The Rhizome Center for Migrants

As I mentioned yesterday, I am in Guadalajara for a week of learning with the Rhizome Center for Migrants. The official name of the program is "U.S. Immigration Policies: Looking Beyond the Border."

The Rhizome Center is the brainchild of Tran Dang, a graduate of the University of Houston Law Center. She saw need for a nonprofit in Guadalajara dedicated to deportees from the United States, and she stepped up to fill that need.

Rhizome, by the by, is a botanical term. According to Wikipedia it is a "modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes." I personally like the Oxford dictionary definition, which adds that it is a stem that establishes "adventitious roots." It's an excellent  metaphor for the deportee community of this city.

The Rhizome Center for Migrants undertakes a wide variety of projects including, among others:

• Legal aid clinics -- helping deportees with their unique legal needs, such as accessing VA benefits and understanding paths for returning to the US.
• Advocacy on the rights of deportees (report writing, white papers, open letters)
• Working with US citizen kids and US-educated kids in Mexico to obtain their GEDs.
• Community outreach to the deportee community -- including essay and photo contests for kids as well as working with the organizers of the popular "Chicano Fest," to celebrate the US/Mexican culture that deportees experienced in the US

And, of course, running educational programs like the one I am now attending!

-KitJ