Art show: “Urban Midwives and Midwifery Centers: Territory, Sensitivity, and Care”
- Ángel Rodríguez Soto
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
“How do we sustain ourselves collectively? The conversation around midwifery must be on the public agenda—not just within the profession but also in the Ministry of Health, among historians, mothers; it must include men—it has to be everywhere,” stated midwife Isabel Block, who has 18 years of experience, during the recent Congress on Midwives and Chosen Motherhoods, held at the Institute for Philosophical Research of the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo (IIF-UMSNH). Her remarks came in response to the new regulations being developed for midwifery centers, which are clearly being crafted without the involvement of midwives themselves.
The exhibition “Urban Midwives and Midwifery Centers: Territory, Sensitivity, and Care”, presented by El Colegio de México (COLMEX) and the Luis Villoro Institute at UMSNH, opens this Friday, June 6, at La Jacaranda Cultural (Dr. Coss #4, Centro) in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. It showcases the ethnographic, documentary, aesthetic, and research work that Yaredh Marín has developed over the past ten years on respectful childbirth—a social and existential need that public institutions are not exempt from and must substantially integrate in order to guarantee women’s fundamental rights to bodily autonomy and freedom.
Yaredh Marín, curator and director of the exhibition, along with Paulette Gosen, midwife at Raíz Materna in Erongarícuaro, presented during the same congress a series of previously non-existent data on the precarious conditions faced by midwives and the impacts on their personal lives and mental health. These challenges stem from a lack of legal and institutional support, stigmatization by the public healthcare system, and the lack of social recognition for their work.
“It’s important to note that the practice of urban midwifery is often professionalized through empirical, autonomous knowledge rooted in a strong political commitment. These practices seek to build spaces that foster bodily autonomy, honor the capacity and right of women and gender-diverse people to make and act on their own choices, and encourage shared responsibility. The 38 pieces—photographs, oil paintings, photo-embroidery, and installations—are windows into that daily life. They show their faces, their hands—their primary tools—and invite us into their care processes,” explains Dr. Marín.
“Urban Midwives and Midwifery Centers…” invites us to immerse ourselves with all our senses in intimate urban spaces where care takes place. The exhibition features urban midwives in Mexico—women dedicated to sexual, reproductive, and community health in cities like Tijuana, Guadalajara, Morelia, Morelos, and Mexico City. In many cases, their journey into midwifery began as a response to violence they experienced or witnessed in dominant gynecological and obstetric care. Most urban midwives did not inherit their knowledge directly from traditional midwives—though they recognize them as the foundation of this knowledge system. Their training usually combines mentorship-based learning, attending midwifery schools in Mexico or abroad, and hands-on experience in midwifery centers. In Mexico, their working conditions remain fragile, precarious, and ambiguously recognized by the State.
The exhibition includes work by Abril Zapote, Renata Garza Rosaldo, Polina Menchikova, Ricardo López/Yaredh Marín, Alejandra Sánchez, and a sound piece by Dunia Verona. It opens with a live testimony from psychologist, writer, activist, and medicine woman Mariana Freysinier on Friday, June 6 at 6:06 p.m., as part of International Home Birth Day. The show will run until June 17, celebrating and recognizing the work of midwives and encouraging dialogue about this vital, though often invisible, profession that concerns all of society.
Visit the exhibition through June 17 at La Jacaranda Cultural (Dr. Coss #4, Centro, Pátzcuaro), open Wednesday to Monday, from 12:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Free admission.
Ángel Rodríguez Soto (Mexico City, 1983) is a graffiti writer and author of fiction and nonfiction. Gambling debts and the memory of his grandmother brought him to Michoacán, where he is currently studying linguistics to complement his background in philosophy.
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