When Strangers Become Family: The Role of Civil Society in Addressing the Needs of Aging Populations

267 Pages·2022·5.392 MB·264\267

by  Ronald Angel, Veronica Montes-De-Oca Zavala

When Strangers Become Family
Asthe21stCenturyunfolds,thetraditionalwelfarestatethatevolvedduring
the 20th Century faces serious threats to the solidarity that social programs
weremeanttostrengthen.Theriseofpopulistandnationalistpartiesreflects
thedeclineofasenseofbelongingandinclusivenessthatmasseducationand
economicprogressweremeanttofoster,astraditionalpoliticsandpartiesare
rejected byworking- andmiddle-class individuals who were previously their
staunchest supporters. Increasingly, these groups reject the growing gaps in
income, power, and privilege that they perceive between themselves and
highlyeducatedandcosmopolitanbusiness,academic,andpoliticalelites.
When Strangers Become Family examines the potential role of civil society
organizationsinguaranteeingtherightsandaddressingtheneedsofvulnerable
groups, paying particular attention to their role in advocacy for and service
delivery to older people. The book includes a discussion of the origins and
functions of this sector that focuses on the relationship between the state and
non-governmental organizations, as well as a close examination of Mexico – a
middle-income nation with a rapidly aging population and limited state wel-
fare for older people. The data reveals important aspects of the relationship
among government actors, civil society organizations, and political parties.
RonaldAngelandVerónicaMontes-de-OcaZavalaaskthefundamentalques-
tionabouttheextent to whichcivilsociety organizationsrepresentapotential
mechanism whereby vulnerable individuals can join together to further their
owninterestsandexercisetheirindividualandgroupautonomy.
Ronald J. Angel is Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas-Austin
and coauthor, along with Jacqueline L. Angel, of Family, Intergenerational
Solidarity,andPost-TraditionalSocietyandLatinosinanAgingWorld.
VerónicaMontes-de-OcaZavalaisProfessorofSociologyandDemography
at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). She is the
authorofEnvejecimientoenAméricaLatinayelCaribe.
Aging and Society
Edited by Carroll L. Estes and Assistant Editor Nicholas DiCarlo
This pioneering series of books creatively synthesizes and advances key, inter-
sectionaltopicsingerontologyandagingstudies.Drawingfromchangingand
emerging issues in gerontology, influential scholars combine research into
human development and the life course; the roles of power, policy, and parti-
sanship;raceandethnicity;inequality;genderandsexuality;andculturalstudies
tocreateamulti-dimensionalandessentialpictureofmodernaging.
Aging A – Z:
Concepts toward Emancipatory Gerontology (2019)
Carroll L. Estes with Nicholas DiCarlo
The Privatization of Care:
The Case of Nursing Homes (2020)
Pat Armstrong, Hugh Armstrong et al.
Age and the Research of Sociological Imagination:
Power, Ideology, and the Life Course (2021)
Dale Dannefer
When Strangers Become Family:
The Role of Civil Society in Addressing the Needs of Aging
Populations (2021)
Ronald Angel and Verónica Montes-de-Oca Zavala
For more information about this series, please visit:
https://www.routledge.com/Aging-and-Society/book-series/AGINGSOC
When Strangers Become
Family
The Role of Civil Society in Addressing
the Needs of Aging Populations
Ronald J. Angel and Verónica
Montes-de-Oca Zavala
Firstpublished2022
byRoutledge
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Angel,Ronald,author.|MontesdeOcaZavala,Verónica,
author.
Title:Whenstrangersbecomefamily:theroleofcivilsocietyin
addressingtheneedsofagingpopulations/RonaldAngel,Verónica
Montes-de-OcaZavala.
Description:NewYork,NY:Routledge,2021.|
Series:Agingandsociety|Includesbibliographicalreferences.
Identifiers:LCCN2021012634|ISBN9781032071466(hardback)|
ISBN9780367459994(paperback)|ISBN9781003205609(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Olderpeople--Servicesfor.|Olderpeople--Services
for--Mexico.|Olderpeople--Servicesfor--UnitedStates.|
Populationaging--Socialaspects--Mexico.|Populationaging--Social
aspects--UnitedStates.|Non-governmentalorganizations--Mexico.|
Non-governmental organizations--UnitedStates.
Classification:LCCHV1451.A67462021|DDC362.60972--dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021012634
ISBN:978-1-032-07146-6(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-367-45999-4(pbk)
ISBN:978-1-003-20560-9(ebk)
DOI:10.4324/9781003205609
TypesetinGaramond
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgements vii
1 Struggling Collectively for Truth and Justice 1
2 Defamilisation and the Welfare State: A Life-Long
Commitment 32
3 Elder Rights in the Context of the New Human Rights
Discourse 59
4 Active Aging and Citizenship 81
5 The Political and Legal Contexts of Eldercare in Mexico 106
6 Labor Unions and the Struggle for Political Power 131
7 Improving the Quality of Life 158
8 The Expanding Human Rights Agenda 188
9 Illiberal Democracy and the Future of Civil Society 218
The Study: A Grounded Theoretical Approach 239
Index 247
Illustrations
Figures
3.1 International and/or regional meetings and documents relevant
to ageing in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2002–2017. 74
7.1 Hierarchy of organizations that promote quality of life among
the most disabled. 166
Table
7.1 Characteristics of Mexico City and states in which interviews
were conducted 168
Acknowledgements
We want to thank the large number of individuals who make this project
possible. Primarily, we thank the older individuals who shared their life
experiences and who contributed their time. We also thank the leaders
and members of the civil society organizations and other groups who
volunteered their time and recounted their struggles for human rights and
shared with us their dedication to fighting for the rights and satisfying the
political, material, and psychological needs of older people. From them
we learned that a society that dignifies old age is a society that ensures the
dignity of everyone and insures its future.
In addition, we are grateful for the financial support of the National
Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) through the General Direc-
torate of Academic Personnel Affairs (DGAPA) and the Support Program
for Research and Technological Innovation Projects (PAPIIT) with project
number IG300517 “Active aging and citizenship. Government mechan-
isms for social inclusion, poverty reduction and inequality in older adults
in Mexico” (2017–2019). Additional funding for data analysis was pro-
vided by the Policy Research Institute-International Program, LBJ School
of Public Affairs, and the Research Center for Minority Aging Research
(NIA grant number 5P30AG059301–02) at the University of Texas,
Austin. The Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales of UNAM (IISUNAM)
provided invaluable administrative support to the project.
We are particularly grateful to dedicated members of the research team,
whose insights and close attention to detail made the field experience a
success. They conducted the interviews with great skill. We appreciate
their time and dedication, as well as their valuable intellectual and prac-
tical input. We wish to give special thanks to the following individuals:
María Del Pilar Alonso Reyes (Faculty of Sciences (FC-UNAM)); José
Antonio Flores Diaz (FC-UNAM); Alma Miriam Bermúdez Espinosa
(National School of Social Work (ENTS-UNAM)); Gina Irene Villagómez
Valdés (Autonomous University of Yucatán (UADY-Yucatán, Mexico));
Feliciano Villar Posada (Barcelona University (UB-Spain)); Rodrigo Serrat
Fernández (UB-Spain); María Del Rocío Enríquez Rosas (ITESO-Mexico);
viii Acknowledgements
RosauraAvalosPérez(ENTS-UNAM);FerminaRojoPérez(ConsejoSuperior
de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC-Spain)); Gloria Fernández-Mayoralas
Fernández (CSIC-Spain); Vicente Rodríguez Rodríguez (CSIC-Spain); María
Concepción Arroyo Rueda (UJED-Mexico); Paola Carmina Gutiérrez Cuellar
(Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales de la Universidad de Baja California-
Mexico); Patricia Rea Ángeles (IISUNAM-Conacyt Chairs-Mexico); Sagrario
Garay Villegas (Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL-Mexico));
Ana Fidelia Aparicio Trejo (Seminario Universitario Interdisciplinario sobre
Envejecimiento y Vejez (SUIEV-UNAM)); Edith Hernández (SUIEV-
UNAM); Karla Pérez Guadarrama (SUIEV-UNAM); and Paola Magdaleno
(SUIEV-UNAM).
Chapter 1
Struggling Collectively for
Truth and Justice
Since the end of the repressive dictatorships and political violence that
gripped Latin America during the second half of the 20th Century, the
subcontinent has engaged in an ongoing process of recovery that involves
coming to terms with that violent past (Monsiváis 1987; Poniatowska
1980; Villalón 2017). Individual identities, as well as collective identities,
require that distorted and false images of the past be corrected (Garrard
2017; Jelin and Kaufman 2006). Memories and narratives structure the
past, which determine the possibilities for the present and future (Hancock
2016; Lechner and Güell 2006). Forgetting the past does not negate or
even diminish its power over the present, it simply allows that influence to
remain invisible, as in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ fictional rendition in Cien
Años de Soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude) of the actual Banana
Strike Massacre that took place in Ciénaga, Colombia in 1928 (Márquez
1993 pp. 257–267).
The tale, which takes place in the fictional town of Macondo, poign-
antly captures the reality of historical denial. The massacre occurred when
striking workers, who were demanding better working conditions, were
fired upon by the military. In Marquez’ fictional account, José Arcadio
Segundo, one of the several generations of the Buendía family whose lives
unfold in the novel, is the sole survivor of the massacre and awakens in a
train filled with corpses that are being taken to be thrown into the sea to
destroy the evidence. José Arcadio escapes and returns to Macondo where
everyone assures him that nothing has happened; he is unable to convince
anyone that the government’s account that the strike ended peacefully and
that the strikers simply went home is untrue. Denial and propaganda
wiped the events from living memory, or at least from public discourse,
but with reference to the real massacre not everyone forgot.
Todayastheresultofdemandsbycivilsocietyorganizations,memoryand
truthcommissionshavebeensetupinmanynationstokeepthememoriesof
past atrocities alive and to demand redress. Early efforts met with resistance
from the state and were often unable to immediately determine the truth.
One such case was the Matanza de Tlatelolco (Tlatelolco massacre) that took
DOI: 10.4324/9781003205609-1