Founder and General Coordinator
Congreso Morelense Interescolar sobre Sexualidad Humana
Last update: May 2010
Antón Castellanos Usigli is a Mexican youth born on July 25th 1988. He is a Psychology student at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, a private Jesuit university, and he has always distinguished himself for having an excellent academic record. When he finished middle school at the Williams School of Cuernavaca, he received, apart from many awards from his own school, a Diploma from the office of the President of Mexico signed by President Vicente Fox for having obtained the best average of his graduating class. At the end of high school he obtained, for the second time (the first one was when he finished middle school), the "Camilo J. Williams" Medal that recognized him as the best student of his class. Among his achievements in languages, he obtained the Certificate of Proficiency in English from the University of Cambridge and the Diploma in French Studies Level B2 (Diplôme d'études en langue français B2). From 2003 to 2007, he took classical singing lessons to train his tenor voice.
In 2004, and due to a research he made on unprotected sexual relationships among Mexican youth, he began to feel interest in sexology and sex education. Aware of the sexual health problems of Mexico and with the desire to improve the sex education given at his high school, he proposed and single organized the "Williams School's Human Sexuality Conference" as an 18-year old senior. The lectures of the Conference were delivered by experienced sexologists of the prestigious Mexican Association for Sexual Health: María Sánchez-Cordero Dávila, Nadine Terrein Roccatti, Adriana Guadalupe López García, Olivia Guerrero Figueroa and Alma Aldana.
In the summer after his high school studies, Antón attended an International Conference on Sexuality, Diversity and Families in the Federal Chamber of Deputies in Mexico City, where he met Vladimir Luxuria, a transgender member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. Antón sang Ms. Luxuria a short "O' sole mio" outside the conference room and was heard by the organizers of the event, who invited him to sing at the closing ceremony of the Conference. He sang The impossible dream from Man of La Mancha and John Lennon's Imagine.
In july 2007 Antón started to study the Certificate Course in Human Sexuality of the Mexican Association for Sexual Health, which lasted 10 months. After the presentation of the final projects of his class before a jury of top specialists in sexuality education belonging to the Association, his project (a workshop against homophobia) was the most praised of all. Antón finished the Certificate Course with the highest average of his generation (9.8) and remains the youngest student in the history of the Association (he was 18-years old when he began the Certificate Course).
Driven by his interest in forensic psychology and sexual psychopathology, Antón studied a 3 months course entitled "The serial killer in literature and cinema" at the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana (Cloister of Sor Juana University), a liberal arts university located in Mexico's City Historical Center.
In November 2007 Antón attended the V International Congress "From sexuality to criminality" (V Congreso Internacional "De lo sexual a lo criminal"), organized by the Department of Psychology of the Autonomous University of Puebla and a Psychotherapy Center in Puebla (Centro Multidiciplinario en Psicoterapia, A.C.). During the Congress, Antón took a workshop on Lacan's psychology with Eleazar Correa, a psychoanalyst from the University of Paris and former Director of the Department of Psychology at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.
From December 2007 through August 2008 Antón had the opportunity to participate on a weekly basis with a section on human sexuality in a radio program called "Información es poder" (Information is power), that had its transmissions from Monday to Friday (from 8:30 am to 9:00 am) on "Universal FM", one radio station belonging to the Direction of Radio and TV of the State Congress of Morelos. Each Tuesday during the mentioned 8-month period, Antón talked about numerous topics from scientific and human rights perspectives: the definition of sexuality, self-esteem and assertiveness, sexual rights, fears over sex education, unwanted pregnancies among teenagers, human papillomavirus (HPV), trichomoniasis, Sternberg's triangular theory of love, limerence, teen dating violence, infidelity, current theories on the genesis of homosexuality, the American Psychological Association's positions on homosexuality, gay marriage and gay parenting, homophobia, the Mexican legislative reforms on sex education, child sexual abuse, birth control, condom use, the XVII International Aids Conference, etc.
In January 2008 Antón traveled to Cuba, to the IV Cuban Congress of Sexuality Education, Sexual Counseling and Sex Therapy, organized by the National Center for Sex Education (Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual, CENESEX). During the Congress, he interviewed sexologist Mariela Castro Espín (Director of the CENESEX and daughter of the Cuban President, Raúl Castro) on the Cuban efforts to promote scientific sexuality education and social acceptance towards sexual diversity. When Antón returned to Cuernavaca, he presented the interview in the radio program he participated in.
Convinced of the importance of raising sexual health awareness among Cuernavaca's schools and society, Antón decided to create in September 2007, as a 19-year old youth, the "Congreso Morelense Interescolar sobre Sexualidad Humana", a Human Sexuality Conference that would gather high schools of Cuernavaca to promote scientific and human rights-based sexuality education. Aided with a single Power Point presentation, he started presenting his project to the authorities of many private institutions. At last, four schools (the Williams School, the Lancaster School, the Hellen Keller School and the Tec Milenio University) decided to participate in (and fund) the First Congress, which took place at the Tec Milenio University, March 3rd-March 7th 2008. Eusebio Rubio-Aurioles, President of the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS) and David Sánchez Camacho, a federal deputy, inaugurated the Congress. Over 450 students attended lectures on themes related to the components of human sexuality: Parenthood, unwanted pregnancies, birth control, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), erotic alternatives for teenagers to prevent unwanted pregnancies and STIs, sexual dysfunctions, human sexual response, transsexualism, gender equality, "machismo", sexually diverse families, homosexuality, bisexuality, teen dating violence, love and limerence, romantic relationships, etc. Lecturers included top specialists, like Marina Castañeda Gutman (a Harvard graduate and author of The homosexual experience), Juan Guillermo Figueroa, (a researcher who obtained a PhD at the University of Paris and focuses on masculinity and reproductive health), Luis Perelman Javnozon (President of the Mexican Federation of Sex Education and Sexology), María Sánchez-Cordero Dávila (President of the Mexican Association for Sexual Health), Alma Aldana (past Coordinator of the Program of Sexual Diversity of the National Council to Prevent Discrimination, CONAPRED), etc.
As his final project of the Certificate Course in Human Sexuality, Antón decided to design and conduct a workshop against homophobia in Cuernavaca. The workshop took place at the Lancaster School of Cuernavaca in May 2008 and it gathered teenagers and high school teachers.
In August 2008 Antón attended the XVII International Aids Conference in Mexico City, thanks to a scholarship that the Carso Health Institute gave him for his work in the promotion of scientific sexuality education.
In the first days of October 2008, Antón participated in the V Congress of the Mexican Association for Sexual Health, that took place at the beautiful old School of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (formerly the Palace of the Inquisition). In the Congress, he presented the work Dahmer: Perspectives from John Money's theories on sexual psychopathology, where he analyzed the case of reknowed serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer through John Money's theories on lovemaps and paraphilias. Antón also presented the results of the homophobia workshop he conducted in Cuernavaca, and conducted a three-hour session of it with participants of the Congress.
The Second Inter-scholar Congress of Human Sexuality organized by Antón, entitled Learning for new realities, developed through March 9th-13th 2009 at the National Institute of Public Health with the participation of three schools and two NGO's (the Mexican Association for Sexual Health and CIDHAL, an association that focuses on gender equality and women rights).
The Congress was inaugurated on March 9th by Laura Magaña (Academic Director of National Institute of Public Health), Eusebio Rubio-Aurioles (President of the World Association for Sexual Health), Luis Perelman Javnozon (President of the Mexican Federation of Sex Education and Sexology) and Alfonso Alcalá (Director of Morelos' HIV/Aids Program). In the speech he gave in the inauguration ceremony, Antón urged the mentioned specialists to retake advocacy actions to demand the creation of a National Institute of Sexuality Education that would depend on the Ministry of Public Education.
The Second Congress was very innovative, as students attended 5 different lectures according to the school year they belonged to (15 lectures in total). For 10th Graders: Eroticism in romantic relationships, Birth control, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), In equality or inequality: ¿how do men and women learn to live their sexuality?, and Introduction to the science of homosexuality and homophobia. For 11th Graders: Psychological tools for a functional romantic relationship, Violence in romantic relations, Birth control, condom use and STIs, Media and gender stereotypes, and Introduction to the science of homosexuality and homophobia. For 12th Graders: Psychological tools for a functional romantic relationship, Infidelity, Masculinities: The diversity of being a man, Mysogyny and the sexualization of girls, and Sexual Diversity in Foreign Countries: Public policies and Media (Antón delivered the two last lectures).
Apart from these lectures that varied in complexity, students attended 3 movie debates (unwanted pregnancies, HIV/Aids and homophobia), 4 real life testimonies (unwanted pregnancies, HIV/Aids, sexually diverse families, and abortion) and 1 structured debate on abortion (based on a model of the General Assembly of the United Nations). In the afternoons, there were 12 lectures for general public: History of sexuality in Mexico, Eroticism in the mexican cuisine, HIV/Aids: A psychosocial perspective, Anorgasmia in women, Erectile dysfunction, Andropause, Violence in romantic relations, Infidelity, Divorce, The new homosexuality, Sexually Diverse Families and Legislating for the transgender community in Mexico. The Congress ended with a Symposium on abortion and a monologue about abortion too.
Among the lecturers that Antón invited to participate were Rolando Díaz Loving (a distinguished professor and researcher of the National Autonomous University of Mexico who obtained his PhD in Social Psychology at the University of Texas), José N. Iturriaga (historian and Past President of the Mexican Gastronomic Association), Nadine Terrein Roccatti (current member of the Advisory Committee of the World Association for Sexual Health) and Víctor Hugo Flores Ramírez (the first lawyer to defend a case of the legal identity of a transsexual person before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation).
In June 2009 Antón had the opportunity to travel to Gothenburg, Sweden, to the 19th World Congress for Sexual Health of the World Association for Sexual Health, where he presented a work entitled: "CONGRESO MORELENSE INTERESCOLAR SOBRE SEXUALIDAD HUMANA". PROMOTING COMPREHENSIVE SEXUALITY EDUCATION AT HIGH SCHOOLS IN CUERNAVACA, MORELOS, MEXICO: THE EXPERIENCE OF A 20-YEAR OLD PSYCHOLOGY STUDENT. In that oral presentation, Antón pointed out the necessity of creating school networks that would support scientific and human rights-based sexuality education at state, national, and international levels.
In September 2009, Antón attended the VII National Congress of Sex Education and Sexology of the Mexican Federation of Sexuality Education and Sexology, where he presented the Spanish version of the work he presented at the World Congress for Sexual Health.
Also, at the beginning of the 2009 autumn, Antón was selected by the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (CONAPRED) to be one of the two representatives of Morelos in the First National Encounter about Discrimination based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, where he presented a paper entitled Versus Homophobia: An Ongoing Cultural Evolution.
To start concluding the work with the Inter-scholar Conference of Human Sexuality, Antón delivered a series of sexuality workshops to the 11th and 12th graders of the Williams School of Cuernavaca on May 2010. The workshop, entitled Opening and strengthening roads, encompassed the following topics: teen dating violence, responsible parenthood, erotic health, the sexualization of girls, new masculinities, homosexuality and homophobia .
Publications:
Castellanos Usigli, A. (2009, June). “Congreso Morelense Interescolar sobre Sexualidad Humana”. Promoting comprehensive sexuality education at high schools in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico: The experience of a 20-year old psychology student. Abstract Book of the 19th WAS World Congress for Sexual Health, Göteborg, Sweden.