Tag: Women

Indigenous Rights Organizations: CONAVIGUA

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The National Coordination of Widows of Guatemala (la Coordinadora Nacional de Viudas de Guatemala: CONAVIGUA) has a website, which you can find here: http://conavigua.tripod.com/, as well as a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Conavigua-Guatemala-457506251121355/. Both pages are in Spanish. The major participants of this group are Guatemalan women whose husbands were killed in the Guatemalan Civil War. The objectives of this group include food, peace, equal education, protection for widows and mothers, protection for indigenous women, socioeconomic equality, and equal rights for indigenous communities. The group also seeks integration to la Unidad de Accion Sindical y Popular (UASP), a major union organization in Guatemala. CONAVIGUA, as well as the community the organization represents, faces some serious threats, in addition to the factors that led to the creation of the group in the first place. According to the website, members of CONAVIGUA have been threatened with violence by government soldiers for speaking out.

Gender and Sexuality

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We have noticed that the majority of the sources we have read in our exploration of indigenous rights have been authored by men. Although women played an important role in multiple aspects of various revolutions, they were often still limited by sexist structures that subordinated them to men. In more modern times, however, Latin American women have been able to be more actively involved in struggles for indigenous rights. It is important to notice their contributions to these movements and helping their messages be heard, which is often very difficult for members of minority groups in general, much less members of minority groups within a minority group.

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Jeannette Paillan, Chile:

Utilizing film media, Paillan shares the culture and traditions of the Mapuche tribe, minimizing stereotypes by allowing for self-representation.

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Tarcila Rivera Zea, Peru:

Zea is a Quechua activist who has fought for awareness of indigenous lifestyles and social injustice for over 30 years. She holds positions on a variety of committees, founded a center for indigenous cultures of Peru, and won the Visionary Award in 2011.

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Marylen Serna Salinas, Colombia:

For over 30 years, Salinas has been fighting for indigenous rights, leading several movements and participating in multiple summits. She also focuses on the importance of women’s rights, campaigning against gender-based violence. Unfortunately, on April 7th, 2017, the activist was “abducted, interrogated, beaten, tortured and sexually assaulted by three unidentified men in Popayán, Colombia” [1], which demonstrates the dangers faced by revolutionaries and women in the context of Latin America.

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Additonally, gender manifests itself in interesting ways in certain indigenous communities. Specifically, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, the Istmo de Tehuantepec region is home to three genders: men, women, and muxes. This term comes from the Zapotec language, in which there are no grammatical genders. There are many definitions of muxe, including people who are assigned male at birth but do not present themselves in a traditionally masculine way. Muxes and people who have relations with them can be of any sexual orientation, because this gender mostly manifests itself in social and cultural ways.

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Exploring the existence of gender in different cultures is important, as it requires us to examine concepts with which we are unfamiliar. In the context of muxes, gender is not as restricted to a binary as it is in the United States. However, some overlap does exist between gender in the culture of the U.S. and gender in this indigenous Latin American communities. For example, gender has a sociocultural role in that members of each gender have specific duties and responsibilities in society. Therefore, although people in the Istmo de Tehuantepec region are not limited to a certain gender, their gender limits their powers in their community.

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Further, the presence of muxes is relatively well documented, which allows their existence to be shared with others, thus increasing their visibility and the respect and understanding they received from greater society. A significant amount of this documentation is in the form of photographs, which represents the variety of ways muxe identity manifests itself. The majority of these pictures show these muxes presenting themselves in traditionally feminine ways, wearing dresses and makeup. Many of these outfits are inspired by Frida Kahlo’s traditional look, indicating the necessity of muxes to remain connected to their cultures and traditions.

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Additionally, muxes value self-identification to label their gender identity, as opposed to being limited to outsider labels. This importance of self-identification also applies to indigenous identity as a whole [5], which connects muxes to their larger indigeneity. Further, this overarching theme indicates similarities between different aspects of identity and the necessity of self-perception. Overall, commitment to increased knowledge and subsequent understanding and is the most important in exploring any aspects of identity.

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[1] “Take Action for Marylen Serna Salinas,” Front Line Defenders, April 13, 2017, , accessed June 9, 2019, https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/action/take-action-marylen-serna-salinas.

[2] Monica Sabella, “Meet Latin America’s Most Prominent Indigenous Female Icons,” News | TeleSUR English, March 05, 2018, , accessed June 8, 2019, https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Meet-Latin-Americas-Most-Prominent-Indigenous-Female-Icons-20180305-0027.html.

[3] Great Big Story, YouTube, June 19, 2018, accessed June 3, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEZEiiNS3Ew.

[4] Ola Synowiec, Muxes in Traditional Clothing.

[5] Andrew Canessa, “Who Is Indigenous? Self-Identification, Indigeneity, And Claims to Justice In Contemporary Bolivia,” Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development 36, no. 3 (Fall 2007): , accessed April 17, 2019, JSTOR.

[6] Leora Yashari, “Muxe: Meet Mexico’s Third Gender Community,” Culture Trip, January 07, 2017, , accessed June 8, 2019, https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/mexico/articles/a-brief-history-of-muxe-mexicos-third-gender/.

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Performative Identity: The Effects of Spanish Colonization on Indigenous Women and Society

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The theme of performative identity, an exploration of the effects of Spanish colonization on the social hierarchy of indigenous communities, can be seen in the change of family structure, rights of women, and the representation of culture. The pre-colonial indigenous social structure, in terms of family, was heavily reliant on marriage. Marriage was important to the way individuals lived in relation to their community, since the wife and husband functioned as a “unit” where they worked together and were seen as one. A great example of this structure is seen between Titiruku, an Aymara activist, and his wife Rosa Ramos where they helped each other network and find resources. However, with colonization from the Spanish, these structures and practices have shifted greatly and had the most impact on indigenous women. Post-colonialism, the Western Colonial Ideology led to “the denial of the very notion of ‘human rights’ to the female sex” in indigenous communities. As their rights began to decrease and their role grew inferior, women became a focus for reproductive use and childcare, meanwhile the role of men increased in society and in the cities, leaving women in the background.
The representation of culture through language, clothes, and jobs reflect another change in the identity of indigenous communities through the shift in the social hierarchy due to Spanish colonization. The most notable shift was the assimilating behavior by indigenous men who worked in the city since they would change both their appearance and behavior. These indigenous men would trade out their traditional clothing and for more European-styled clothes all the while speaking Spanish throughout their time in La Paz, Bolivia.  The fact that some indigenous men did change their clothes and language, or simply the fact that they were able to do that not only reflected their privilege and power in their communities, but also impacted the way indigenous women were viewed in society and their accessibility to certain jobs.
Indigenous women would wear more traditional clothing which included skirts, or polleras, that made them stand out more and, in a sense, stay stagnant in their roles. These clothing pieces were traditional and stood out as a significant factor of their indigeneity and culture, therefore it was hard for them to blend in or assimilate they way the indigenous men did. Notably, the ideas that “To the man, the profession, and to the woman, the hacienda” led indigenous women to more often than not work as artisans, in domestic service, and in commerce. Due to this ideology, indigenous women were pushed towards these jobs with a newbound society setup to keep it that way. The fact that Spanish colonialism impacted so many aspects of the performative identity of indigenous individuals is important to note and must be further discussed in order to achieve a greater understanding and appreciation of indigenous peoples and their work.
These points reflect the direct impact that Spanish colonialism had on the indigenous communities, a drastic change from what it once was. It is important to discuss this topic and bring it to light because the change in their social hierarchy also affects the way indigenous communities interact among themselves and with the rest of the country. This also includes their participation and decisions in other aspects, such as the way they assemble, their involvement in politics, and the leaders they choose or follow. By analyzing their social structure, we are able to further understand indigenous communities but also, we have the opportunity to examine how this structure has evolved within indigenous communities and whether or not it has retained the changes. Also, by gaining this new understanding, we can compare the impact on indigenous social hierarchies in other Latin American countries, not just Bolivia, that were also conquered by the Spanish empire, in order to evaluate how much the impact was and for how long it has remained.
There are various key terms that are essential to understanding, or at least beginning to understand, the impacts on indigenous communities from Spanish colonialism. The most important term to begin this analysis is discussing what colonialism is and who it has impacted in society. By recognizing the term, we can fully dive into the discussion of its impacts. Also, Indigenous feminism, on the other hand, is crucial for the realization of the roles indigenous women faced in their society through time. Due to Western Ideology, the role of indigenous women changed not only in their society but in also the one of Bolivia as a whole, and therefore it is important to acknowledge the need to support of these women, not necessarily all since other women were relieved of certain jobs that they pressed upon indigenous women instead. The term ayllu remains significant as well because the idea of community has adapted and been modified throughout time, both pre and post colonialism reaching even towards the way it is viewed today.

Theme: Identity and the intersections of women and ethnicity

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The article “‘Women Are More Indian’”: Ethnicity and Gender in a Community near Cuzco” by Marisol de la Cadena “explores the ways in which gender and ethnic relations have developed and intersected over time in Chitapampa…” [1] A key theme in both texts is that seemingly separate categories of ethnicity, class, masculine, and feminine should not be studied independently, but rather as interconnected elements of identity that are relational to each other. In this text, the author focuses on the distribution of valued labor between urban and rural settings to suggest that women are perceived as more “Indian” because of the ethnic associations with the labor their gender role restricts them to.
The article introduces the idea of valued work being divided along gender lines when discussing how work was divided in an agricultural society. Men were perceived as being more suited to harder physical labor, such as plowing, so “…for Chitapampinos, men’s capacity to work is greater than that of women…” [2] Women’s work, which involved tending to the house or selling the harvests, was seen as less physically strenuous, and therefore was valued less. Therefore, in a rural society, farming (valued more) was associated with men and the author defines this a key source of gender inequality.
However, the author recognizes that there is a historical and ethnic component to this relationship between genders. As rural indigenous workers began to move into the cities, the perception of valued labor shifted to “Urban work is valued more highly than rural work.” [3] This meant that working in the cities was considered more valuable and the author claims that this was divided along gendered lines as well. Men had more opportunity to find work and be based in the cities while women continued to be confined to the home. Therefore, men worked in urban settings and women worked in rural settings (where the home was located). Even though women began to fulfill an agricultural role that was once valued highly and restricted to men, the goal post had shifted, and urban work became what was valued. However, there is an ethnic component to this value system as well. The author writes, “…urban work serves to distinguish mestizos from Indians: ‘Indians don’t know how to work as well as mestizos do…’” [4] Urban work characterized mestizos and rural work characterized what was considered “Indian.” Since urban and rural is also divided along gender lines, the author argues that men are more associated with being mestizo and women are more associated with being Indian. Therefore, ethnicity, labor value, and gender influence each other to create identity and cultural perceptions of identity.
Footnotes
[1] De la Cadena. “Are Women More Indian?” in Larson, Brooke, Olivia Harris, and Enrique Tandeter, eds. Ethnicity, Markets, and Migration in the Andes: At the Crossroads of History and Anthropology. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995, (329).
[2] De la Cadena. “Are Women More Indian?” (333).
[3] De la Cadena. “Are Women More Indian?” (334).
[4] De la Cadena. “Are Women More Indian?” (334).
Sources Used:
De la Cadena. “Are Women More Indian?” in Larson, Brooke, Olivia Harris, and Enrique Tandeter, eds. Ethnicity, Markets, and Migration in the Andes: At the Crossroads of History and Anthropology. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995.