Yesterday and today were long without bread! Every meal here is served/prepared with bread on the side and it looks SO good. Also, in the mornings, the streets are filled with the scent of fresh baked bread from the panaderias. But when I look at these three photographs of Angeli Lisseth Hernandez Rodriguez, Heidy Sarai Batz Par, and Arlene Escarleth Lopez, I know that whether or not my small gesture of solidarity changes anything, that the three mothers fighting for family reunification deserve support, regardless of the form. It is important to mention that here in Guatemala when people question or challenge the justice system is when they are most likely to end up disappeared or having to flee the country due to threats, so the three women, along with Sobrevivientes and other supporters of this campaign are risking personal harm in the name of justice.

Angeli Lisseth Hernandez Rodriguez, Heidy Sarai Batz Par, and Arlene Escarleth Lopez.

A little bit about the daughters:

According to the 3 days for 3 daughters website, Angeli Lisseth Hernandez Rodriguez, daughter of Loyda Rodriguez, was kidnapped November 3, 2006 from her front yard in Villa Hermosa, San Miguel Petapa, Guatemala City. She is now believed to now be in Missouri. Heidy Sarai Batz Par, daughter of Raquel Par, was kidnapped April 4, 2006 on a bus in Guatemala City. She is believed to be living in Iowa and is now 4 years old. Arlene Escarleth Lopez, daughter of Olga Lopez, was kidnapped from Olga’s mother in Guatemala City September 27, 2006. She is now believed to be living in Illinois.

I recently read an article on CNN.com about how the Guatemalan army stole children (at least 333) to sell into adoption during the 36 year civil war. The article quoted Marco Tulio Alvarez, the director of the Guatemalan Peace Archive (the commission that began investigating these cases beginning in May 2008) as saying “Guatemalan society must know what happened and must never allow it to happen again.” This statement sounds hopeful and strong, but what the article and the commission is clearly lacking is the knowledge that kidnapping children to sell for adoption is not something of the past-it is still going on.

Lucia and the director of the night school planning our calendar last week

Last night was supposed to be me and Simón’s second workshop at the night school without Lucia, but when we got there we were told that the school is in the middle of a strict study schedule for their national testing and could not spare time for the workshop. We searched for Daniel Silvestre, the director of the school, and requested to meet in order to make sure that he knew that just because Lucia went back to California doesn’t mean the campaign is over. We sat down in his office and pitched the campaign (Hombres Contra Feminicidio) all over again since our first pitch was to the assistant director, Mirna Sanchez. He seemed interested and was open to the idea of us returning at the beginning of the next school year, but told us that because school is ending soon there just wasn’t time for us this year. (Schools here in Guatemala start in January and end in October) We had to push so we could at the very least have a closing session with the classes and finally we were able to schedule two closing sessions after the testing, the holiday (September 15 is Independence Day) and before finals. Our last days will be September 17 and 22. We left happy that we got something, but were disappointed that we couldn’t work last night.

Simón with the batik journals he makes from scratch in the Gran Hotel, a local café/bar/venue which also helps local artists sell their handicrafts

Today I visited Simón at his office in Edificio de Correos (the mail building). He uses the office space for two purposes, to create his productos artesanales (handicrafts) from which he earns his income and as a headquarters for his poetry and art collective, S.o.P.a., Sociedad Optativa de Poetas Anónimos (the optional anonymous poets society). S.o.P.a. is a literary group of mostly young people which is dedicated to promoting the art of writing through different means of artistic expression such as poetry, painting, photography, film, music, multimedia presentations, workshops and exhibitions. A recent article about can be found HERE.

A video of Simon reading his poetry in the street after a festival in Dec 08 in front of an installation created by artist Maya Lemus

After visiting S.o.P.a., we went to eat lentil soup with some friends at a place called Bar Europa and the bread sat in the middle of the table taunting me, wanting me to dip it in the soup! But I remained strong. Tomorrow is the last day of the huelga, and since Carlos is picking us up at 6:30am tomorrow for an immigration conference, it will be a very long day without bread!

The door at bar Europa.

Monday Carlos and I went to IUMUSAC and met with Pati. We looked over the student reviews of the previous week, discussed the schedule for next week, and while we were talking I suggested we use the Power and Control wheel. They liked my idea but I then had the assignment of drawing it on a poster board and explaining the wheel next week in front of everyone! Since it is pretty complex and there is a lot to say, I had the fun task of writing myself a script in English, translating it into Spanish, and drawing the huge thing, all of which I did on my weekend “off.” But back to Monday: after the meeting, Carlos and I had our own mini-meeting in a nearby café and discussed masculinity, men’s role in women’s groups, men’s emotional health, and possible future plans for Hombres Contra Feminicidio. We also discussed how queerness and gender binaries are inseparable issues and it was a refreshing change to talk to a like minded feminist about breaking the “boxes” and binaries of gender and sexual orientation.

As we walked to go our separate ways: me to meet Simón at the Edificio de Correos (the mail building where his office is located) and Carlos to go to another meeting, we happened upon an Indigenous Rights protest so we walked over to check it out.

It appeared to be organized by CONIC, Guatemala’s National Coordination of Indigenous Peoples and Campesinos, an organization which was established to promote sustainable livelihoods and community-led development for indigenous peoples across Guatemala.

“Women who fight, win”

Aug 31, 2004 — Massacred: Peasant minors were tortured and died at the location due to the seriousness of the wounds, strikes, and burns.

Showing the police the gruesome pictures of massacred and assaulted indigenous people

Unfortunately, it is impossible to fight for Indigenous rights such as language inclusion (since there are about 24 Mayan languages in Guatemala) and access to resources such as water and education without also demanding justice for the Mayan genocide that took place during the civil war and the continued massacres, beatings, and terrorism of Indigenous communities. Being here in Guatemala is inspiring because there are so many fearless people who fight for rights they know they deserve, even though activism here is often rewarded with death threats, drive by’s, robberies, kidnappings, and murder. There is no way to look at just women’s rights, indigenous rights, the rights of the poor, etc. without seeing that all oppressions are intrinsically connected and all struggles are really one struggle. Here in Guatemala the oppression of Indigenous peoples is very obvious since the government, the media, and the middle and upper class people are made up of Ladinos, the generally lighter-skinned mixed race Mestizos, and in reality the population of Guatemala is about half Indigenous and half Ladino, even with the 200,000 Mayans who were massacred during the war.

Tomorrow begins my “huelga” in solidarity with the women whose babies were stolen, specifically three daughters of Guatemalan mothers who now live in the U.S. with adoptive parents. For more information on the issue of stolen babies please see this video. I am going to be giving up bread, one of my favorite things to eat, especially here where a lot of my favorite foods don’t exist, and Simon will be giving up his big food-vice: chocolate. Wish me luck!

…

Today Lucia and I went to meet with Shenny, the teacher from the night school, because she has a women’s group that meets weekly. We informed the women about MIA and Hombres Contra Feminicidio and showed our short DVD’s: one about the campaign in the Santa Barbara school and the other the short film The Impossible Dream (VIDEO LINK HERE), a cartoon about the gendered division of labor. Afterward we facilitated discussion on gender and violence and the women shared personal experiences.

A screen shot from the short film “The Impossible Dream”

After the group, we had to say our goodbye’s since Lucia was going to spend her last weekend with her family. She wished me luck and then I was on my own.

That night was a big night for Simón because a book he edited and physically assembled was being released and he had been running around all week making sure everything was ready for the release party on top of work with MIA. The party was held at Libre Café, a cool red building in Zone 1. The book, Triciclo, is a collection of short stories by an author named Juan Calles.

The book

The event was a huge success, there was a large audience, many books were sold, and my friend Jenny came and we were able to relax and talk about things other than work. This is the beginning of my first weekend off since I’ve been here, then I start work first thing again Monday morning with the next meeting with IUMUSAC.

Juan Calles reading one of his stories: Watch video below

Today was our second workshop at USAC and there were just as many people here today as there were last week, something that surprised me. Since the certificate program does not provide school credits, I thought people might check out what we were doing and then not come back. Anyway, today was fun because it started with an exercise on sexism in the media and most of the class (including Carlos, Simon and I) got up to dance to the two songs Carlos put on.

Us dancing

One was faster, and one sounded more slow and romantic. After dancing the students discussed the lyrics of the songs and analyzed their content, since both songs were incredibly sexist.

Next, the students broke up into small groups and read a recent article from El Diario La Hora, and had to make conclusions based on the article and present them in front of the class.

One group discussing the article

Presenting conclusions

The woman talking is from Caja Lúdica! Good thing she came, she was brilliant.

Lucia said her goodbye’s to the class since she is today to symbolize that I am continuing the campaign leaving this weekend and won’t be here for the last two classes.

This is the baton/paintbrush Lucia gave me at the USAC

After the presentations there was lively discussion about feminism and gendered violence, and Lucia and Carlos passed out the white ribbons which symbolized taking a pledge to join the fight against gender violence.

After class today, everyone swarmed

Lucia and me to make sure they had our correct contact information and to turn in anything they hadn’t turned in, and we reassured them that though Lucia was leaving, MIA was staying here. The baton is now mine; I hope I can do MIA justice!

Lucia and the women from IUMUSAC

IUMUSAC and MIA