Today was our first day of the 4 week certificate program at the “U,” which is what everyone calls the University of San Carlos (USAC). Lucia and Carlos Ibañez, a fantastically brilliant professional facilitator who specializes in HIV, immigration, human trafficking, gay and women’s issues, co-facilitated this first session for approximately 50 college students and community members who wanted to attend. Everyone was able to contribute and there was a great male turnout. The session was four hours long, so there was ample time for the pupils to think below the surface about why things are the way they are and how there are very different social expectations of women and men. The students were very bright and the session was interactive, lively, and passionate.
Carlos Ibañez
A lively student
After this workshop we were invited to speak in for the class of Dr. Carlos Aldana Mendoza who is a big name in the Guatemala’s human rights movement of the 70’s/80’s and even eventually became the Vice Minister of Education at one point but ended up resigning. Now he is the Jefe Division de Educacion at USAC and is teaching there as well. Because Dr. Aldana Mendoza asked us to come to his class, we respectfully obliged and Lucia and Carlos facilitated an abridged workshop.
Lucia and Dr. Carlos Aldana Mendoza
The students
The gender dichotomy the class created
– Marina Wood is a recent graduate of the Women’s Studies program at Cal State University Long Beach. She has been volunteering with MIA since 2007 and is interning in Guatemala as a facilitator for the “Hombres Contra Feminicidio” campaign for 10 weeks. Marina has been involved in the struggle to end oppressions since her first protest in 2002 against the Afghanistan War and plans to continue learning, educating, and fighting for human rights until the violence stops. The issues closest to her heart are sexual assault and femicide prevention and amnesty for migrant persons in the U.S.