In contemporary Argentina, a prominent resistance movement is the Ni Una Menos, a feminist collective that was established in 2015. It’s the most recent, heavily feminised, resistance movement in Argentina. Primarily a movement to combat the issue of gender violence, it has “become a political counterbalance to what many now acknowledge as a region-wide war against women” (Gago, 2017: 1). The movement cites both the Piqueteras and The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo as part of their “genealogy” (Gago, 2017: 1). Meaning that, as mentioned above, in practice both these movements have in fact opened the political discourse to women and enabled them to further politicise their private spheres.
The Ni Una Menos movement began publicly with a strike on October 19
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As the murder occurred during the annual Women’s Meeting and was “so violent in nature… that it felt like a reaction against such a clear manifestation of women’s autonomy” (Gago, 2017: 2). Gago, quoting Rita Segato, outlines how throughout Latin America there is a war against women. “There is a whole socio-political and economic framework that we need to understand in order to better see how women’s bodies are converted into a territory subject to conquest” (Gago, 2017:2).
But interestingly, it is these women who are standing up for each other and are the ones controlling the streets and exercising “a kind of power that has to do with the struggle over our bodies autonomy” (Gago, 2017: 2). As previously mentioned, women of Argentina are victims of the economic status of the country. The neoliberal system does victimise women, demonstrated through an understanding of the relationship between the failing economy and rising gender violence. But, Gago argues that the gender violence is a direct response to the pursing of autonomy and power by women (2017: 2). With already unfathomable numbers of femicides throughout Latin America rising, it seems that “the
Desert Blood, a book by Alicia Gaspar De Alba, is considered to be a mystery novel that covers a seventeen year crime wave. Specifically, the author has focused on the Juarez femicides issue whereby femicide is defined as the murder of females just because they are women. However, in this case, the Juarez victims are the poor and young Mexican females that were murdered because they were poor. The protagonist of this story is Ivon Villa, a professor that focuses on women studies while the antagonists are Silvia Pasquel, Natalia Stregnard and Zabaleta. This paper will therefore focus on the plot summary and analysis of the novelwhile pinpointing the main parts of the story.
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, born as Juana Ramirez de Azbaje, is a well-known extraordinary figure from the colonial period. Sor Juana had a desire for education at such a young age. In the seventeenth century, it was the intellectual midpoint of Spanish colonial America. During this time Mexico City was politically and religiously the center of New Spain; the terrains went from California to Central America. In Latin American history the church and state defined women’s roles, which eventually change over time. Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz articulated her experiences though writing, she broke silence about racial and gender inequality, and her legacy remains today.
However, it wasn’t an effortless process for these women to gain respect. These women experienced sexism and were often discredited for their work. During the El Salvadoran Civil War, sexism was prominent. The women working in groups such as the FMLN were trying to change these perceptions, and create a more equal life for the women in El Salvador. Although sexism was still very common, the FMLN and the women involved were working very hard and their contributions were beginning to be noticed.
As she tours her hometown, one can see the horrendous circumstances in which her community thrives in, for example, to get from one side to the other they must cross a makeshift bridge where the water has begun to change color such as black, green, even beginning to foam. Numerous health problems have arisen due to the toxic waste that is being dumped into the streams that therefore leading to runoff when it rains such as sores developing on feet and legs, weakened immune system, spots that appear on the limbs, etc. Lujan, a third world feminist (could also be known as an environmental feminist as well) exposes the unsanitary environment in which she lives in, desiring a greater community where her children can live in without the worry of diseases or the contamination of their water sources. Though she was not always a promotora/advocator it was not until Lujan came face to face with a sign inviting women to participate in a health survey furthermore learning about the health risks that she made the decision to be outspoken about the cause. She took workshops to help her better apprehend labor and women’s rights in order to promote laws and speak out against illegal acts conducted by businesses. Therefore, it only makes sense that women would be the most outspoken group of the maquiladoras since they make up eighty percent of the
Martinez, Demetria. 2002. “Solidarity”. Border Women: Writing from la Frontera.. Castillo, Debra A & María Socorro Tabuenca Córdoba. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 168- 188.
Craske, N. (1999). Women and Political Identity in Latin America. In Women and Politics in Latin America (First ed., pp. 9-25). N.p.: Rutgers University Press.
Although women have conquered more power over the years, machismo still rules all over Mexico. Women is taught to be “stay-at-home” individuals and serve the men of her family and society. That type of thinking reinforces domestic violence, street violence, and the formation of groups that kidnap young women due to women’s vulnerability and the lack of protection in Mexico. Brooke Binkowski says that, “this issue’s been going on for a long time: the mistreatment of women, especially women of colour, the abuse of women, the disappearance of women” (Binkowski). Despite all the fight for equal rights, women are still treated like inferior
Indigenous people of the world have historically been and continue to be pushed to the margins of society. Similarly, women have experienced political, social, and economical marginalization. For the past 500 years or so, the indigenous peoples of México have been subjected to violence and the exploitation since the arrival of the Spanish. The xenophobic tendencies of Spanish colonizers did not disappear after México’s independence; rather it maintained the racial assimilation and exclusion policies left behind by the colonists, including gender roles (Moore 166) . México is historically and continues to be a patriarchal society. So when the Zapatista movement of 1994, more formally known as the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación National (Zapatista Army of National Liberation; EZLN) constructed a space for indigenous women to reclaim their rights, it was a significant step towards justice. The Mexican government, in haste for globalization and profits, ignored its indigenous peoples’ sufferings. Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico, consisting of mostly indigenous peoples living in the mountains and country, grew frustration with the Mexican government. It was in that moment that the Zapatista movement arose from the countryside to awaken a nation to the plight of indigenous Mexicans. Being indigenous puts a person at a disadvantage in Mexican society; when adding gender, an indigenous woman is set back two steps. It was through the Zapatista movement that a catalyst was created for indigenous women to reclaim rights and autonomy through the praxis of indigeneity and the popular struggle.
The novel Gabi, a Girl in Pieces, written by Isabel Quintero, portrays the extreme pressure women from traditional/cultural households encounter in order to be seen as “picture perfect.” Women have to be and act accordingly to the expectations of their family and community in order to be respected and valued as a “lady.” One mistake is all it takes to become known as “a mala mujer” which is why women are anticipated to protect their body as they would their life.
In Latin America, women are treated differently from men and children. They do lots of work for unexplainable reasons. Others for religious reasons and family orders and others because of the men involved. Women are like objects to men and have to obey their orders to either be rich or to live. Some have sex to get the men’s approval, others marry a rich man that they don’t even know very well, and become slaves. An important book called Chronicles of a Death Foretold is an example of how these women are treated. Purisima del Carmen, Angela Vicario's mother, has raised Angela and her sisters to be good wives. The girls do not marry until late in life, rarely socializing beyond the outsides of their own home. They spend their time sewing, weaving, washing and ironing. Other occupations include arranging flowers, cleaning up the house, and writing engagement letters to other men. They also keep the old traditions alive, such as helping the sick, comforting the dying, and covering the dead. While their mother believes they are perfect, men view them as too tied to their women's traditions. The men are afraid that the women would pay more attention to their job more than the men. Throughout the book, the women receive the respect they deserve from the men and others around them.
Isasi-Diaz, Ada Maria. "Defining our Proyecto Historico: Mujerista Strategies for Liberation." Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 9 (1993): 17-28.
A growing population of women’s activists can be attributed to the growing number of courses being offered and information available. Only a few decades ago this would not have been heard of. It is due to the increasing amount of awareness on the topic of women’s status as second class citizens that activism has increased. Through various media, we have learned of topics such as the “glass ceiling”, the working conditions of women in Third World countries, the current injustices against women being carried out in the First World, reproductive rights, as written about by Angle Davis, and other limitations imposed on women.
In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the way women have been represented and characterized gives us an idea of how the female gender are treated differently from the male gender as well as children in Latin America during the 1950s. The husbands were given all the authority, also known as machismo, whereas women weren’t allowed to take charge of anything, and were portrayed as weak and impotent.
The hierarchy of gender played out in the new Spanish colonial regime where female dependency upon men was created and manipulated. The Spanish introduced ‘gender beliefs that proclaimed women’s infantility; only men could reach true adulthood and enter public life, freely sign contracts, and hold public office . Women, especially those in the newly created lower class, became dependent on men due to the new legal system put in place which made it so that they could not be full citizens. Men were able to realize full ‘citizenship’ along with the ability to leave the ayllus. This newly performed hierarchy was completely contradictory to the old gender parallelism of Andean society in which each gender had independent spheres and rights to
7). Stephen finds these grassroots movements to be motivated by issues of survival that are related to: domestic power inequalities such as lack of personal reproductive choices, domestic violence, and lack autonomy; economic power inequalities resulting in the inability to secure appropriate food, money, housing, land, and medical care; and social power inequalities such as physical and sexual abuse by authorities, sexism within the movements and unions, and active social exclusion of by the community. Yet, the researcher notes that by participating in grassroots social movements, these women grew in self-confidence, personal awareness, and became increasingly independent (Stephen, 1997, p. 114-122). Thus, the women represented by this author exemplify the aforementioned transformation of self, moving from a powerless person who is acted upon by external forces, to one who uses power to actively shape the