In Male-Dominated Field, Workshops Combat Violence at Home and Work

SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS, MEXICO — Gentle music plays in 23-year-old Juan Carlos Ton Gómez’s microbus, known locally as a kombi, as he drives Ruta 1, one of San Cristóbal de Las Casas’ main transportation routes. Passengers hop in and out as he cruises past the central market, the municipal administration building, schools and a diverse array of commercial zones.

There are around 450 kombi drivers, or choferes, as they’re locally known, in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, and they are essential. With 55 drivers and connecting major thoroughfares, Ruta 1 alone is used by approximately 6,000 people daily, the route’s managers say.

But all over Mexico, public transportation isn’t always safe for women and girls. A 2020 study by the Mexican government found that 1 in 5 women in Mexico has faced sexual harassment in public spaces, and 7 in 10 feel unsafe on public transportation — more than in the street or in public parks.

With that in mind, Ruta 1’s managers came up with a unique idea: In 2021, they asked the city’s Department of Gender Equity to design a series of workshops for the drivers to identify and prevent violence and sexual assault on the route. At the time, under the city’s previous administration, the department regularly provided such workshops to community groups and workplaces.

“We thought that if we worked with the transportation workers … they could become allies in combating [sexual] harassment,” says Adela Bonilla, the department’s director at the time.

Bonilla notes how few public service providers requested workshops of that nature during her tenure — let alone those dominated by a male workforce, such as the kombi system. “Speaking about equality, violence and sexism requires personal work. It requires reflection. And not all of us are ready to do it,” she says. “The men of Ruta 1 are forging their own path for a life without violence.”

The choferes of Ruta 1 have set a new standard for transportation safety in this Mexican city.

Adriana Alcázar González, GPJ Mexico

Kombi drivers attend an event against gender violence organized by Doctors of the World, an international human rights organization, in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. The organization invited the drivers to participate in the campaign after facilitating a series of workshops on the same topic in 2021.

The Department of Gender Equity’s staff as well as professionals from Doctors of the World, an international human rights organization, led the workshops. Antonio Córdova, general coordinator of Ruta 1, says the workshops were held on a biweekly or monthly basis, and were free for the route’s workers, all of whom attended.

Workshop leaders asked participants to recall experiences from childhood and adolescence, and how they shaped their understanding of what it means to be a man or father.

Through drawings and storytelling, they revisited meaningful — and sometimes painful — memories of the men and women who served as role models for them growing up, then reflected on gender inequality, discrimination and violence.

“They teach you how to treat people, to be a better person … to be nonviolent men, to live without anger. And it shows in our behavior with our passengers and families,” says Ton Gómez, who attended the workshops in 2021.

Córdova adds that because the route passes many schools, it’s important that families trust the choferes with their children. “We make sure to give them good work conditions, so they don’t change routes or jobs so easily,” he says. “This helps users to recognize them and trust them.”

Lucía Moshan, a housewife who’s been riding Ruta 1 kombis for about 10 years, appreciates the choferes’ conduct. “On this route we haven’t heard of choferes who harass or act rude with the girls. On other routes we have, though,” she says. “You always hear about rude or even arrogant choferes. Here you find out about everything because the neighbors spread the word if there is a problem.”

Viridiana Sánchez, an attorney who uses Ruta 1 sometimes several times a day for work, says she feels safe in the kombis. “I know almost all the choferes. I don’t know their names, but I know their faces,” she says. “They’re considerate, and they wait calmly and carefully for us to get on and off.” She adds, “On other routes, the choferes seem to be in a hurry. They’re rude or they drive aggressively. Sometimes they even fight with passengers.”

Adriana Alcázar González, GPJ Mexico

Lucía Moshan, a housewife, pays her fare to a kombi driver in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. Moshan has been riding Ruta 1, which traverses the city’s main thoroughfares, for a decade.

San Cristóbal de Las Casas’ current administration offers gender-based violence workshops through the Coordination for Crime Prevention, but currently isn’t working with kombi drivers, says that department’s director, Gloribeth Domínguez González. Doctors of the World is in talks with other routes’ drivers with aims to hold similar workshops for them this year, says the nongovernmental organization’s coordinator for the gender-based violence projects, Irene Ragazzini.

Córdova says that even though these workshops were designed to combat violence at the workplace, many of Ruta 1’s drivers reflected on issues that impacted their home life.

“When we’ve concluded the workshops, we’ve done a final event in which we’ve asked them to invite their families, their children, whoever they wanted, and it was really emotional,” Córdova says. “Many have said they didn’t want to be absent fathers or husbands who only come home at night … that they want to spend their free time with their families rather than going out with friends to play football or drink.”

Agustín Gómez Díaz, who’s been a Ruta 1 chofer for over 15 years, has attended many workshops, usually on road safety and first aid, and says the gender violence classes were the most unique. “I thought about how I relate to my colleagues, passengers and even my family. And I saw that there are things I have to change, like my attitude or my scolding,” he says.

Ton Gómez says that during the workshops he was able to interact with colleagues of all ages, learning from the older ones and identifying types of violence he does not want to repeat when he has his own family.

“We must always be aware of what is happening around us, watching our passengers, the pedestrians, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, sirens. We have to be aware of everything in the street and in our families,” says Ton Gómez as he picks up speed to head out in his kombi.

Adriana Alcázar González, GPJ Mexico

Agustín Gómez Díaz drives a kombi through San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. He has been a chofer, as the drivers are locally known, for over 15 years.