The Woman of Stars and Mountains

Rita Patiño, an indigenous woman from Mexico, was found by a human rights organization inside a Kansas psychiatric hospital, where she had been involuntarily confined, for 12 years, despite the fact that the hospital authorities were never able to determine who was this woman, where did she come from, or what language she spoke. After the consequences of confinement and medical negligence, Rita returned to Mexico, where she lives with Juanita, her niece, and primary caregiver, in a context of precarious economic possibilities. A moving portrait of the lives of these two Tarahumara women, questioning the multiple forms of racism and discrimination that indigenous women in Mexico and the United States face. Rita Patiño, an indigenous woman from Mexico, was found by a human rights organization inside a Kansas psychiatric hospital, where she had been involuntarily confined, for 12 years, despite the fact that the hospital authorities were never able to determine who was this woman, where did she come from, or what language she spoke. After the consequences of confinement and medical negligence, Rita returned to Mexico, where she lives with Juanita, her niece, and primary caregiver, in a context of precarious economic possibilities. A moving portrait of the lives of these two Tarahumara women, questioning the multiple forms of racism and discrimination that indigenous women in Mexico and the United States face. Rita Patiño, an indigenous woman from Mexico, was found by a human rights organization inside a Kansas psychiatric hospital, where she had been involuntarily confined, for 12 years, despite the fact that the hospital authorities were never able to determine who was this woman, where did she come from, or what language she spoke. After the consequences of confinement and medical negligence, Rita returned to Mexico, where she lives with Juanita, her niece, and primary caregiver, in a context of precarious economic possibilities. A moving portrait of the lives of these two Tarahumara women, questioning the multiple forms of racism and discrimination that indigenous women in Mexico and the United States face. Rita Patiño, an indigenous woman from Mexico, was found by a human rights organization inside a Kansas psychiatric hospital, where she had been involuntarily confined, for 12 years, despite the fact that the hospital authorities were never able to determine who was this woman, where did she come from, or what language she spoke. After the consequences of confinement and medical negligence, Rita returned to Mexico, where she lives with Juanita, her niece, and primary caregiver, in a context of precarious economic possibilities. A moving portrait of the lives of these two Tarahumara women, questioning the multiple forms of racism and discrimination that indigenous women in Mexico and the United States face.