Discussion
Orangesky
WST.Chapter3.rtfd.zipWST . Chapter # 3.rtfd/TXT.rtf
The Gendering of Human Rights Chapter Goals To understand the heroic actions of women in Latin America fighting for human rights in a period of time (1960-1980) when men and women were kidnapped, murdered, tortured, and disappeared in the hands of death squads and military dictatorships. To contextualize Latin American women’s actions within the Cold War and the United States policy to stop the spread of communism in Latin America after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. To analyze how women’s action impacted Latin America democratization To see how women’s actions impacted women’s lives and expanded the notion of feminism To understand why more women than men joined the struggle in what is called “The Gendering of Human Rights.” Introduction See a picture of an indigenous woman from Andean Peru, holding a tiny photograph of a man in her hands, then she talks in Qechua with tears in her eyes but with a firm voice. She is a symbol for the tragedy of the “desaparecidos” (disappeared) in Latin America and the monumental women’s human rights movement confronting dictatorships and the danger of civil wars during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Insert here Definition of “Desaparecidos” What is a “Desaparecido” “Desaparecido” (disappeared) is an euphemism for death and implies the forced disappearance of an individual on ideological grounds by a government, military, or/and paramilitar forces. But it is also a heartbreaking uncertainty about the whereabouts of a loved one. Entire communities in Latin America lived that uncertainty and were never allowed to find closure. Ruben Blades, a Panamanian singer and songwriter popularized his song “Los Desaparecidos” as a homage to the hundred of thousands disappeared in Latin America. He says: “where does the disappeared go? Search in the waters and the wilderness. When does the disappeared come back? Every time the memory brings him/her back. And how does one talk to the disappeared? With emotions killing you inside.” (My translation from Spanish). End box Here ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These were years of terror during which thousands of women and men were assassinated and thrown into mass graves, rivers, and oceans thus disappearing without trace. Dictators were strong, repressive, and immoral regimes supported by the United States in the context of the Cold War and aimed at crushing the political effervescent around the world and particularly in Latin America after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. Open Box Here Cold War in Latin America Operation Condor After the Cuban Revolution, Latin America became an important theater of the Cold War and in the context of the United States back “Operation Condor” in South America. Operation Condor was conducted as a campaign of terror involving assassination and intelligence operations by dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America and had the tacit approval of the United States. It was a program aimed to eradicate communist or Soviet influence and ideas in Latin America. during this period of time, the region witnessed the most vicious military dictatorship military dictatorships, such as Argentina under General Jose Rafael Videla (1976-1983), Chile under General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), Bolivia under Hugo Banzer (1971-1978), Paraguay under Alfredo Stroesner (1954-1993), and Brazil under a sequence of military rulers (1964-1985). Central America also witnessed the viciousness of civil wars and the nefarious activities of death squads during 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. End Box Here ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clearly, the disappeared, the tortured, the jailed, and the murdered were the so-called subversives, members of communist organizations, armed guerrilla groups, or/and agents of international communism, and whoever was suspected of these activities. These open violations of human rights were based on ideological grounds and were used to stop the spread of revolutions in the region. Most of the victims were young people that saw the example of Cuba as a solution for poverty and social inequality in Latin America. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Open Box Here Violations of Human Rights Each person suspected of being a subversive was persecuted, kidnapped, tortured and killed or disappeared without a trial or law protection. According to the United Nations Human Rights Declaration all members of the human family have the right of freedom, justice, and peace. And its third article declares that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Latin American dictatorships were in open violations of basic human rights. End Box Here -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Most of these crimes were covered with impunity. In many other cases people were condemned to silence, in fear of losing their own lives or being disappeared. This atmosphere of impunity, silence, and fear was challenged, mothers, grandmothers, wives, aunts, sisters, and nieces of the disappeared. In countries such as Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, and Guatemala women formed massive movements of civil confrontation to search for the truth about their disappeared relatives. These women were regular housewives, some did not have a formal education, others did not even know how to speak Spanish (the case of Guatemala), and most were oblivious of any ideological militancy. Their trigger to action was their love, a mother love. Certainly, the Mothers of Plaza de mayo of Argentina, Las Arpilleras or quilt-makers of Chile, the National Committee of Guatemalan Widows (CONAVIGUA), and the Committee of Mothers and relatives of Prisoners, the Disappeared and the Politically Assassinated of El Salvador Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero (COMADRES) are example of the gendering of human rights. These women engaged in human rights struggles that not only transformed their countries but also their own lives. They challenged their traditional assigned gender roles. Through their actions women became protagonists in the struggle for human rights and democracy in Latin America. In so doing, women appropriated public spaces formerly reserved for men. Their massive presence in plazas, streets, mass media, congress, international forum, and wearing black dresses (COMADRES), or white scarves covering their heads, or holding colorful quilts (Arpilleras), or dressed in traditional Mayan attires, and all holding a photograph of their missing relatives, impregnated the world’s collective memory. Mothers as Agents of Political Change: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Imagine hundreds of women walking peacefully but boldly defying the horse mounted policeman, the hidden faces of the tormentors, the jokes of the military calling them “Las Locas/The Crazy Ones.” Imagine them with their head covered with white scarves exhibiting the embroidered name of their missing children, shouting “Where are they?” These white scarves became an international symbol of human rights struggle. Every thursday these women also known as the Mother of Plaza de Mayo marched in front of the Presidential House in Argentina. They formed a group of women of different ages and social background that banded together in defiance of a repressive military regime in mid 1970s. The disappearance of their children in the midst of political terror found themselves alone and powerless in the search for their children, but triggered by the uncertainty of their loved ones whereabouts the Mothers of the disappeared united and bravely confronted the Junta. The only people who dared to publicly protest were the Mothers. Today the mothers continue to walk “to show the world that they have not forgotten what happened to their loved ones.” Women News Network, February 2013,http://womennewsnetwork.net/2010/10/21/argentina-mothers/ The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo Following the steps of the mothers of Plaza de Mayo, grandmothers also protest to search about the children of their children who have also disappeared. As stated in the Grandmothers homepage (http://www.abuelas.org.ar/english/history.htm) they search for the babies that were kidnapped with their parents and the babies born in clandestine detention centers where their mothers were taken after having been sequestered at different states of their pregnancies. In 30 years, the grandmothers located 87 of the disappeared children. the film “The Official Story” directed by Luis Puenzo (1985) tells the story of a grandmother that after the Dirty War find her granddaughter. The Arpilleras of Chile During the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, many Chilean women created complex tapestries-Arpillas depicting the harsh conditions of life and the pain resulting from the disappeared victims of Pinochet’s repression. Similar to Argentina women in Chile banded together to seek for the truth about their disappeared relatives. Chilean women used their creativity to portray their sorrows but also their determination to struggle for the respect of human rights and the truth about their missing relatives. Chilean women use arpillas or quilts as their protesting weapon. The tapestries and the art of making them preserved the memory of los desaparecidos (the disappeared people) and the dictatorship’s brutality, as well as the unemployment, food shortages, housing shortages, and other hardships of daily life which were attributed to Pinochet’s rule. Simply preserving this collective memory was itself an act of protest, but creating the arpilleras also empowered the women in other ways. Many women experienced cognitive liberation through their work in the arpillera workshops, and became involved in other protests against Pinochet’s regime. Cited from Kristen Walker in “Chilean Women’s Resistance in the Arpillera Movement,” October 30, 2008 http://www.cetri.be/spip.php?article911 . Coordinadora Nacional de Viudas Guatemaltecas/National Coordinator of Guatemalan Women-CONAVIGUA Rigoberta Menchu is a Guatemalan who witnessed the assassination of her relatives and suffered the death of her father. Rigoberta took the plight of her Mayan people around the world for what she was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1998. Like Rigoberta hundreds of Mayan women came together and created the National Coordinator of Guatemalan Widow (CONAVIGUA) in 1988. These widows lost their husbands and/or children during the Guatemalan armed conflict. They were killed or disappeared. Over 200,000 Guatemalan were killed or disappeared during the armed conflict that for over forty years swept the country (1960-1996). According to the United Nations Sponsored Historical Clarification Committee 83 percent of these killed or disappeared individuals were indigenous people what many have called a genocide of Mayan people. In this sense, Victoria Sanford in her book Buried Secrets: Truth and Human Rights in Guatemala argues that the military specifically targeted Mayans in what can easily be labeled as genocide. In the same manner the Center for Justice and Accountability calls it a silent genocide http://www.cja.org/article.php?list=type&type=294 The work of CONAVIGUA includes the following: Meet each other basic needs and request indemnization from the government for the killing of their husbands. Work hand in hand with the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala to identify body dumping sites and process of exhumation and DNA identification. Bring dignity to the victims of the war providing legal and psychological advice to the relatives of the victims basically during the process of exhumation and burial. Demand respect to Mayan culture during the process of exhumation and burial. Collect testimonies of victims relatives which CONAVIGUA presents to the Public Prosecutors. Most CONAVIGUA members only spoke their native language but in the process of demanding and searching they learned to read and write the Spanish language.
COMADRES El Salvador In the middle of the night paramilitar groups also known as the Death Squads kidnapped individuals on ideological grounds. The kidnapped was never seen again and the anguish of relatives took entire communities. The Catholic Church was the only safe place to gather and talk. It was Monsignor Oscar Romero who took the mothers of the disappeared under his wings. The Committee of the Prisoners and the Politically Disappeared Monsignor Romero-COMADRES was initiated in 1977. COMADRES unified a group of mothers whose sons, daughters, or/and husbands started to search the truth about their disappeared relatives in the midst of El Salvador civil war. However, three years after the creation of COMADRES Monsignor Romero was assassinated while celebrating mass. His opposition to the prosecution and assassinations of priests, his denouncing of disappearances, tortures, and murders, and his criticism of the United States support of Salvadoran military and death squads were the reasons of his murder. In spite of repression the COMADRES soon reached over 500 members. However, many of COMADRES were also disappeared and murdered and many others were kidnapped, tortured, and raped. COMADRES headquarters were bombed twice and letter threatening them with decapitation. Yet their struggle never stopped and they continue to fight for the amnesty of political prisoners, for information about the whereabouts of missing relatives, and punishment for those responsible for political assassination. The Gendering of Human Rights The movement staged by women in search of their disappeared loved ones has been labeled as the Gendering of Human Rights because more women than men joined the struggle. And the question is: why more women than men? I use the argument that women responded to their traditional gender roles of motherhood and protectors of their households. The love of a mother for their children was the trigger for their actions to band together, take over the public sphere, and confront vicious dictators in what is called the “Politics of Love.” Women’s Accomplishments Women’s struggle for human rights is an example of endurance and bravery in the world. We have seen and read about fearless women fighting vicious dictators and deadly dead squads, digging into mass graves, staging monumental protests, and having their own rights violated through torture, rape, and even disappearances. Women’s actions are sadly inspiring and admirable. But beyond admiration women’s actions have further implications in the political and social life of Latin America and the rest of the world. Let’s analyze each of these implications or outcomes. First, women’s actions have brought a different understanding of feminism. By feminism, I refer to ideology that seeks gender equality or equality between women and men. Before, feminism was an ideology emerging in advanced nations departing from the fact that women were relegated to the traditional roles of mothers, wives and the keeper of their households (private sphere) and have nothing to do with societal developments (public sphere). The struggles of women in Latin America have shown that the traditional roles assigned to women such as motherhood became political and an integral part of the public sphere. Second, the stories we have learned about tell that women departing from their traditional role of mothers created movements that transformed forever women’s lives and politics in Latin American nations. Without shooting a single bullet and developing peaceful movements of civil disobedience helped to overthrow dictatorships and end civil wars. Third, in so doing, women used unique creativity. For example, women used dress codes to reinforce their presence in the public sphere. Mothers of Plaza de Mayo used the white bandanas over her heads; Chilean women exhibited their quilts/arpillas in public; Salvadorian COMADRES were black dresses and other symbolic ornaments; Guatemalan widows wore colorful Mayan attires; and all wore the photograph of their missing sons and daughters hanging over their chests. White bandanas, black dresses, quilts, and Mayan colorful embroidered attires have became international icon for human rights advocates. Fourth, women gained consciousness. Women that started the struggle only out mother’s love gained a political consciousness. More importantly, women started to see the world with gender eyes. Maria Teresa Tula, the co-founder of Las COMADRES said: “We were raped and when went back to our husband they did not want us back. That showed me how unfair men are. And I asked myself why. The answer came to me when I understood that men believe they are above us and that’s not right. Before, I just wanted to know the truth about my loved ones, now I want to change this sexist machista society.” Further women enhanced the meaning of sisterhood. For example, comadres means godmother, but the meaning of the word in Latin American society is deeper. Comadre or comadrazgo/padrinazgo transcend social relations and become part of the kinship. More comadre means bonding and sisterhood. Fifth, women gained citizenship. Throughout the struggle women started to exercise their citizenship. They became political subjects with voice and agency, assuring liberty for all. Sixth, also important how women empowered themselves through education and exposure to national and international forum. Indigenous women learned an additional language, Spanish. They also learned about the country’s constitution. They traveled internationally, wrote books, and gained international awards such as the Nobel Peace Prize given to Guatemalan woman Rigoberta Menchu in 1980.
