La Virgen De Los Deseos

by Unknown

Mujeres Creando is one of the few organizations that openly question the situation facing indigenous women. Native communities make decisions in an assembly, but first women and men discuss the issue separately. But it is the men who really vote on the issue in the end. Maintaining traditions is a central value of indigenous communities. But when members of communities migrate to urban areas, it is almost always the women who continue to use their traditional clothing. Their layered pollera skirts are not practical for city life, but women who stop wearing them are criticized back home for become too “Westernized.” “In rural areas, men control women in a suffocating way,” Galindo said. “We recognize our right to ´not belong.’ We respect the decision to stop wearing polleras as well as the decision to keep using them, as long as it’s their own decision.” For more than 15 years, Mujeres Creando has worked to change the patriarchic systems in Bolivia. They´ve used direct campaigns, civil disobedience and humor, and they defy those in power and the judicial system. “We´re not trying to change the laws because that could take a lifetime,” she said. “We prefer direct action. We help women who want to halt their pregnancies, even though abortion is criminalized. If a woman has run away from home, we don´t want for a judge to order her abusive husband to give her things back. We simply accompany her to get what she needs, making sure her husband doesn´t beat her.”

Paperback

Published January 1, 2005

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