Connecting the Dots in La Paz, B.C.S., Mexico
It has been a while since my last post -- 6 months. Part of the backlog is a mental model stating that I need to post things chronologically. The more time passes, the bigger the backlog grows. I'm getting over it and will fill in the gaps later, where and when I can.
The chronological posts I am skipping for now:
Ardent repairs are almost done, in addition to numerous upgrades. We are splashing her on April 1, 2025.
The feedback and support I received from the last post were nothing short of a miracle for me. Thank you to everyone who responded.
Sailing along the eastern shores of Baja in the Sea of Cortez, based in La Paz, since Nov 2024-March 2025
The idea for this post started while reading a book called Infectious Generosity. I think I started it because I noticed it had been endorsed by Bill Gates as a philanthropic starting point. There is a project in that book where $2M donated had a ripple effect of generating $200M in donations.
I wanted to see what kind of ripples of our own we could create. Our experience in La Paz and Baja has been so heartwarming, and we wanted to give back somehow. I didn't know where to start, so I used an AI app to help me come up with a list of 10 non-profits in the La Paz area. Then I asked for contact information, and it gave me the info for five of them. I contacted those; two replied, and we had the chance to meet with one of them before heading back to the States -- Centro Mujeres (www.centromujeres.org). I'll do my best to tell the incredible story of this organization and the two women that started it 30 years ago. But a little more background on the genesis of this post first.
Leaving a Clean Wake
I'd been pondering for several weeks about how to write this post and somewhat dragging my feet, mostly from not knowing where to start. Then I received an email from Michael (Mike) Harvey -- one of my first friends when I first moved to Seattle in 1989 -- about a website he and his daughter (Vienna) started called Leaving a Clean Wake. (https://www.leavingacleanwake.com/). He asked me if I'd write a post on a topic of my choosing. Between that prompt and our meeting today, it lit the fire.
Mike and Vienna go into great detail on their thoughts about leaving a clean wake. I'm going to paraphrase their thoughts and add my own color. It's a concept that goes a bit further than "leaving no trace" because it acknowledges that we always leave some kind of wake or trail. We have an impact no matter how lightly we try to tread. If that's the case, then let's make it as clean as possible.
They also make a very valid point that that wake is not only physical (garbage, carbon footprint, etc.) but relational -- what is the experience people have of having been in our presence? Ideally, it is clean as well.
Living on a sailboat for the last year, we are pretty aware of these concepts, both physically and relationally. That being said, we still have a lot of things we can do to leave a cleaner wake. If you read my last post, you know I'm a work in progress in terms of emotional volatility.
But here's the fork I'd like to take in terms of my wake. I'm a firm believer in the law of attraction, a principle that dictates you get what you pay attention to. It's not about whether you want something or not, but what you give your energy to. There is a lot of negativity in the news, and it's tempting to get all riled up about it and "fight it" by exposing it. All that does is give it more energy. If a wake is bad or dirty, far better in my opinion to leave it alone and just let it die out without giving it energy. I get riled up plenty, but in my better moments I try to stay the course.
The action required in this case is clarity on what one actually wants -- and/or what is "good" -- and giving that energy. For my written thoughts, I aim to have the most impact by noticing the clean wake that others are leaving and amplifying it. That's the genius that Chris Anderson writes about in Infectious Generosity.
In that regard, I'm going to amplify the wake that an organization in La Paz is leaving.
The Centro Mujeres Meeting
On to the Centro Mujeres story. On our last Friday in La Paz, we showed up early for our scheduled meeting with one of the co-directors of Centro Mujeres, Teresa Shields. The other co-director, Monica Jasis, showed up shortly.
This is a center for women of all ages. Beyond that, I really don't know much about the problems they are trying to address or the solutions they provide. Over the next couple of hours, they describe the myriad of issues that women face in Mexico and the specific subset that is exacerbated in Baja.
It is complicated, and my head is spinning. I'm guessing that at least in part that's why it doesn't get much news coverage in the age of sound bites. I'm also in awe of what these two women have been able to accomplish over a year period. I will try to connect the dots on a couple of the issues that I could wrap my head around.
Teenage Pregnancy
Teresa started by discussing the widespread issue of teenage pregnancy in Baja. Girls as young as 11–14 are becoming pregnant. Legally, it’s sexual abuse—but because older boyfriends (often 18–20) bring money or gifts into households, it’s frequently overlooked.
Centro Mujeres created a program that educates and empowers youth—covering everything from reproductive health to decision-making and relationship dynamics. The results are dramatic: schools with 20 pregnancies per year drop to zero or one after implementing the program.
The only barrier to scaling? Funding for training and deployment. The demand is there. Willing facilitators are, too.
Migrant Labor
Unless one pays absolutely no attention to current events, it would be hard to escape the rhetoric of immigrant issues facing the United States and Mexico. But just because one pays attention doesn't mean one has clarity on what the real issues are and even less about how to solve them. With that plethora of information, it is easy to get tunnel vision that all the problems regarding Mexican immigrants in the U.S. I was enlightened a bit on the topic during our meeting.
As it turns out, Mexico has migrant worker issues of their own. There is a cycle of migrant workers that start from the poorer states where there are no or few jobs that pay a living wage -- Oaxaca, Puebla, Chiapas, Guerrero, Veracruz, Michoacán. This creates a flow of migrant workers that travel to Baja California Sur (B.C.S., of which La Paz is the capital) to work the fields. When the season is over in B.C.S. some migrate from Baja to Sinaloa on the mainland and then back to there home state in the south. Others continue north and cross the border into the U.S. For those that migrate, the pay is not much better, but at least there is work. Often the fields are far away from any resources, and the only option for provisioning from their meager wages is from company stores. Services like health care, housing, and childcare are provided to Mexican citizens regardless of the state they are from or where they are currently living. Yet many of these women are not aware of these rights and are denied the benefits from their home states under the pretense that they are not living in that state, and likewise denied benefits from Baja because their home state is not in Baja.
The services that Centro Mujeres provides are to educate leaders in these communities about their rights and managers in the companies they work for about their legal obligations to provide services. With that awareness and education, huge shifts are made for these migrant workers that increase their health, welfare, and productivity, which in turn benefits the organizations they are working for.
Laura and I both felt moved to support Centro Mujeres. If this post stirs something in you, let me know—or reach out to them directly. It would mean a lot to them to know that their time with us mattered.
One last “dot” at Gratitude Coffee
And one last “dot” to connect.
After our meeting, we rode the wave of inspiration to Gratitude Coffee—our favorite hangout in La Paz. I’d met the owner, Sergio, during a coffee tasting in 2023–24. In just two years, he’s transformed his tiny alley shop into a thriving café rooted in fair trade.
Sergio believes in paying growers a price they can actually live on. That means about $1 per cup instead of $0.50 ($20/lb vs $10/lb)—a small shift for us, a life-altering one for the farmer.
Gratitude Coffee was serving beans from the very five Mexican states most affected by migration. Buying coffee consciously won’t solve everything—but it can chip away at the roots of the issues organizations like Centro Mujeres are working to mend.
Fair Trade bean from Gratitude Coffee, grown in states that generate a majority of the migrant population.