did not win. They
will never win, because I will never give
them anger, resentment. I will never give
them my right to be a happy person, and to
be a good journalist and a good citizen of
the world.
I think that is a basic thing when we're born,
and we all will die. If I die doing the things
that I love, then I'm not afraid. I choose,
every day, I wake up, I choose not to live
in fear. Fear is within us, not without us.
People keep selling us the idea that fear
is there, it's the big bad monster that will
get us. That's not true. The bad guys around
the world are really just a few. Most of the
good people are surrounding us most of the
time, and we really, really can't see it.
I am here, not giving a lecture, but having
a conversation with you to remind you a poem
that my grandfather read to me. I found a
pretty bad translation into English, you might
forgive me. It's one of the poems of Fernando
Pessoa. I began my book, "Memoirs of an Infamy,"
the one I tell about my torture and the way
they took me to jail, with this poem. My grandfather
is no longer with us, but he is with me of
course. Fernando Pessoa wrote a poem called
"Of Little Three Things." "Of little three
things, were left. The certainty that we were
always starting out. The certainty that we
had to go on. The certainty that we would
be interrupted before finishing. Turn the
interruption into a new path. Turn the fall
into a dance step. The fear into a lather.
The dream into a bridge. The search into an
encounter." I am so very grateful for having
this encounter with you, and thank you for
giving me your love tonight, and for recognizing
me as a human being. Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
>>WOMAN 1:  Thank you for the lecture, it
was really enlightening. I wonder what you
do towards the children. Could you tell us
what's being done for those children?
>>LYDIA CACHO: Yes, thank you. We have a,
the shelter, we have a program, a special
program based on, on psychological treatment,
and the school for peace. We teach children
how to negotiate their conflicts without the
use of violence. And once they learn how to
handle their anger, they can go through the
changes of healing their bodies and their
minds and their souls. We have a great team
of social workers, psychologists, and um,
um, specialists in our therapy. And teachers,
of course "Teachers For Peace," we call them.
And, we have a lot of peer programs for the
kids. We work in a different way with boys
than with girls of course. There's a gender
perspective in everything we do because we
have to do it. Most of the kids are confronting
a huge problem. It's not only what they do
in the shelter when they are being held, but
how they will confront the world after they
are out. Because they change the way they
think and they learn to heal but they learn
to trust really fast. Kids, when they are
younger than 15, usually start trusting really,
really fast, adults really fast, too fast
for, that's what we think. We have to teach
them the skills to learn how to notice when
somebody wants to hurt them. There's not enough
money in the world to have clinics for all
the children who have been trafficked, and
this is another issue that I want to raise
here. If anyone really truly thinks that they
can do and want to do something, opening special
psychological clinics for children that have
been abused or victims of trafficking, is
a huge need around the world. Even in the
United States, you have an internal trafficking
issue here. Um, they are healed through art
therapy, they are healed through art, through
education, but also absolutely through love.
>>LARRY: [SPANISH]
My question was, if you could also expand
on how we can help, what are things that we
can do as people that live in Ann Arbor or
in the United States?
>>LYDIA: Thank you so much, gracias. Well,
the United States has a bigger and bigger
problem of internal trafficking. And most
of the victims of internal 
trafficking in the United States are girls
that go between 11 and 15 years old. They
are being handled by groups of people telling
them they will become models, singers, or
go into this easy, wonderful life of, of being
famous. There is an organization called the
Polaris Project. The director now is Mark
Lagon, in Washington. He was the ambassador
against trafficking in, in the United States
for the last years. And, um, he's doing a
great job, and he's looking for people to
work with him as volunteers around the United
States. So if you're interested, go to thepolarisproject.org
and join them. They have several programs,
educational, prevention, direct attention,
protection of the children. They need lawyers.
They need attorneys, so here in the United
States. If you want to help in Mexico, I think
one of the best ways right now is to put a
lot of pressure on the American senate to
make sure that all the money they are giving
away to the Mexican government for the war
against drugs has to go side by side with
the human rights bill that we demanded to
the Department of State, because all this
violence that is increasing in Mexico is directly
protecting the traffickers. There's an increasing
human rights violations in Mexico and the
Department of State seems not to be really
worried about that so we do need your help.
The more people that puts pressure into the
senate to ask what about human rights of children,
and women in Mexico, with all this millions
and millions that you're sending for the war,
what about that? That would be very helpful.
>>VANESSA CRUZ: Hi Lydia, my name is Vanessa
Cruz, and I had the opportunity to meet you
yesterday in the circle. Um, and, I cannot
believe how humble you are with so much that
you have accomplished in such a short lifetime.
I just want to thank you so much for being
here. And also I wanted to ask you about two
things. One, as a social activist and a person
concerned with social justice, there's a lot
from our society that, um, especially being
in the University of Michigan, you feel like
you have to gather more and more information
and more and more education, even more funding,
and money to eventually do good and do well.
So you're sacrificing, you know, your long-term
goals for these short-term accomplishments.
What is the best way in which to do good and
to not worry so much about when you're finally
ready, or should I be more worried about when
I'm finally ready? Lastly, it's about reaching
across the table, and how do you reach the
people who don't see your point of view? I
can imagine that you do not shun them, but
what do you advise us to do to get other people
on board for what we're trying to fight for?
Thank you.
>>LYDIA: Thank you. Well, um, thank you for
the thing with the short life. I'm 46 so thank
you for that. I'm not that young, but that
sounds good.
[LIGHT LAUGHTER]
Well, I think that each person has to find
her or his mission in life. I think that we
all have a mission and we keep forgetting
what that is because we have such a hectic
life. I guess you want to find your mission.
What is your mission? If your mission is here
in Ann Arbor, being a teacher, just when you
are a teacher, you learn about trafficking.
Then you talk every day to your students about
the dangers of these job offers that are too
easy to be true, too good to be true. You
tell the newspaper owners not to advertise
sexual services in the newspaper, including
The Washington Post, The New York Times. Then
you start changing things little by little.
And then I guess that, um, when you find what
your mission is all about, then you just keep
on filling your heart with good things. What
I have found around the world, uh, talking
about trafficking and teaching workshops about
these issues or even about journalism, is
that a lot of people are trying to deal with
uh, prob—with problems, through anger. Their
hearts are full of anger so they want to convince
the other that he or she is right. And, the
issue of violence is one of the most violent
issues. That's why I refuse to say that there
is a war against violence. We are not attacking
violence. We are not in a war against violence.
We are working towards peace to eliminate
violence from our environment. And I think
that one of the issues. If we don't work as
individuals when we have to, and when we don't
have self accountability, then we cannot do
anything for our community or the others,
we're just faking it. I think that it's really
important, work with yourself. Once you find
your inner peace and you know that you can
walk your talk, then you will do great things.
[APPLAUSE]
>>WOMAN 2:  Hi Lydia, thank you so much for
being here and allowing us to listen to what
you had to say. I met you, I also met you
yesterday when you talked to my transnationalism
class. My question is similar to Larry's.
Um, and it is, and I know there's a lot
of college students here and, um, we addressed
this when you talked to my class yesterday,
but what as college students, as the leaders
of tomorrow, what can we do at the college
level to help this problem? Thank you.
>>LYDIA:  Um, I think that you have a big
task right now. And it has a lot to do with
reconstructing the values of what it is to
be a woman and what it is to be a man. Masculinity
and femininity issues um, are in need of new
philosophers. We truly need someone to tell
us how to build the new man, a man that believes
in gender equality, but also for himself,
a man that is tender but also knows how to
ask for tenderness and for love and for respect,
that knows that this body is also a temple
for love and good, uh, sex life, and a good
erotic life, but not a temple to attempt against
others. I guess that we have to address sexuality
in a very different way. I don't, it doesn't
matter what religion you are, it doesn't matter
how conservative or progressive you are. We
should—we need to reconstruct the, uh, sexuality
of the world in a more humane way. I think
that it is a task that belongs to you, the
new generations. We need new philosophers.
We need to talk about new ways to find out
how to connect with each other without the
use of violence or imposition, or without
the need to buy love or sex from each other.
[APPLAUSE]
>>MAN:  Uh, thank you, Lydia. I'm wondering
if at any point did you feel like giving up?
What made you continue your work?
<<LYDIA:  Oh yes, of course. [LAUGHS LIGHTLY]
When I, uh, I talk about love a lot and some
people, I was in Sweden recently presenting
my book and then people in Sweden said, "Why
are you so obsessed with love? What's with
you Latin American women?"
[LAUGHTER]
I said, "OK, I don't know, we like salsa and
tequila and love, we should try it, really.
The three things together are really good!"
So um, I guess um, this is an issue for me.
I have a great family, my mom died some years
ago, but my father every time he tries to,
to tell me "Go, leave the country," every
time I have a new attempt or I have a gunman
in my house and I have to leave the house
and things like that, my father, sometimes
he cries with me, he says that my mother would
be so proud of me. She's the one that taught
me how to be brave and to do the things I
love. So, I have a husband that is also a
journalist, almost as crazy as I am, so every
time I, we, we did this thing in which every
time I wanted to quit, I was just crying with
him and saying "No, no this is worthless we
cannot do anything," he goes like, "No, no,
no. Yes, we can," and when he did it, I was
like, "No, yes, we can," so we promise each
other every time one was breaking down the
other would pick him or her up, so this has
worked so far.
[LAUGHTER]
Um, also I have a great family, my sisters,
my brothers, my nephews and nieces are so
great. I have a, a nephew that is eight years
old that is called Santiago. And when everything
happened, he went to school and told the story
of this woman called Lydia Cacho, who saves
the world basically. Saves all the children,
and she dares, she fights the monsters and
pedophiles and abusers of children, and that's
why he decided to become the next president
of Mexico, to get rid of all these mobsters.
So the teacher called my sister and he says,
"Your kid keeps saying that Lydia Cacho is
his aunt," and she goes, "Yeah, she is." "But
your kid is too young to talk about these
issues." My sister goes, "Is he? He's eight
years old, some of the kids that my sister
rescue are his age. Is he too young to know
about this?" So the teachers said, "Can you
invite Lydia Cacho to school?"
[LAUGHTER]
That is my crazy family and that helps a lot
I guess when you have a family that believes
in what you do, even when they suffer, and
I do worry about them, um, you can do anything.
When you're surrounded by love and you believe
in your mission, then you can do anything.
[APPLAUSE]
>>WOMAN 3:  How does trafficking work? How
is it organized, how, internationally or nationally?
There's a whole industry that we know is there,
but if you could tell us more that would be
helpful perhaps.
>>LYDIA:  Well, you'll have to invite me
again...
[LAUGHTER]
...to give you the whole enchilada. I'm writing
the book, and it...
>>WOMAN 3:  If I read the book, will I learn
it there?
>>LYDIA:  No, I will publish the book on
the world traffickers next year and it will
be in English, well, hopefully. Well, I will
do it really fast. What happens usually in
every country in the world, there are local
traffickers. There are some men or women that
belong to the sex in—local sex industries,
that are looking constantly for young girls.
They advertise in newspapers, in school papers
too, they advertise looking for waitresses,
for models, for singers, for girls that want
to become actresses from one day to the other.
They advertise in many, many ways, they advertise,
as video, looking for video stars and things
like that, and the video stars are for pornographic
videos. That's the basic way they do it locally.
Then in some other places, they look for rural
girls in small towns. And they, in Mexico,
for example, basically they go there and look
for the mothers and fathers and they tell
them, "Your daughter can become a domestic
servant in the city and she will earn a lot
of money and go to school and," blah, blah,
blah. The woman, as he or she belong to the
community, believe in them, and they send
the children, because of poverty, to the city
and they don't end up in s—being domestic
servants, but being, sometimes they do, and
being exploited too, but sometimes they end
up in brothels in Mexico City or in other
big cities in the country. In Central and
South Asia, it's a little different. The sex
industry has been so powerful now in the world,
pedophiles have been going there for years
and years without any government doing anything
yet. Uh, now they are doing something, but
they didn't do anything for 20 years. Then
what happens in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand
and some places in the Philippines, is that,
uh, there is a culture saying that it is okay
for a little girl to become a prostitute.
So, you find families everywhere. I went through
Mekong River going in a little boat going
to small towns. Every time I stop in a small
house, in a hut, the mothers would offer.
The first thing they would do would be offering
to sell their children to me. Of course, I
was like "Angelina Jolie, where are you?"
[LAUGHTER]
I just needed someone to have a lot of money
and do that, because you don't know what to
do with that, it's so amazing. That's basically
the way it works locally. Then internationally
they are putting girls in to charter flights
from Kurdistan. They are fueling charter flights
and bringing them all the way to the Arab
Emirates, to the nice hotels in the Arab Emirates
for elder men to have sex with them. They
give them fake papers. There are politicians
involved and there are policemen involved,
immigration officers involved. I have lot
of testimonies on that. And, uh, they do that
all over the world. They bring Chinese people
from China to Mexico, from Mexico to the United
States and so on. So there are networks of
corruption all over the world. Also, the main
problem here is that small trafficking or
small town trafficking and internal trafficking
and international trafficking works because
people think it's like something we can't
understand, but we can. Then people are not
asking for accountability of their local authorities.
And then, read the book, next year.
[LAUGHTER]
>>WOMAN 4:  About 10 years ago, I got involved
in something called ECPAT, E-C-T-A-P, and
at that time, they were dealing with, uh,
tourism. And, and, fortunately, well, as you
know, it is started by Thai women whose lives
were in danger because they were fighting
against the politicians and the police and
all that. They were successful in bringing
about everybody from the criminal system and
the police and all that. I just wondered,
you mentioned Polaris, is ECPAT which has
expanded from tourism to the trafficking of
children and all that and dealing. Is it still
around? Is it something that we could still
get involved with? Sometimes it sounds like
this is such a huge thing. Where do we belong?
I mean where do we start? But if you can show
us the small things that we can do, and the
other, is there a website, for example, that
will link us with the different...?
>>LYDIA:  Absolutely, yes. Thank you for
bringing that to attention. ECPAT means End
Child Prostitution and Trafficking. And, ECPAT
works all around the world, and they do prevention
specifically. What they do is they make studies
to have the hard data on these issues. And
they do work everywhere, and they have great
prevention programs. One of the things you
can also do is, wherever you travel in the
world, if you go to any fancy touristic place,
if you go to the Arab Emirates, if you go
to any place in Mexico Cancun, Acapulco, anywhere
you tell your tourist agent, your, your travel
agent to get you a hotel and an airline that
have signed the Save the Children Agreement,
for uh, companies that do not traffic and
do not allow sexual tourism in their hotels,
with their taxi drivers, and in their planes.
And this is really important because you can
ostracize the companies that are not willing
to sign it. So that's really important. You
can do that. And you can join also savethechildren.org.
And they have many, many programs, local programs
all over the world, and you can join. And
I think prevention, prevention, prevention,
and education are the key to, is the key to
this.
>>ANNA:  Hi, I'm Anna Sif. I was wondering
if there's any media coming out about the
issues about trafficking, 'cause a lot of
times after there's documentaries or a lot
of people find out about all the big important
issues, there's a lot more political action
about it. Do you know of any recent movies
or books or really popular culture things
that are going to change how people know about
trafficking?
>>LYDIA:  Do you study here?
>>ANNA:  Um, I'm in high school.
>>LYDIA:  Let's make a deal. You will give
me your name and your address. I will send
you some films. I'll send them to you, and
you organize groups of students to see the
films and to discuss about them. I will send
you a list of items to discuss with your peers.
[APPLAUSE]
>>WOMAN 5:  Um, good evening. I just wanted
to say thank you so much for coming here tonight
and for advocating that we all have a right
to a good sexual life as well as a violent
free life. But I guess I wanted some more
insight on that just because, as a feminist,
I've always taken a lot of direction from
many feminists who've come before me on this
question of how can I advocate for myself
sexually and also try to be and live violent
free. And it seems like sometimes those two
are competing interests. I wanted you to speak
a little bit more about that. I know, I think
when we talk about children especially four
year olds, I think that's a very clear idea
about what we mean by consent there. But I
think as we sort of, move up, whether we're
talking late teenagers or we're talking even
people on this campus that go to school here,
sometimes it's, it's not always as clear
how we can advocate for our rights sexually
but also negotiate that with violence.
>>LYDIA:  Well, I guess we never negotiate
with violence. That is the first rule. Then
the second rule is, when you're sitting with
someone that tells you that no might mean
yes, you have a huge problem. That is what
we have to work with. When people do not understand
the meaning of consent and try to reinterpret
it as, "Well, she said no, but maybe," or
she was drunk, and all these excuses that
society, some judges, some policemen, some
families, some men, some women say whenever
there's a rape or sexual abuse of an adult
woman or a teenager, then we have an educational
problem. It will take a long time. That's
why I'm talking about we need new feminists.
We need someone to start recreating cultural
values and making us understand new ways to
discuss these issues not from anger, not from
resentment, not from the difference of men
and women, but from equality. And I think
it will take a long time, but you might have
the answer before I get it.
>>WOMAN 5:  
[LAUGHS]
I'll keep you posted.
>>LYDIA:  Okay.
>>WOMAN 6:  Thank you so much for coming
here tonight and having this conversation
with us. I'm wondering, what are the ways
in which immigration law does or does not
protect survivors of trafficking, um, and
sexual slavery? If they're in a country brought
in illegally, what are the ways that immigration
law does not or does protect them?
>>LYDIA:  Well actually, the United States
is doing a great effort since the 2000 act
or law that started giving T Visas for women
that were trafficked into the United States
and were willing to talk to ICE agents or
any authorities to give them tips of who was
or were trafficking them. It's working. It's
changing a little. The thing is that usually
these, these, um, criminals are working with
criminals from other countries, and we have
a huge problem because our governments still
do not get it. This is a global crime, and
we have to develop global justice. And, what
happens is the United States develops these
really, really good laws. Then there are some
teams that are truly implementing them and
people who are really prepared. I've known
many agents, like ICE agent, FBI agent and
people who are truly prepared. But then they
have to deal with the Mexican police and Mexican
government in order to get and gather data.
Sometimes they even have to send the criminals
back to Mexico to be judged there. We have
a huge problem.
The issue here is to be able to put a lot
of pressure. Have your law students to work
into that immigration laws have a paradoxical
character because in one hand they want to
globalize the world and make all these treaties
to make the money flow, but then the good
money flows, and also the bad money flows.
The good guys flow, but also the bad guys
flow. So there's a paradox there, and nobody
has an answer yet, but we have to keep on
discussing that.
>>WOMAN 6:  Thank you.
>>WOMAN 7:  Thank you, Lydia, and congratulations.
I wonder if you could talk a little bit about
the tragedy in Ciudad Ju·rez, Mexico, the
murders and disappearances of, it's really
hundreds of women now over the last several
years, I believe. Could you talk a little
bit about that, and what it's going to take
to get to the bottom of that crisis and put
an end to it?
>>LYDIA:  Well, um, the source of Ciudad
Ju·rez are very complicated. Most of you
know at least a little about it. But basically,
the fact is that almost 10 years ago some
women started appearing, very young women
appeared in the desert naked, raped, and murdered.
The authorities decided that they were raped
or murdered because they did something wrong
probably. And they were prostitutes, so they
never did pay attention until it came to 100
and then 200. Now, we have almost 500 women
that have been murdered that way. Some of
them were killed by certain criminals, but
then some of them were copy cat crimes through
domestic violence. A lot of men knew that
if they had a fight with their wives or ex
wives or ex girlfriends and wanted to kill
them, they would copy cat the crime and drop
them there in the desert. Then nobody would
do anything because they think it's organized
crime, and organized crime is this huge monster
that nobody can touch. We've been living through
that for 10 years. I was one of the first
journalists that addressed that issue, and
everybody was saying, "Oh, you're crazy. This
is not going to increase." Now, most of these
crimes have not been solved. Some of them
have, now. Authorities keep saying that media
is exaggerating. But the mothers and fathers
of the kids have made a list of the children,
and we have demonstrated over and over again.
We took the case to the Inter American Court
the last, last year. Then the Inter American
court is about to rule and demand the Mexican
government to force some accountability on
that. Um, right now, Ciudad Ju·rez is having
a hard time to [indecipherable 1:04:48] . It's
almost a border town with California, I mean
with, yeah, with the southern part of the
United States. Ciudad Ju·rez...It's um, El
Paso. Sorry, yes, it's El Paso. Ciudad Ju·rez
has, right now, 7,000 soldiers controlling,
trying to control Ciudad Ju·rez because of
the war against drug, and they can't. Seven
thousand soldiers cannot hold Ciudad Ju·rez,
so that is a problem. I wish I had a good
answer for that, but I don't.
>>WOMAN 8:  Hello Lydia, and thank you for
being here. I guess in a lot of ways, being
specifically on this campus at U of M, we
as students are told that we are the leaders
and best. So when we find an issue that we
are passionate about, to really hold on to
it and create something new. Um, and I think
in a lot of ways we forget about the tools
that we already have, the things that are
already set in place that we can utilize and
refine now. So I want to ask what is it that
we can do to support you and also support
the foundation that you have in Cancun?
>>LYDIA:  That's a great question. I didn't
pay her anything. I swear. I didn't meet her
before.
Well, yeah, as you know, with the economic
crisis around the world, some people are just
taking all the grants away from NGOs all over
the world. Mexico is no different. So the
Ford Foundation, Pfizer, and all the big foundations
that were giving us grants, they took them
away this year in the middle of the year.
So now, we're in deep trouble with that.
Usually, what I do is every time I get an
award or something, I put the money there
and some money into my lawyers to defend me
from the bad guys, something like that. But
that is not enough. So if you want to do something,
you can organize a concert or something and
donate to Ciam, and maybe one of you can go
to the shelter and give it to the team. That
will be great.
[APPLAUSE]
>>WOMAN 9:  Hi Lydia. Thank you so much.
We're all honored to have you here with us.
You mentioned earlier that it doesn't matter
if you're from a more conservative background
or not, but I know there are certain people
who are more reluctant to openly talk about
sexuality and in that way address this issue
of trafficking and sex slavery. So how would
you recommend that we overcome this hesitation
to talk about the issue?
>>LYDIA:  Well, um, this is very strange,
but working on this book, going around the
world, I found that most of the NGOs that
are doing an incredible job around the world
have some links to religious groups working
against trafficking. And they are learning
the lesson. They have to talk about sexuality.
Some of them are doing great job, Christian,
Jewish, Catholic, Protestants. So, yes, it's
a possibility. I think that in every institution,
religious institution, you will find really
intelligent and helpful people that will understand
about sexuality and will know how to deal
with their own rules, religious rules, to
talk about these issues. I think that there's
no better way to do it than to look for this
person and then gather together and find ways
to make a commitment for the children. It
works. It does work. We work with Catholic
priests in Mexico that would not work in other
areas, but they do talk to young kids about
that because they know, they know they are
being gathered by the traffickers. It's not
easy, but there's always a way. Find one man
or one woman, and they will open the door.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC]
