She has lived in London since she was 19. Here she studies, fights and works as an educator. The twists and turns of her life led her to address challenges in public health and inequality in low-income populations, always with an eye on her Ecuadorean and Latin American communities.
Josefina Viano
At the age of 19, Mayra left Ecuador in search of better opportunities for her life, professional development and economic independence. In her home country the situation was hard and there were many economic difficulties. Her family, made up of nine siblings, was going through difficult times. In her own words: “I left with the aim of progressing, I travel with a friend. She told me her idea and in a month I prepared everything to leave. I remember that I didn’t dare say anything at a college. I went to class on a Friday morning and in the afternoon I was at the airport.” More than 3 years passed, the adaptation was not easy and a series of family misfortunes made her lose all her savings, achieved with sacrifice. So Mayra had to stay and decided to dedicate herself to studying hard.
“It was only after eight years of living in the UK that I was able to return to Ecuador, because I didn’t manage to get the documentation beforehand. When you arrive in another country, your previous studies are of no use and the language is a big obstacle. When I arrived in London, I only knew how to say hello, goodbye and thank you in English. So, I started to study the language and then I studied to become a dental hygienist and therapist”, she says.
Mayra finished that degree in 2006 and then went on to do a Bachelor’s degree in Dental Studies and a Master’s degree in Public Health. Since 2018 she has been a university lecturer in “Public Health” and “Ethical values of the profession” at the School of Health and Human Sciences at the University of Essex and has already completed several specialisations in the field.
Political activism
Before leaving Ecuador, Mayra had already travelled the paths of political activism and the struggle for rights.
Shortly after arriving in London, she reconnected with her experience and continued with her activism, together with other immigrants, thinking about Ecuador and paying attention to the changes in government: “I heard about Rafael Correa. I realised that he was a man of transformation, and here I began to meet many people. With other Ecuadorians, we began to organise ourselves to support Alianza País, now known as Revolución Ciudadana”. At that time, she actively participated in meetings, gatherings, cultural events, aimed at supporting the changes that were beginning to take place in Ecuador: “We organised ourselves as activists of the Citizen’s Revolution, we brought together people from all over Europe. We supported the party with effort and resources from here. And Correa became president. But later, when Lenin Moreno became president, we became very disillusioned with his government, we felt betrayed”.
For Mayra, behind the attacks and betrayals of left-wing movements in the region, “are the interests of the United States, who are after our resources. For those of us who get involved and want to change the reality of the most vulnerable sectors, it always costs us dearly. They use a lot of violence against us. This is what they demonstrated in Ecuador”.
A twist of life
Her political activism was shaped by her personal history: at the age of 37, she went to a doctor for a routine check-up, which did not turn out as expected. She had high cholesterol and was almost diabetic. This diagnosis was very shocking to her, as it didn’t match the healthy lifestyle she had at the time: exercise, good nutrition, good sleep.
These tests caught her attention. But she did not yet know that it would be a turning point in her story. This is how she recounts that moment: “When they did the tests, they took away many foods, except for the juices I drank every morning. I started researching, I went through libraries reading about the body and food. I came across a book about sugar by the great UK nutritionist John Yudkin, “Pure, white and deadly: how sugar is killing us and what can we do to stop it”. This book was censored by the sugar corporations who sought to destroy his reputation”. At this point, a series of discoveries began. In her words, “the sugar industries are very powerful corporations, which have a lot of influence on governments and the media, at all levels. Those who have the least access to information suffer the most from the consequences of sugar consumption”.
In her case, she stopped drinking those juices and the tests came back fine. But she knew that not everyone was so lucky. “We are talking about inequalities at the social level, about immigrants, about children, about remote and poorer populations, about the elderly”.
These issues are what she is interested in, they call her to go deeper, and to teach what she knows in her encampment: the classroom, with those who read and listen to her:
“I try to show my students a perspective, to tell them what is happening, to explain to them why some people do not have the opportunity, because of the structural conditions in which they develop, to have access to health, to well-being, to a long and healthy life”.
The place of battle
With her students she discusses the health system, not only in England and its regional differences, but also in the world. She tells them about the impact of the IMF on national public policies, the Free Trade Agreements, the role of the World Bank and the sugar multinationals: “In Latin America, in Africa, in large parts of Asia, there are communities that have no access to health, no access to information, no access to primary care, and this happens because there are no policies dedicated to prevention, to the freedom to decide how and what to feed our bodies with. We have to lower the rates of preventable diseases”, she says.
For this determined teacher and researcher by profession, her students are our professionals of the future, they are the ones who can prevent the pain and suffering of others: “My activism is to tell them about these issues, in the hope that one day they will show solidarity and dedicate themselves to transforming the existence of the poorest, those who suffer the most in society, those who nobody sees or listens to”.
The effects of sugar, and its invisibility, are issues that worry her and that has her currently very mobilised to the extent that: “I have even written several articles on the subject which, curiously, were deleted from the internet”.
Rights, health and politics: the same thing
Mayra is a person open to the changes that life brings, supportive and attentive to others, a worker and activist for free, universal public health, fair to others. Mayra educates, educates herself and fights from her place. From her political worldview, it is essential that “we demand that governments improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable people in terms of prevention and autonomy to decide what to consume and what not to consume. Because people are getting sick very young, without knowing it.
Politicians don’t like to get involved in public health,” she explains, “because changes in public health take a long time and mandates are short. Sugar is an issue that nobody wants to address. We have, for example, a global diabetes pandemic. The debate has to take place at all levels”. Her reflection is on how our rights, our health and the dominant economic system currently relate to each other.
A message to the reader
Her struggle is for universal access to information, for the truth to come out, for the visibility and awareness of our communities: “That people are aware of the negative impacts of sugar on our bodies, but also that people have a place to live, water, a decent life”.
As a conclusion, as a message to readers related to her own story, Mayra asks them “to fight, to organise, to seek the transformation of our communities through information and care for each other. And don’t underestimate the power of taking care of our bodies, don’t consume processed foods, bottled sugars, let’s consume what our ancestors consumed, from the earth to the table. Ultra-processed food may not kill you tomorrow but it will in the long run”.
(Translated by Rene Phelvin – email: renephelvin@gmail.com) – Photos supplied by the author and authorised for publication.
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