In Latin America, not a day goes by without communities and territories being stripped of their assets to incorporate them as commodities in the markets.
The aggressiveness of these systems imposes itself with asymmetric relationships based on inequality of power and abuse. This cold logic materializes in mining concessions, in the extraction of hydrocarbons, in lands worn out and sterilized by monocultures, in polluted water sources, and in communities disintegrated and forced to migrate from their living places. Women are the most affected because they are violated and discriminated against by megaprojects of expropriation and oppression.
Thus, from different sides, struggles and resistance arise to guide the process of community empowerment, with action aimed at giving people and territories the possibility to exist. The latter are not just a physical space. They are places of identity, culture, traditions, memory, cosmogonies, collective knowledge, ways of living, relationships and spirituality. Women challenge the established order with their ability to imagine projects for alternative societies, the result of historical, identity and social ties articulated within communities.
Latin America is inhabited by a multitude of women who have become points of reference for people. Among these, we find the Mexican Frida Kahlo, who, through political art, opened horizons where others saw boundaries.
Leydy Pech is a Mayan beekeeper, who has fought against deforestation, denouncing the evil of agrochemicals and the fumigation of toxic pesticides on vast areas cultivated with genetically modified soya. She has brought together community and environmental organizations in a coalition known as “GMO-Free” to denounce the harmful impact on the health of humans and Creation. Rigoberta Menchú, from Guatemala, supported the activism of other women committed to peace, social justice and human rights.
Berta Cáceres, a Honduran, defended environmental rights and was committed to building societies capable of living together in a just and dignified way. She was killed in 2016. In Colombia, Francia Márquez, a woman of African descent has raised her voice for her ancestral territory and her culture. She organized the women of her community to march for days from a distant region to the capital to say no to the mining activity that was poisoning the rivers with cyanide and mercury. She is now Colombia’s first Black vice president-elect.
Susana Muhamad, current Minister of the Environment, leads the national development plan “Colombia, World Power of Life”. She weaves networks of sisterhood by taking care of biodiversity, in a perspective that integrates actions of hope. In Ecuador, Nemonte Nenquimo, an indigenous woman and her community used social media and street demonstrations to protect Amazon territory from the oil industry.
In Brazil, Marielle Franco defended the rights of women discriminated against because of their race. In Peru, Máxima Acuña fought against the Conga mining megaproject. She protects the lakes from the ravages of polluting mining companies which do not take responsibility for the environmental and social costs.
The Latin American Confederation of Religious (CLAR) has opted for a female icon for the 2022-2025 triennium, “Women of the Dawn”, which, as a metaphor, recognises and renders visible the socio-ecclesial contribution of the women of the continent. We wish to conclude by declaring, like Galeano, that ‘many little people, in small positions, doing small things, are changing the world.’ These words best describe the women struggling for Life in Latin America. (Mauro Armanino) – (Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores, an environmental activist and indigenous leader killed in 2016 / Photo: Justice for Berta)
