Andrew Mejia, a Garifuna student of Dangriga Town, alleges that the bureaucracy derailed his plans to earn a degree in veterinary medicine at the Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas (UAT).
But insult was added to injury by his reception in the northeastern Mexican state.
In a communication sent to Amandala on Tuesday, Mejia told us that from the moment he stepped on the campus on August 24 in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, after traveling 50 hours from Dangriga, attempts to make himself at home were rebuffed by native Mexican students who called him racial names.
Mejia, who says he has a passion for livestock and animal husbandry and wants to become a veterinarian, successfully applied through the local Mexican Embassy in Belmopan for a scholarship in veterinary medicine in 2008, but the staff at the UAT kept turning him around and made it difficult for him to confirm his enrollment there.
Apart from a few friendly faces, Mejia contends that he was the victim of continuous attacks upon his race and skin color. “…I heard only Negro this and Negro that coming out of their mouth. On my way to school in the school bus … those that hated the color of my skin (made it worse). They would shout things like “Go home, Negro”, “We don’t want you here”, “black monkey” and too many more to mention. My integrity and self-esteem were challenged daily,” he wrote.
The abuse reached critical mass at an event called the “Novatada”, a traditional welcome ceremony for first year students. Mejia explains:
“At this event, all male students were first made to hold hands from under the crotch of the person in front of you. As I was standing in the line waiting to do my part, I notice a huge scuffle around me. I tried to tell myself that they were only playing around and acting like children, but I was only being naïve, for I could plainly see that they were fighting with each other about who will hold the hand of the ‘negrito’, as if I was some sort of hideous and disgusting animal.
“A couple of the students saw what was happening and felt bad; (they) came and decided to play the event with me. After seeing what had happened, I felt extremely bad, one of the lowest points in my life. They wanted me to feel less than human, but I didn’t grant them that wish, for I held my head up high.
“The second phase of the event was to pass through a crowd of about 200 students, while they would hit us with whatever object they had. Well, for those that didn’t want me there, they really took advantage at this point, for I was kicked, pushed, whipped, slapped and even spit on. They said that it was a part of the novatada, but even some of the students there said that it was too much.”
Mejia decided to seek relief at the UAT administration office, but according to those he spoke with, “racism doesn’t exist in Mexico; the Mexicans play around with each other like that all the time, the name calling will soon stop and I will get use to it real soon.”
“How would I ever get used to being called a black monkey? How will I get used to people telling me to go home on a daily basis? How will I get used to being spit on? If it meant spending 5 years of my life living this way to get a veterinary degree, then I would prefer not getting that degree at all,” Mejia said.
Sticking to his principle, Mejia left UAT and returned home. While he says “the bitter memories will haunt me forever,” his dream of being a veterinarian remains intact.
Mejia, who has an associate degree in agriculture from the University of Belize (UB) at Central Farm, plans to return to UB to try for a Bachelor’s in either biology or natural resources. He plans to make a formal complaint to the local embassy in Belmopan and present documents outlining his case.
For those who would suggest he’s being “thin-skinned”, Mejia has this to say: “When I was growing up, I was always told to keep my head up when challenged and not to allow anyone to batter my self-esteem. To avoid getting into any problems in a foreign land, I decided to come to ‘home sweet home’.”