A Growing Movement: Latin American Feminism
Gay, Jill
A powerful new political force is on the horizon in Latin America. In recent years, religious, labor and human rights movements have spearheaded efforts for grassroots participation in the...
...Nellie Rumril was puzzled by some feminists in Lima who did not "really see people's extreme poverty...
...And I had no childhood, because when I was six, my father died, and I have had to work ever since...
...We taught family planning...
...In a play performed at the conference by Bruja, a Chilean theater collective, middle-class feminists discuss their dilemma...
...Luxury of Discussion In planning the meeting, a coalition of seven middle- and workingclass Peruvian groups tried to break away from the patriarchal power structures they condemned...
...A growing feminist alliance of middle-class, worker and peasant groups will ensure the inclusion of women's rights on the Left agenda...
...Upper-class women have been traditionally mobilized by the Right in Latin America...
...We discuss magazines and songs to learn how they manipulate women...
...The workshop focus shifted dramatically...
...Full equality for women, the resolution states, cannot be achieved without socialism...
...We discussed the situation of women, and the relationships of couples...
...Said one woman, "It is society's rejection of women's sexuality which unites us...
...Another commented: "The feminist movement has influenced us to have more egalitarian relationships...
...Widespread press coverage of AIDS in the United States prompted a Lima newspaper headline: "Gay illness menaces humanity and is transmitted by conversation...
...Without a change in patriarchal power, the problems will persist...
...We request that: racism be included as a theme in future conferences and that the conference denounce racism as an inherent part of the feminist struggle...
...Apparently not worried by the article's advice to avoid homosexuals at all costs, the participants issued a call for the movement to fight for lesbian rights...
...A black Peruvian assembly line worker for a pharmaceutical multinational countered that the workshop should address the needs of working-class women: unionization, unpaid maternity leave, runaway shops and low pay...
...When I see people's needs, I feel my problems are very secondary and unimportant in comparison to the problems of others...
...In return, grassroots groups are beginning to acknowledge the universality of women's issues...
...The workshop leader for alternative media found herself playing a role she hadn't envisioned...
...More significantly, links forged at the gathering between middleclass intellectual feminists and women working on the grassroots level have increasingly made feminism a force that reaches far beyond the boundaries which traditionally define "women's issues...
...As most of us are professional women, I am sure all of you will be interested in my doctoral thesis NACLA Reportupdate update . update , update 0 "Middle-class feminists may well become more responsive to grassroots needs...
...Such dialogue is rare in a continent which is particularly hostile to homosexuality...
...yet socialism itself does not guarantee equal rights...
...The conference offered 20 workshops around the theme of patriarchy: the Church, domestic work, literature, development projects, power, rural women, sexual violence and wage labor...
...We are discriminated against as women and as blacks," Adelia dos Santos of the collective asserted in the radio interview...
...The second Feminist Conference of Latin America and the Caribbean illustrates the movement's potential...
...Racial discrimination is present in all Latin American countries and is accompanied by economic exploitation...
...Novl/De 1983 "Our sexuality is not just an import from the United States," challenged the lesbians...
...I had to teach women how to disseminate information, write leaflets, do radio programs in the most remote, rural areas, areas which for me are the end of the earth...
...The mere increase in attendance-from the 230 women at the first conference in Bogota to the 700 who came to Lima last July--demonstrates feminism's growing popular appeal...
...Decisions were made by concensus...
...Neither Brazil's Goulart nor Chile's Allende changed many of the laws prejudicial to women...
...One could ask, as someone did in the plenary session, "How can we, at a time when Nicaragua is being invaded and nuclear war threatens our very existence, convene a feminist conference...
...When Pinochet is overthrown," the Chileans at the conference stated clearly, "and we have democracy, women's rights must be addressed...
...Yet the black feminists achieved a clear commitment from the feminist movement to combat racism when the conference approved the following resolution: "There is a profound lack of knowledge about the reality of racism in our countries, as is evident in [Peru where] the majority of the population is Indian and suffers discrimination along with other ethnic groups such as blacks, Chinese and Japanese...
...In our shanty town we gather women together to learn to value ourselves...
...But we must have our own independent organization for women...
...Conflicts remain...
...on this subject," began the workshop leader of the panel on wage labor...
...This new middle-class/grassroots alliance gives what has been a middle-class feminist movement, new credibility in addressing the pressing needs of the continent...
...Feminists are now building a base for the Left which they hope will preempt future rightest mobilizations of women such as those which occurred in Brazil in 1964 and in Chile in 1973...
...We are planning now for the changes we want...
...Mobilization by the Right was possible, in part, because of the Left's failure to include women as political partners...
...Sexuality Rejected Middle-class feminists were unexpectedly responsive to the problems of black and lesbian women...
...The conference schedule was flexible, allowing participants to shape events, and children were welcome...
...We are willing to march together with our men," said Nellie Rumril, "to coordinate with them, to inform them...
...Neither saw women as crucial to their political success...
...The conference participants were united ideologically by a resolution passed in Bogota a year before...
...Another screams back, "How can I call myself a feminist if I don't work with shanty town women...
...The academic women found that their priorities were not necessarily shared by other feminists...
...The presence of workers and peasant women ensured that their pressing concerns-hunger, poverty and repression-were addressed...
...At the conference Rumril put out a call for women to assist, both financially 46 and by lending their expertise, in the development of these courses...
...45update update update update A women's bookstore on Lima's Avenida Republica de Chile...
...While no workshop on racism was planned, a meeting to discuss the issue was sparked by a radio interview with the Black Women's Collective of Rio de Janeiro...
...The Right was able to play successfully upon upper-class women's fears that the Left would destroy the family...
...While intellectuals or academicians had been designated workshop leaders, the participation of feminist activists from unions, peasant and shanty town organizations changed both the focus and approach...
...Feminists share a commitment to social change...
...44 Nellie Rumril ganizers clarified why women from over 15 countries had gathered: "It is the feminist movement which has been crucial in countering the rebirth of conservatism in the industrialized countries...
...Extending Women's Issues But now feminists are putting pressure on churches, unions and human rights organizations to include women's issues...
...One says, "If I am afeminist, don't I need to fight for my rights, my problems, my needs...
...I went to the workshop on development projects to learn how to get money for our project," recalls Isabel Espinosa, a former Lima factory worker...
...I didn't come here to discuss theories of development...
...In recent years, religious, labor and human rights movements have spearheaded efforts for grassroots participation in the political process...
...Heterosexual women, the majority of the participants, discussed whether machismo was replayed in the lesbian relationship and if lesbians were just imitating a fad from the United States...
...Now feminism is joining this political arena...
...If women like Rumril succeeded in making an impact at the conference, middle-class feminists may well become more responsive to grassroots needs, rendering the movement a major force in social change...
...Nellie Rumril, the head of women's affairs for a federation of 300 Lima shanty towns, spoke for many of Lima's poor who do not have the luxury of discussing their problems...
...The conference has not been responsive to our reality...
...In the past, shanty town women were organized into mothers' clubs to sew and cook...
...The workshop on lesbianism had to be moved from the assigned room, which could only accommodate 20 women, to the largest hall, where over 200 women crowded together...
...We want new goals, so we organized training sessions for women to discuss national and shanty town problems...
...We learned as girls how to do this kind of traditional labor...
...The impact of the conference will be measured by how the middleclass women, returning to their countries, answer these questions...
...Scholarships were given to women who could not afford to attend...
...Lesbianism is universal...
...In response, the conference orJill Gay, Associate Director of the Third World Women's Project of the Institute for Policy Studies, attended the Lima conference...
Vol. 17 • November 1983 • No. 6
