R - University-Student Union

Transcription

What feminism
means to me…
Having the choice to do with my body and life
what I want, without societal stigma — whether
it be pursuing a career, or having children, or
both.
Chrissy, 29
Standing up to chauvinistic men even when it
means putting myself in a dangerous situation.
Reynaldo, 20
A stay-at-home mother.
Liana, 29
Having the self-worth that prevents you from
settling for being involved with and dealing with the
game of a married man.
Jason, 30
An understanding of the true equality of all human
beings including the one between men and women,
being strong to speak what you believe but not to
ignore the contrary opinions, leading and helping
those who need assistance to protect themselves
verbally and physically.
Aska, 31
Being able to look at her eyes and not her chest.
Santi, 32
Strength!
Leah, 22
Sticking to everything you believe in through the
hell and highwater of other people-habitshistory-failure-community-society-oppositionhostility-patriarchies-media-genocide-povertypolitics-reputation-status-parents-family-self and
more that say or imply that your truth is or
should be otherwise.
Jennifer, 21
The most basic manifestation of self-love.
Nachito, 26
belieF
accEptance
open-Mindedness
relatIonships
harmoNy
communIty
reSpect
every man, woMan and child
Tommy, 31
LOVE!
´
FEMICIDE IN JUAREZ
Milton, 60
Being proud of being a woman and being
"thankful" that in this day and age we can
educate our minds at our own free will and
knowing that no matter which road we chose —
motherhood or career woman — married or
single, straight or gay — we mean something to
this world, as we women make this world turn!
Rachelle, 28
S PEA K UP
loudmouthzine@wildmail.com
Free and Priceless
Rebekah, 29
Gretchen, 58
Common sense.
Issue 4 | Winter 2004
T H E W OR L D I S LIS T E NIN G
’
CELEBRATING
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN S DAY
MARCH 8
A LOOK AT THE
AIDS PANDEMIC
RIGHTS
QUEERR
A R O U N D THEW
WORLD
PLU new ficción!
!
Everything that inequality is not; it celebrates unity,
equity and positive progression over senseless
power structures kept in place by assumed and
promoted inequity.
Speak
POETS
e
feminism: fem- -niz- m – n.
International Woman
the movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and all oppression
By Felicia Montes
zapartxic@hotmail.com
The Women’s Resource Center (WRC) is part of the Cross Cultural Centers at California State University, Los Angeles.
Its mission is to encourage student learning as well as to foster an inclusive campus environment free of racism, sexism, heterosexism
and other forms of oppression. With a commitment to increasing cross-cultural awareness, we offer a wide variety of programs and
services that explore both the shared and unique experiences, histories and heritages of our diverse community. Please contact the
WRC at: (323) 343-3370 or by mail at: University-Student Union, 5154 State University Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90032.
Jessica Hoffman, Thatcher Collins, and Mom, without whom nothing is possible.
DESIGNER................................................ Kristy Wong
DESIGN CONSULTANT........................... Eve NaRanong
SPECIAL THANKS: To all the behind-the-scenes LOUDmouths, especially
Stephanie Abraham
Jennifer Ashley
Daria Teruko Yudacufski
Connie Martinez
EDITOR IN CHIEF..........................
COPY EDITOR................................
CONSULTING EDITOR..................
AD SALES......................................
6
e
Front cover:
Back cover:
Photo by Carol Petersen.
Larry Salamone, Iris, oil on canvas, 30 in. x 24 in., 2002. www.larrysalamone.com
On the Cover
12
16
19
21
remembering the women of
international women’s day
femicide south of the border
hiv/aids is still spreading
the global queer community
hazme un trabajo manita – a short story
7
9
11
15
16
17
20
confronting empire – arundhati breaks it down
maria guardado tells her story
palestinian women – holding it all together
global abortion update
female genital mutilation
abelina colors us blind
women, men, children sold into bondage
2
3
4
5
22
from the heart of the editor
our feminist sheroes
know your feminist faculty
dear joanna – a health column
the f-word
the LOUDmouth list
poets speak
Special
In Every Issue
Be part of our growing community. Contact Connie Martinez of the Cross Cultural Centers
at (323) 343-5001 or cmartinez@cslanet.calstatela.edu.
LOUDmouth encourages you to get LOUD!
Send letters to the editor to: loudmouthzine@wildmail.com. Or, place them in our mailbox in the
Women’s Resource Center, on the 2nd floor of the University-Student Union. Letters may be
edited for length and clarity.
WRC
The views expressed in LOUDmouth do not necessarily reflect those of California
State University, Los Angeles, the University-Student Union, or their students, staff or
administrators. And, because feminism is not a monolithic ideology, there may be as
many viewpoints expressed here as there are feminists. Opinions are those of their
respective authors and are not necessarily those of LOUDmouth.
Soy una mujer de maiz
Y la madre tierra es mi pais
I AM INTERNATIONAL WOMAN
Representing all four directions
I am trying to make the connection
Between my dreams and reality
And the duality of my sexuality
After all womb.man we are the land
Connected to the center
The other world within ourselves
And from my body flows a constant stream of truth
Marking the rebirth of consciousness
the re-evolution of el sexto sol
The trembles are felt all over the globe
As la madre cries her tears
cleansing herself from the evil within
Her mijo, el hijo de la chingada
The creation of destruction, given vida ‘cuz oh yes
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”
Still taken from Surname Viet Given Name Nam, a film by Trinh T. Minh-ha.
Alone looking into the turquesa stone
I see the blood red road ahead
The rain and clouds bringing a storm
Tensions to all my relations
And as Getty banners speak of imagining in hoods across L.A.
I am reminded why the world is still a ghetto
From the corner Chinese Fashion Land
To the vegetarian Taco Stand
To the Vietnamese acrylic tips of the world
Advertise with LOUDmouth
My true roots weaved together
In trenzas, china curls, and blown out frizz
Realizing that adornment can have consequences
Whether Xolotl blues or Nike shoes...
I keep strong with my Jordana hues
Living in the jungle, Chiapas and L.A.
We live to remember the Pachamama’s way
Mujeres de Maiz,
M.C.’s — mujeres en Ceremonia
With life juices that flow like water from our bodies,
Waves in tune with the moon,
Seen at its fullest – by the eyes of those who look
to the sky, the land, and the fire
To create sacreds from sacreds
And drink of these Mixed Waters
Designed
by U-SU Graffix.
“poetry is the culture of a people. we
are poets even when we don’t write
poems…we are all preachers
because we are one.”
– nikki giovanni
Mutiny in the Body
By Susan Ahdoot
susu.ahdoot@verizon.net
I just found out
I’m going to be an aunt again
and my ovaries
just grabbed my uterus
and squeezed.
Hard.
They’re getting pissed
and taking hostages.
The eggs are worried
and ready to scramble.
They’ve elected a scout
for a kamikaze mission.
It’s dodging guards
in it’s search for freedom
on it’s way to certain death.
Because the swimmers are scarce
and they’re scared to commit,
hiding in latex foxholes
and napalm jelly,
killing themselves in their fury
to avoid the fallopian falls.
Yes, the ovaries are pissed
and seeking revenge.
There’s a battle being fought
and it isn’t always pretty.
I’m on a diplomatic mission
seeking a cease fire
with sweet talk and promises
of better men to come.
LOUDmouth
22
HAZME UN TRABAJO, MANITA
By Erika Coronado
O
felia was a curandera from Inglewood — or at least that
was where she set up her shop, Botánica Cielito Lindo,
like the rich endless sky that blankets the universe. And
like the sky, she never said where she was born or raised,
never where she had visited. She had beautiful brown skin,
brown like a steaming cup of chocolate caliente. Her hair, soft
and curly, worked a blue-black halo of thought about her head.
And she never failed to smile a warm saludo as you walked into
the store. One of her customers was Doña Lupe. A tiny, 68year-old woman, Doña always wore cotton dresses with flower
prints and a brown reboso that her late niece had knit for her.
Every week after the Saturday service at her church she walked
into the store to buy (only from Ofelia) a white candle that had
been sprinkled with brown sugar and sand, which she lit in
honor of her niece, Regina. “Los muertos, they need luz to light
their way,” the old woman would always say to Ofelia. She
would agree. There wasn’t much that she could do for Doña
Lupe and her sorrow.
El dolor de la muerte es como el del parto; nadie te lo
puede — ni debe — quitártelo. Aunque sientas que tu pecho se
convierte en un vacío Negro, y tu corazón en una réplica de
barro que — al latir — se quiebra repetidamente.
Ofelia spoke in a soft, comforting tone as she brought a
brown cigarette to her lips. Her words, engulfed in a sweetsmelling smoke, were the only magia that she could offer Doña
Lupe. Nothing you can do about the dead except remember
them. And the living — never let them forget. Regina was 17
when she first started to sew at the maquila. “ASSEMBLED IN
MEXICO OF U.S. COMPONENTS.” Those were her hands
working — as though part of the machine — creating, stitching
together string and mezclilla, running the tela through her hands
like the hot sand from her pueblo in Yucatán. She had not been
home for three days when her body was found in the peripheral
sphere of the city, that outside rung of CIVILIZATION where
only the beasts live. She was raped, tortured, beaten to death.
One of her hands was clutching the sand around her, the other
held on tightly to the hand of the girl that was found with her.
EXISTEN MÁS DE 500 DESAPARECIDAS.
Ofelia’s words were her magia: of comfort, of anger, of
borrowed pain (there was an abundance to borrow). She
borrowed Doña Lupe’s memory of Regina and spread it like a
hand dropping magic sand. The mujeres at the Bodacious
Sistas’ Beauty Salon next door reacted with sympathy. They
had been witness to the constant beatings that one of their
neighbors, Mary, took from her husband. Twice a month after
his borrachera, he came home to bash his wife into black and
blue. She was silenced, excusing his aggression toward her as
this or that. But he was wearing her away, blurring the shine in
her eyes until they shut for good.
Ofelia’s magia reached all of her customers: the ones
that came in looking for love potions and amarramientos; those
curious about the Botánica who walked away with a cauldron
full of incense. Guillermo stopped by the store on his way to
school. For the longest time, it seemed, his heart beat just a
little louder when Antonia was around. The only problem, as
Guillermo saw it, was that Antonia wasn’t quite aware of his
existence. He brought in a picture and a lock of hair, hoping that
it would be enough for the amarramiento. “Hazme un trabajo,
Manita. Bind her to me.” He exposed his situation to Ofelia, and
LOUDmouth
21
a short story
she asked him about Antonia and about himself. “She’s like an
angel,” he said. “She’s always smiling, always tranquila, always
surrounded by her friends.” Ofelia suggested that he talk to her.
Pierde ese miedo — fear will get you nowhere. He would not
need a trabajo de amarramiento if he spoke to her, got to know
more than that beautiful smile of hers. Guillermo bought some
incense and promised to come back. Two weeks later he came
back to the Botánica. He wanted to tell Ofelia that he had
worked up the courage to talk to Antonia. That she liked to read
books on astronomy. That she felt an incredible and satisfying
awe at the vastness and complexity of the Universe. And that
she wanted to be an astrophysicist.
The sun shone brightly in the sky full of clouds as
Guillermo walked toward the Botánica entrance. The door
needed a paint job to fix the cracked, aging brown paint. He
thought to offer himself for the task. And just as he was thinking
of the way he would tell Ofelia about the paint, he noticed the
store was closed and empty. All he found was a piece of paper
taped to the door and right beside it, an open paper bag filled
with copal incense that read “Pa’ Los Muertos.” The paper had
a poem scribbled on it along with the words, “Hay Que Esparcir
Las Arenas.” He understood that the need to scatter the magical
sands of knowledge had carried Ofelia away. He slowly took the
note from the door and read it carefully:
Pa’ Los Vivos
Tengo: I have
Unos ojos cafés
eyes that look upon the men around me
and women
Ojos de mujer that take in
(like black holes in the Universe)
images of violent things
Azules para variar ante mi piel Morena
Mine the darkest skin
with lines of birth and lines of age
and lines, well etched, of scar and pain
Blanca como la luz del amanecer
Como una taza de leche
Con café
Y labios with which to speak of where we’ve been
A veces pequeños
A veces anchos
Loud
louder
until the whole round Earth can hear you
Tengo: I have
Magia entre mis dientes
Para dar poder a mi voz y
Cambiar al mundo
magic in my scars and in my wounds
so that the body remembers
and the mind never forgets
Magia en mis hermanas
Para sanar, para luchar, para curar esas heridas que
Tenemos: We have
Erika doesn't have magia in her hands, but she has seen magia in other hands and
eyes and souls. Write to her with your magia at yaometzli@hotmail.com.
the Editor
From the Heart
of
«¡Yo no te hice nada — tú estás loca!» Max uttered with disgust,
asserting that I was crazy and he had done nothing wrong. Surely, it
must have been me imagining his tongue thrusting down my throat in
an unsolicited forced-kiss reminiscent of the ravenous “French” kisses
of junior high and high school. Here I stood in a salsa club apparently
breaking all the rules. To kiss and tell was one thing, but to be forced
to kiss and call it out was quite another. “¿Qué te pasa? Why are you
so angry?” his friends asked, trying to shush me.
Angry? This was an understatement. If it were only rage
running through my bloodstream. The shock, self-doubt and “maybe I
am overreacting” thoughts all began to gnaw at me immediately, as
they do when women, people of color and working-class folk stand up
for themselves. Even my female friends perpetuated these feelings.
“You guys look good together!” Carolina said,
insinuating the possibilities for romance. “Why
are you so upset?”
“HE STUCK HIS TONGUE DOWN MY
THROAT!” I declared again.
“Yeah, but you two were dancing sexy,”
she said plainly, dismissing my feelings of
violation, suggesting that I should not only
expect it, but enjoy it.
Certainly in a court of law this would be
the sentiment. I could hear all the arguments
that would be used: Well, what do you expect
dancing like that? Look at how provocatively
you’re dressed. You shouldn’t have gone there if
you weren’t willing to deal with the
consequences.
Granted, it was only a kiss. But it was a violent one. And we
were on a dance floor in a crowded room. What if we had been at a
small gathering? Or alone in his hotel room? Where would that kiss
and the drive behind it have led? I contemplated the facility with which
rape happens and how women brunt the blame.
His hand on my shoulder interrupted my thoughts. “What’s
wrong — do you have a boyfriend?” he asked. As if the only reason I
could be mad was not for my own sake but because my man was
going to get upset.
Not a month earlier a good guy friend of mine had pulled the
same kind of male privilege, ignoramus act on me. One sunny
afternoon, he cupped his hands around my face and almost
successfully forced his lips on mine. I managed to wiggle out and ask
as politely as possible, “What the hell are you doing?” This was no
salsero hotshot. He was a friend I trusted, with whom I had spent
hours discussing the dynamics of sexism. When I asked him if he
would have attempted to kiss me if I’d had a partner, his honest
response was, “Probably not.”
Is sovereignty over my own body only granted if I’m protecting
or saving myself for a man? As Inga Muscio writes in Cunt, “As a
woman living in this society, I’m consistently reminded I am a potential
Whore whenever a man is not escorting me, which is rather most of
the time.” Escort or not, a woman’s body seems to still be perceived
as unmarked territory available for conquest at any time.
John Mayer’s song “Your Body is a Wonderland” is a hopeful
hit that relishes the best of butterflies-in-your-stomach romance,
invoking the excitement that can come with the anticipation of
exploring a lover’s body. Yet, as this edition of LOUDmouth started
coming together, I began to realize that, in fact, the lyrics should more
appropriately read, “Your body is a battlefield.”
This issue is a tribute to International Women’s Day, which is
March 8. It’s an annual holiday founded in honor of the young women
in the United States who fought for their rights. Ironically, it is
celebrated and recognized more often outside this country than in it
(see “My Grandmother’s Knitting Needles”). Our cover story offers an
overview of the horrors taking place in Juárez, Mexico, as women
disappear and are raped and murdered. Maria Guardado talks to us
about what it was like to survive the U.S.-funded tortures in El
Salvador. We also cover female genital mutilation, the HIV/AIDS
epidemic and cutbacks on abortion and birth control. Times are hard.
Capitalist feminism, sometimes known as mainstream or
bourgeois feminism, would have us believe that sexism is dead.
Women are equal — end of story. Indeed, we have made gains.
However, all too often, upper- and middle-class white women in the
first world are the ones reaping the benefits of this “equality” and
“liberation.” Internationally, there’s another reality.
Of course, freedom is a matter of perception, and people have
to define what it means for themselves. Yet, as we look around the
world I must assert that sexism is far from dead, and we are far from
liberated. By “we” I mean not only women, but all people. No one is
free when others are oppressed. Period.
This capitalist, white-supremacist
patriarchy was not built in a day. It won’t be
dismantled overnight either. There is hope.
While it is true that women are victims of
atrocities (and it is essential that we recognize
this), it is also true that females are neither
paralyzed nor cowering, but are fighting tooth
and nail to bring about societal changes in
order to muster conditions under which all
people can bloom. In this issue you will also
find examples of great resistance taking place
all over the globe.
It’s not that we’re not powerful. It’s that
we so rarely understand how powerful we truly
are. Although, I must admit, my childhood shero
Pippi Longstocking understood it. She didn’t give a fuck — she would
not be oppressed under any circumstances. She even (gasp) refused
to go to school. Talk about breaking all the rules. She loved herself in
all of her mismatched-socks glory.
When Pippi came upon a beauty salon advertisement for a
product to hide freckles that asked, “Do you suffer from freckles?” she
marched right into the shop and up to the saleslady and said, “No, I
don’t suffer from freckles.”
The lady took one look at Pippi and burst out, “But, my dear
child, your whole face is covered with freckles!”
“I know it,” said Pippi, “but I don’t suffer from them. I love them.
Good day.”
If we all took her lesson to heart, we’d bring the multi-billion
dollar beautification industry tumbling down.
Pippi refused to take grief from anyone. She would not take
“no” as an answer or fall prey to any bully in her environment. It was
by following Pippi’s lead that I asked Max to dance six weeks after the
forced-kiss incident, trusting that I could define the situation on my
own terms by setting boundaries and affirming my own self-respect. I
don’t know that I’ll ever be alone with him or that we’ll ever be friends.
But I do know that while addressing real questions of victimization, I
refuse to be a victim.
So, here’s to you Pippi! Ironic to use a white girl from Sweden
as a role model for our international women’s issue. Yet the rebellious
redhead, that traviesa peliroja, offers us an example of how to tackle
the heavy oppressions that bind us with a defiant, childlike, “ain’t no
one gonna hold me down” spirit. We, too, can make the kind of trouble
and magic that she made, exercising the power that comes with
knowing what we want and how to get it.
In the tongue of my Syrian and Lebanese grandmothers —
Al-hurriyya bintizharuna. Freedom awaits us.
Stephanie Abraham, Editor in Chief
LOUDmouth
2
OUR
feminist
SHEROES
By Joseph Coleman
KNOW YOUR
FeministFACULTY
By Amanda R. Davis
of the South Central Colemans
B
orn and raised in San Pedro, Calif., Yuri Kochiyama grew
up in a small, working-class community. Her parents were
both Japanese immigrants and were diligent about keeping
Yuri as religious, provincial and apolitical as possible. After the
bombing of Pearl Harbor, things dramatically changed for Yuri’s
family as well as thousands of other Japanese American citizens.
Seized by hysteria, the United States forced many Japanese
Americans into internment camps. Due to the onslaught of
government paranoia, many Japanese Americans, including Yuri’s
own father, were
accused of false
charges of espionage.
Imprisoned in a federal
penitentiary, Yuri’s
father was forced to
undergo harsh
conditions and
interrogation.
After learning the
hard way about the
injustices of the U.S.
government, Yuri
recognized the parallels
between the treatment
of African Americans
and Japanese
Americans. In 1960,
Yuri moved with her
husband, Bill, to New
York which was
steaming with political
activity and the
Yuri Kochiyama
beginnings of major
political movements for black liberation. Yuri further transformed
her political ideals into action in 1963 when she became friends
with Malcolm X. Her encounter with Malcolm influenced many of
her perceptions on life and infused a passion that moved her to
enlist in the battle for civil rights.
Some of her highlights as a political activist include her
work with the Black Panther Party and the takeover of the Statue
of Liberty in 1977 to demand freedom for Puerto Rican political
prisoners. As a couple, both Yuri and Bill helped fight for
reparations for the Japanese Americans who were imprisoned
during World War II.
Yuri is still immersed in the fight against social injustice and
works to inspire the next generation of young activists to continue
the struggle. Yuri is a true freedom fighter, and she has helped to
set the tone for social change in this country. I was blessed to
have the opportunity to hear Yuri speak and to let her know that
she’s had a positive impact on my life as a black man. Thank you,
Yuri, you are an inspiration to us all.
D
r. Ann Garry is a professor of philosophy and director of
the Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities.
She calls herself a feminist without hesitation and says
that she “didn’t like people telling me I couldn’t do something
because I was a girl.” She thinks of feminism as a “movement
that advocates that women can be full-fledged people.”
Her classes Contemporary Moral and Social Issues in
a Multicultural Society and Philosophy of Gender and Culture
are strictly related to gender and feminism. However, Dr.
Garry incorporates feminism into every class that she
teaches. She encounters a number of students who do not
self-identify as feminists, but even if they do not claim the
label, Dr. Garry believes that most people are in fact feminists
because they hold what are feminist beliefs. She says that
many people are reluctant to assume the label because of the
common misconceptions associated with the term.
“It’s not an accident that people still have those
[stereotypes]. People that are opposed to feminism keep
dragging them up,” she says. As head of the Center for the
Study of Genders and Sexualities, Dr. Garry encourages
students to get involved. There are internships available and
several programs scheduled. One of the goals of the center is
to provide an institutional base of support for feminist, gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender scholarship. You can learn
more at www.calstatela.edu/centers/csgs.
Dr. Garry has taught at Cal State L.A. for more than 30
years and has received such recognitions as the Outstanding
Professor Award, the President’s Distinguished Professor
Award and the Distinguished Woman Award. She edited the
book Women, Knowledge and Reality: Explorations in
Feminist Philosophy and serves as associate editor of
Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, which she also
helped found.
inside the ring
THE BUSINESS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING
By Kate Herman and Sarah A.West
T
he practice of buying and selling
humans for profit is an age-old
enterprise, yet it is alive and well
today in the form of human trafficking —
the world’s fastest-growing criminal
industry. Consider these statistics:
UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children
worldwide are trafficked each year. The
numbers are so difficult to track that
annual estimates of global trafficking,
including men, women and children, vary
from 700,000 to 4 million. And it’s not just
in tawdry Asian brothels or European redlight districts: In 1997 the CIA estimated
that 50,000 persons were trafficked to the
United States annually.
Though the numbers are disputed,
one fact is accepted across the board:
Trafficking ranks third-largest in sources of
profits for organized crime, placing the
multi-billion dollar industry behind only
drugs and guns. While the sex trade gets
considerably more media attention than
other forms of trafficking, reports of forced
labor trafficking show the problem is much
broader.
Countries facing economic strain,
high unemployment rates, a lack of
women’s rights and corrupt governments
show higher numbers of trafficked
persons. Trafficking is predominant
throughout East Asia and the Pacific, for
instance, and spiked in Central and
Eastern Europe after the collapse of the
Soviet Union in the early 1990s. But the
problem can be found in nearly every
country around the globe, including the
United States.
In the wake of this sharp increase in
trafficking, leaders around the world are
taking notice — and action. Policy-makers,
governments, nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs), women’s groups and
activists all have honed in on this problem.
Indeed, trafficking has become a unifying
issue among feminist and religious
fundamentalists, Democrats and
Republicans.
Breaking the Cycle
With stronger laws and worldwide
awareness, the human-trafficking industry
is under the harshest scrutiny to date.
Nevertheless, the January/February 2003
issue of Foreign Policy listed the illegal
trade of persons as one of the top five
wars we, as a global society, are losing.
The tangible effects of human
trafficking, and sex trafficking in particular,
are impossible to ignore. Children
ensnared in trafficking circles suffer lifelong
losses — from education to health to their
very lives.
“Sex trafficking is an almost
inevitable death sentence for victims for
several reasons,” Holly Burkhalter of
Physicians for Human Rights testified to
Congress.
Children have no ability to insist on
the use of condoms, they are forced to
have sex with multiple partners daily, and
the often-violent sexual encounters expose
girls’ physically immature bodies to a
greater number of infections and diseases,
Burkhalter said. At the height of Thailand’s
AIDS epidemic, more than 80 percent of
HIV/AIDS cases could be attributed to
women in the sex industry and their
clients.
“It seems highly likely that coercing
or forcing millions of cases of girls and
women into violent, unprotected sex acts
with multiple partners is a significant factor
in the spread of the AIDS pandemic,”
Burkhalter explained.
Often, a promise of hope becomes
a child’s worst nightmare. For millions of
children around the world, that nightmare
is a daily reality.
This story was first printed in Outlook, the
magazine of the American Association of
University Women. www.aauw.org
Kate is a senior editor at Outlook. Sarah is a research
associate at Progressive Policy Institute.
Contact Dr. Garry at agarry@calstatela.edu.
LOUDmouth
3
LOUDmouth
20
HEALTH
Queer
Guy
& Girl
WORLD EYE ON THE
J
• There are nine countries in the world
today that call for the execution of
people convicted of committing
homosexual acts — among them are
Afghanistan, Sudan, Chechen
Republic and Saudi Arabia.
• In the mid-1990s, “social cleansing” of
LGBT communities was rampant in
Colombia, where according to attorney
and activist Juan Pablo Ordonez,
7,000 of the 40,000 murders in the
country in that period were committed
against LGBT-community members by
a “right-wing death squad.” Ordonez
fled Colombia to the United States
after investigating and publicizing his
findings. In her 2003 novel, The Dirty
Girls Social Club, Alisa Valdes
Rodriguez explores the issue of
Colombian social cleansing through
the Elizabeth Cruz character.
• The social cleansing of queer folks
has been a common practice in
countries such as Indonesia, Iran, and
Yemen, where LGBT people have
been routinely harassed, beaten and
ordered to leave their towns.
• The president of Zimbabwe claimed
that homosexuals are “lower than
dogs and pigs.”
LOUDmouth
19
THE F-WORD
what feminism means to me
Joanna E. Gaspar, M.S., M.P.H.
By Shauna Robinson
Q
: My boyfriend
sometimes gets
really angry at me
and begins to throw things.
We've been talking about
moving in together, but I feel
hesitant. What should I do?
Also, is name calling really
"abuse?"
By Frederick Smith
ust when you thought the queer
community in the United States had it
bad, you begin to realize that lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
folks around the world have some tough
challenges of their own. Take for example:
Joanna
Dear
Audre Lorde (1934-1992) in her own words, was a “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior
poet.” She was also an activist, teacher, cancer survivor and author of 17 books of
prose and poetry. Photograph by Jean Weisinger.
• In many countries, the intersection of
sexism and heterosexism makes the
issues of lesbians either invisible or
extremely exoticized. Either way,
queer men’s issues dominate and fuel
the discussion and debate.
• The U.S. Supreme Court struck down
a Texas sodomy law in 2003, saying
the private sexual conduct of people is
not the business of the government.
2003 … in the United States!
Around the world, the human rights of the
queer community are violated daily.
Individuals are imprisoned and killed by
their own governments for being LGBT;
they are also harassed, beaten, murdered
and discriminated against on a regular
basis. And the few advocates who speak
up in those situations are often the targets
of death threats and harassment.
Amnesty International has taken up
the fight for those who cannot speak for
themselves in many countries. With the
belief that all people deserve equal
protection under the law, and that all
people deserve basic human rights, the
organization has created OUTfront, a
small army of activists working to confront
human-rights violations of the queer
community.
Communities of faith are taking it
upon themselves to raise awareness of
LGBT issues. LGBT Muslims and nonMuslims came together for the First
International Retreat for LGBT Muslims in
Boston in 1998. A second retreat took
place in South Africa in 2000.
“We have finally taken the first
steps to come together to address the
issues that are important to us as a gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender Muslim
community,” said Faisal Alam, Retreat
Coordinator and founder of Al-Fatiha.
For members of the LGBT
community in the United States, joining
the international fight for human rights can
be empowering. Because even though the
community is debated over politically,
talked about socially and argued over
religiously, queers in the United States still
have some basic protections under the
law that aren’t even in the books
elsewhere.
To look further into international queer
issues, check out the Amnesty
International website,
www.amnestyusa.org/outfront, or the
International Gay and Lesbian Association
website, www.ilga.org.
Fred has just completed a fiction manuscript about four
queer men of color in L.A. and is seeking a literary
agent. Contact him at fsmith827@aol.com.
A
: It may not seem like it,
but throwing things and
name calling are forms
of abuse, and you need to
seriously consider where this
relationship might lead.
Dating/domestic violence are
Questions for Joanna? Send them to
dearjoanna@wildmail.com.
patterns of behavior that one
partner uses to gain power over
the other. They include public humiliation, playing mind games,
name calling; isolating you from family/friends; making threats;
hitting, slapping, kicking and sexual assault/rape. Dating/domestic
violence is against the law.
Dating/domestic violence often occurs as a “cycle of
violence” consisting of three phases that increase in both
frequency and severity over time. During the tension-building
phase, abusing partners are “edgy” and often verbally abuse their
partners. As tension increases, minor episodes of violence occur,
such as throwing things or shoving. The tension-building phase
ends in an explosion of uncontrolled violence, the acute battering
phase. Abusers discount this violent episode and may refuse to
summon medical help for their partners. During the loving
reconciliation phase, abusers may apologize and “shower” their
partners with love. This pleasurable time may convince partners to
stay with abusers. Without help, the cycle repeats, and eventually
the tension-building phases become shorter and more intense, the
battering incidents more frequent and severe, and the lovingreconciliation period shorter and less intense.
For help and more information, call the 24-hour National
Domestic Violence Hotline (www.ndvh.org) at (800) 799-SAFE
(7233) or (800) 787-3224 (TTY); talk with a health professional at
the Student Health Center; speak with a campus police officer at
(323) 343-3700; and/or visit the California Courts Self-Help Center
at www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/dv/. Call 911 if you are in
immediate danger.
The Student Health Center is located on the main walkway across from Biological
Sciences and adjacent to the Center for Career Planning and Placement. For more
information call (323) 343-3300 or go online to www.calstatela.edu/univ/hlth_ctr/.
Services for women and men include but are not limited to family planning, counseling
and prescribing, immunizations and testing for STDs. Pap smears for cancer screening
are available for women. Outpatient care is available Monday and Thursday, 8:30 a.m.7 p.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday, 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m.; and Friday, 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Send Shauna your thoughts on the f-word:
shaunarobinson@hotmail.com.
“The F-WORD,” a regular column which
made its debut in the fall, features poets,
artists, intellectuals and good-hearted
folk talking about what “feminism”
means to them. Here, writer Shauna
Robinson delves into what the word, the
movement, and the feminist identity
mean to her. We, at LOUDmouth,
believe the debate needs to be ongoing.
Again, we encourage you to start one up
with your friends and enemies today.
t seems like most people flee from feminism like it’s a dirty little
label. Black women, like me, try to escape it because we are
Black first, female second and, “Those white women don’t even
speak my language.” Men often run from it because the word
alone connotates various types of power (some real, some
perceived, some authentic, some exaggerated).
I’m here to claim that dirty little label. I’m stitching it on my
backside because I am proud to be a feminist. Frankly, I don’t care
what came first — the chicken or the egg, the right to vote or the
right to freedom. For me, I’m as Black as I am female. I have
kinky hair and a clitoris. And, being a feminist serves all parts of
me because feminism is an analogy for humanity and humanity is
something that every human has the power to bestow.
In the context of the evolution of the human race, women a
thousand years from now will probably be amazed that it was
once necessary to dissect our decency into little group-appropriate
labels, to liberate aspects of ourselves one section at a time. But
today, feminism exists because the storm of oppression on
females continues to rain down across the world. And, even in the
midst of the storm, feminism fights back like welcome sunshine.
I
Shauna, a screenwriter and more, was recently selected for the Guy Hanks & Marvin
Miller Fellowship program founded by Drs. Camille and Bill Cosby. She hopes to
change the world one image at a time.
LOUDmouth
4
LIST
books all feminists need in their toolbox
editor’s
By Jessica Hoffmann (JH) and
Gregory Alan Kingman Hom (AK)
Feminism Without Borders
by Chandra Talpade Mohanty –
This collection of Mohanty’s essays
on transnational feminism will, in
the words of Angela Davis,
“radically [change] the way we
think about such categories as
‘Third World women,’ ‘women of
color’ and ‘globalization.’” (JH)
Women’s Activism and
Globalization
ed. by Nancy A. Naples and
Manisha Desai – This anthology
contains more than a dozen articles
about contemporary women’s
struggles around the world,
including pieces on maquila
workers’ rights, Okinawa women’s
resistance to U.S. militarism and rural women
organizing around local/global economic issues.
The collection looks at how women in diverse
regions are engaging in local/global struggles. (JH)
Global Sex Workers: Rights,
Resistance, and Redefinition
ed. by Kamala Kempadoo and Jo
Doezema–Combining scholarly
essays with personal narratives,
interviews and reports, this
anthology presents the
perspectives of sex workers from
Asia, Australia, the Americas, the
Caribbean, Africa and Western Europe. Major
themes: rethinking sex work, migrations and
tourism, sex workers’ organizations and AIDS
prevention as well as sex workers’ empowerment.
(JH)
v-day
Borderlands/La Frontera
by Gloria Anzaldúa – There is
nothing like Borderlands. In her
exploration of psychological,
sexual, spiritual, physical, cultural
and social borderlands – the U.S.Mexico border, the borders
between identities, the border
between queer and straight, and
more – Anzaldúa moves between poetry and prose,
English and Spanish, critical theory and intimate
memoir, weaving a text that is as complex and fluid
and difficult and urgent as its subject. (JH)
Sandino’s Daughters
by Margaret Randall, ed. by Lynda
Yanz – At the time of its
publication, this book was the first
book-length account of the
Nicaraguan Revolution.
Additionally, its focus was
exclusively on women who were
involved in revolutionary politics
and action. A variety of class,
religious and age opinions show the myriad ways in
which women were searching for liberation before
and after an inspiring struggle and in the face of a
counterrevolution. The pictures are beautiful. (AK)
Daughters of Maharashtra:
Portraits of Women Who Are
Building Maharashtra
by Abhijit Varde, ed. by Vidya Bal –
Inspired by Sandino’s Daughters,
the photographer and interviewer
spoke to women in a Maharashtra
village about their involvement in
anti-colonial struggles. The
interviews took place long after the women’s
participation and reveal their long-lasting wisdom.
The book is also meaningful because these
women’s stories had never been told before this
account. (AK)
By Mary Montoro
E
ve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues is an
Obie Award-winning play that is composed
of a series of monologues based on
interviews from over 200 women of the precious
vagina. A lot of the monologues deal with rape,
incest, domestic violence and all other
unspeakable acts against women. The play talks
about what is usually kept silent and buried.
From the success of The Vagina Monologues
spawned the idea to start V-Day, a non-profit
organization that Ensler started in 1998 with the
focus on aiding women worldwide.
The V-Day organization brings cultural
awareness to women who desperately need
help. Simple things like little girls being able to
attend school safely are a crucial step for female
empowerment. The website gives a list on how
everyone can do their part to stop the madness
and destruction of the female body, mind and
LOUDmouth
5
picks
Cunt: A Declaration of
Independence
by Inga Muscio – The essence
of self-help and revolution. As
Margaret Cho put it: Anyone
who was born out of one needs
to read this. Broken up into
three parts – the word, the
jewel and reconciliation – she
looks at everything from blood
to Whoredom, orgasm to rape. Moon cycles and
womanifestos as well. Practical and profound.
Read the 2002 version with the new afterword.
To Be Real: Telling the
Truth and Changing the
Face of Feminism
ed. by Rebecca Walker –
Twenty personal essays written
by “an eclectic gathering of
folks: a lawyer, videomaker,
actor, cultural critic, professor,
student, and yes, among
others, two men and a
‘supermodel,’” who grapple with what it means to
be a feminist today even when it feels like their
version of feminism might not be “politically
correct.” Sex, beauty, bachelor parties and
identity politics are a few of the things touched
on. True. Honest. Insightful. Inspirational.
Orientalism
by Edward W. Said – Although
Professor Said, a Palestinian
American, passed away this
year, his works continue to
influence and inspire. This
groundbreaking book had a
great impact on the lens
through which the Middle East
is viewed and has significantly
influenced filmmakers, artists (see interview with
Abelina) and intellectuals alike. He looks at how
history, empire, religion and then some have
affected the way “the Orient” is viewed,
scrutinized and misunderstood.
Woman, Native, Other
spirit. There are campaigns both worldwide and
small ones at colleges and universities that bring
the awareness to your town. Also, the site has
an extraordinary list of programs such as Afghan
Women’s Summit and the Stop Rape Contest to
illustrate how serious the problems are and what
can be done about them. On a lighter note, the
members of the ever-growing and popular vulva
choir share stories of their own vaginas.
Actresses Gina Gershon, Calista Flockhart and
Oprah Winfrey are only a handful of women who
participate in events ending domestic violence
against women. You can learn how to get
involved with V-Day, be a part of their events
and find out where the nearest V-Day event is
near you at www.vday.org.
When it comes to v-words, Mary prefers victory over
vagina. Send your favorite words her way:
mmontoro69@yahoo.com.
by Trinh T. Minh-ha – In this
important work, Trinh questions
language and writing in relation
to the notions of ethnicity and
femininity; of identity,
authenticity, and difference; of
commitment as to the function
and role of the woman writer;
and of storytelling as one of the
oldest forms of building historical consciousness.
Her critical lens challenges the reader to rethink
privilege, the role of the written word, and
language itself.
never allowed to go to parties as a
teenager. I was perceived as a woman by
then and I’m not supposed to be “wasting
my time,” because nice girls stay at
home.
So how did you become a feminist
artist?
It was an amalgamate of many things,
many situations that just one day blew up,
and I said, “That’s it. Either I’m going to
die living like this or I have to stand up to
my word and to my true self.”
Can you describe, in general, your
artistic project?
I just wanted to turn the mirror to the
other 50 percent of the population, which
is men. I wanted them to see what we
see. But I wasn’t successful in doing that.
So many things have been so canonized
that it’s not easy with just, say, five
paintings, to have viewers see what I see
— “I” meaning women in general.
Let’s take Jean-Leon Gerome’s
The Slave Market — a nude woman
being sold off. That is seen as a classical
work of beauty. I did the same exact
thing, except with a male nude, and that
was seen as a vulgar, crude, perverted
expression. With Jean-Leon Gerome,
viewers applaud his technique. My
technique could inter-compare with his.
But viewers saw the penis and couldn’t
get over the fact that there is a
viable, hard penis in that
painting. “Why is he sitting
there, in that position — in a
shamed position — yet his
penis is hard? How did that
happen? How come these
older women are scrutinizing
him and testing him?”
In addition to the work
you’re doing in subverting
the canonized male gaze,
you’re also doing work
around Orientalism. How
would you define
Orientalism?
Orientalism is a Western
thought. It’s a Western fantasy
...to really exoticize the other.
It’s been a way for Western
artists to capitalize on Oriental
literature, paintings — a way of
“transcending” the Occident. In
the late 18th century, it became
a fashion, a mode. Most artists
would go to Turkey or North
Africa and they would stay
there for months, doing their
paintings. Schools started
forming. The French and
British were the forerunners. So it became
a fashion, and these paintings ended up
in the living rooms of the French and
British bourgeoisie. They would end up in
living rooms and dining rooms of
bachelors, of powerful men — these
nudes of Eastern women.
So, in choosing to recast these
particular paintings, gender-wise,
you’re making a very specific choice.
Yes. I’m choosing, specifically, ones that
are very well known. I want the viewers to
do a double-take and say, “Wait a minute.
We recognize this. We’ve seen this
somewhere — but, we haven’t!” Secondly,
they also have a historical meaning for
me. For example, The Deposed Favorite
was in Sultan Abdul Aziz‘s court. He had
the biggest harem. Most of the women
were Armenian. Men would just go and
kidnap these women and use them as
they pleased and then depose them.
Also in 1915, the Turks massacred
more than a million-and-a-half Armenians.
This is my way of saying something about
the genocide. In The Deposed
Favorite...these women are being
deposed, but here I have the Turkish man
and the Armenian queen — or Sultana —
who has power over male sexuality, who
has power of her own sexuality. And she’s
not afraid to use it.
What do you think of the concept of
“global feminism?”
I think there’s value in uniting globally.
There should be a United Nations of
Feminists. And there should be
collaboration. For example, I’m dealing
with my own cultural oppressions, but
when I look into Western feminist thought,
it interweaves with my own concerns and
elucidates certain things that I wouldn’t
otherwise think about. Secondly,
empowerment of other women, in other
areas or arenas, is also empowerment for
me...That’s one of the reasons that Iran is
not happy with Shirin Ebadi’s Nobel prize
— because women, all of a sudden,
became empowered. The headscarves
became a little loose, and the ayatollahs
became a little worried. It was like, if she
can win the Nobel prize, can’t we win one
piece of rights, even in our homes? This
is going to build up to a revolution for
women. Because of one woman.
Learn more about Abelina and her work at
www.womansword.com.
Jessica collaborates with Abelina and other ferocious
chicks on KPFK’s Feminist Magazine (90.7 FM in Los
Angeles). She loves getting e-mail, so indulge her at
chickenrothbaum@hotmail.com.
Abelina Galustian, Examining Slaves, oil on canvas, 6 ft. x 5.5 ft., 2002.
LOUDmouth
18
Sex
&
Pow er
AN INTERVIEW WITH
ABELINA GALUSTIAN
By Jessica Hoffmann
A
belina Galustian’s paintings
explore patriarchy, Orientalism,
sex and more. She believes in
turning gender roles on their head, and
then some. LOUDmouth writer Jessica
Hoffmann recently spent an hour talking
with Abelina over coffee. They’re
garrulous girls; the following is a
condensed version of their conversation.
JH: When we met, you introduced
yourself as “a feminist artist.” Why do
you choose to immediately identify
yourself as an artist and as a feminist?
AG: The reason I identify myself as a
feminist artist is because I’m an activist
first and an artist second...Art gives an
immediate assault to the senses, and it
leaves no room for niceties or political
correctness.
You’re clearly not interested in
niceties; your work is bold and direct. I
wonder if you’ve always been that
way—
I’ve never been that way. I became that
way recently. I’ve been taught to respect
and to stay quiet and to not talk that
much. A woman in my cultural context
shouldn’t say more than three words at a
time, she should be very modest and...act
very chaste. She has to know...the
theatrics of how to be feminine.
“Feminine,” in our definition, is to be
submissive, to be quiet, to be agreeable
— with men.
Photo of the artist by Vachik Galustian.
LOUDmouth
17
Can you describe for readers what
your “cultural context” is?
I come from a diasporic background. I’m
Armenian, but I was born and raised in
Iran. I was 10 years old when I came to
the U.S. It was very difficult in the
beginning. I was never allowed to do the
things that my Western friends did. I was
HONORING INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
m y grandmo t her ’s knit ting needles
By Emma Rosenthal
“What the woman who labors wants is to live, not simply exist — the right to life as the
rich woman has it, the right to life, and the sun, and music and art. You have nothing that
the humblest worker has not a right to have also. The worker must have bread, but she
must have roses too.” — Garment worker Rose Schneiderman, August 1912
H
er hands moved like mercury. The click-clack of the
needles, back and forth, the yarn spinning from the ball on
the floor into the moving swarm of hands and needles,
emerging as form, as hats, gloves, scarves, sweaters. “Watch and
learn,” she would tell me, and I tried but all I saw was the
miraculous transformation of a ball of yarn into cloth. She had
grandmother hands, bumpy where the veins stood out, loose, soft
skin.
“Before a girl could get married in my village, she had to
prove that she was patient enough for the task,” she told me.
“They would give her a bundle of tangled yarn,” she would say, as
we would struggle to untangle wool, or rope or extension cords.
She told the story as she wound yarn into balls for knitting. “If she
could not untangle the yarn, she could not get married.” I
remember that story every time I have something to untangle. I
would never settle for a village marriage, but patience is a skill
applied to any task worthy of completion.
By the time she was five she had lost her entire immediate
family. It is not clear if they died of illness and starvation or were
killed in pogroms, massacres committed by Polish or Russian
authorities against the Jewish peasants throughout the 19th and
20th centuries. Either way, it was governmental policies toward
the Jews that killed them, living in the region that was Poland one
day, Russia the next, bombarded by Cossacks, governmentsanctioned thugs that rode in on horseback killing and destroying
everything in their sight, slashing open the bellies of pregnant
women, raping children, killing the livestock, burning homes. She
remembered being thrown into a root cellar by her aunt when she
was only six to hide from the Cossacks, hidden among the carrots
and parsnips, potatoes and rutabagas, while death and
destruction ravaged in the streets above her.
At six, she landed on Ellis Island in New York Harbor with
her aunt and nephews on the false passport of her dead cousin.
They came to join her uncle in New York, in America, where there
was supposed to be such abundance that they shoveled gold in
the streets. What she found were the tenements of New York’s
Lower East Side. Delancy Street, Hester Street. A three-room,
cold water walk-up flat on the fourth floor. There was no bath. The
toilet was in the hallway, shared by all the families on the floor.
She slept in the kitchen.
She decided to go to work. At age 9 she went to the factory
by day and to school at night. Now she had three different
identities, something as common to the immigrant experience as
cheap labor and cloth dust. She was of course, herself — Anna
Kaufman — daughter of Aaron Moses Kaufman and Choma
Reingold. Her passport gave her the identity of her dead cousin.
And now she had a third set of documents, for work, identifying
her as a 13-year-old. She found employment in an umbrella
factory making the tips of umbrellas.
She worked there for three years. By the time she was 12,
she was able to make every part of the umbrella and was now a
shop forelady. It was that year, 1909, that a strike broke out in the
garment industry. The strike, led mostly by Jewish and Italian
immigrant teenagers, was named the Uprising of the 20,000. Not
a machine whirred, not a wheel turned. The strike, which began
on Nov. 22, 1909, lasted almost four months — through the winter
— and ended on March 8, 1910. She wasn’t a leader in the strike,
but she left her lofty position of middle management and walked
out with the other workers in one of American history’s biggest
strikes. “I didn’t want to be a scab,” she told me.
Such a different world, where a 12-year-old girl knows the
sanctity of a picket line and the importance of righteous bread.
“Watch and learn,” she would tell me, her hands moving
like silver as yarn became cloth. “Watch and learn.”
I still can’t knit. I never have crossed a picket line.
Emma is an artist, educator and human-rights activist who was one of 30,000 striking
teachers in the Los Angeles teachers’ strike of 1989. Reach her at
queenmuse@earthlink.net.
At the International Conference of Socialist Women,
held in Copenhagen in 1910, feminist and
revolutionary Clara Zetkin offered a resolution to
establish International Women’s Day (IWD) in
solidarity with the strikers in the Uprising of the
20,000. The motion passed unanimously. The first
IWD was held on March 19, 1911. It was moved to
March 8 in 1919, the one-year anniversary of the
strike for bread and peace held by women in St.
Petersberg, Russia, which turned into four days of
rioting culminating in the abdication of the czar.
Founded in honor of the fierce young women
fighting for their rights in the United States, many
Americans have never heard of IWD, although it is
celebrated annually all over the globe.
LOUDmouth
6
CONFRONTING
THE
HIV/
AIDS
EPIDEMIC
By Julie Sabatier
I
People around the world are standing up to the World Trade Organization. Photo courtesy of the Focus on the Global South, Manila Office.
Editor’s note: As we go to print, activists, artists and intellectuals
are gathering from all over the globe at the World Social Forum
(WSF) in India (www.wsfindia.org). This talk was presented at last
year’s WSF in Porto Alegre, Brazil, yet is still relevant today.
Arundhati takes a look at the atrocities taking place — before the
United States invaded Iraq last year — that continue in the present
day. At the same time, she gracefully offers a beacon of hope that
resistance is not only possible, it is inevitable.
I
have been asked to speak about how to confront empire. It’s a
huge question, and I have no easy answers. When we speak of
confronting empire, we need to identify what empire means.
Does it mean the U.S. government (and its European satellites),
the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade
Organization (WTO) and multinational corporations? Or is it
something more than that?
In many countries, empire has sprouted other subsidiary
heads, some dangerous byproducts — nationalism, religious
bigotry, fascism and, of course, terrorism. All these march arm in
arm with the project of corporate globalization.
Let me illustrate what I mean. India, the world’s biggest
democracy, is currently at the forefront of the corporate
globalization project. Its “market” of one billion people is being pried
open by the WTO. Corporatization and privatization are being
welcomed by the government and the Indian elite.
It is not coincidence that the prime minister, the home
minister, the disinvestment minister — the men who signed the deal
with Enron in India, the men who are selling the country’s
infrastructure to corporate multinationals, the men who want to
privatize water, electricity, oil, coal, steel, health, education and
telecommunications — are all members or admirers of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing, ultraLOUDmouth
7
nationalist Hindu guild that has openly admired Hitler and his
methods.
The dismantling of democracy is proceeding with the speed
and efficiency of a structural-adjustment program. While the project
of corporate globalization rips through people’s lives in India,
massive privatization and labor “reforms” are pushing people off
their land and out of their jobs. Hundreds of impoverished farmers
are committing suicide by consuming pesticides. Reports of
starvation deaths are coming in from all over the country.
While the elite journey to their imaginary destination
somewhere near the top of the world, the dispossessed spiral
downwards into crime and chaos. This climate of frustration and
national disillusionment is the perfect breeding ground, history tells
us, for fascism.
The two arms of the Indian government have evolved the
perfect pincer action. While one arm is busy selling India off in
chunks, the other, to divert attention, orchestrates a howling, baying
chorus of Hindu nationalism and religious fascism. It conducts
nuclear tests, rewrites history books, burns churches and
demolishes mosques. Censorship, surveillance, the suspension of
civil liberties and human rights, the questioning of who is an Indian
citizen and who is not, particularly with regard to religious
minorities, are all becoming common practice.
Last March, in the state of Gujarat, 2,000 Muslims were
butchered in a state-sponsored pogrom. Muslim women were
especially targeted. They were stripped and gang raped before
being burned alive. Arsonists burned and looted shops, homes,
textile mills and mosques. More than 150,000 Muslims have been
driven from their homes. The economic base of the Muslim
community has been devastated.
While Gujarat burned, the Indian Prime Minister was on MTV
promoting his new poems. In December 2002, the government that
t may be a new year, but Africa finds itself facing the same
problems in an ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis. In a culture where
people have limited access to family-planning facilities and basic
information about sexual health, women are particularly at risk.
Many young girls struggling to pay their school fees are
approached by “sugar daddies” who offer to pay for their
education among other things in exchange for sexual favors.
Many of these often older men are infected with HIV and spread it
to many young women at once. The spread of deadly
misinformation perpetuates infection. For example, it is widely
believed amongst men that a quick cure to the disease is to have
sex with a virgin.
When women become pregnant, they have very few
options besides carrying the child to term. On average, an African
woman will give birth to six children during her lifetime. One of the
leading causes of death for a pregnant woman is AIDS.
Though the HIV/AIDS crisis, as well as Africa’s maternal
mortality rate, is clearly linked to the lack of information about
sexual health and birth control, the Bush administration’s solution
to the problem is to increase funds while restricting sex education.
The United States is directing the bulk of these funds into
drug-treatment programs. In late 2003, South Africa, one of the
continent’s richest nations, revealed a plan to provide antiretroviral
drugs (ARVs) to its citizens free of charge. Zambia hopes to
implement a similar program in the upcoming year.
The United States is not the only country attempting to gain
control of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. In late 2003, Canada
announced that it was changing its patent laws to allow the sale of
generic drugs at reduced prices to developing countries. This
makes Canada the first industrialized country to offer ARVs at
lower prices to Africa.
Last year, the South African government struggled with
drug companies to change patent laws that would cut ARV prices
by over 50 percent. This year, with medication available at
reduced costs, perhaps the focus can return to reopening clinics
and arming the African people with more comprehensive
information on the spread of AIDS and sexual health in general.
Julie lives in Portland, Ore., where she wishes the sun visited a little more often. Send
her some light: sabatierjulie@yahoo.com.
FILM
T
he Day I Will Never
Forget is a gripping
feature documentary
by acclaimed filmmaker
Kim Longinotto (Divorce
Iranian Style and Runaway)
that examines the practice
of female genital mutilation
(FGM) in Kenya and the
pioneering African women
who are bravely reversing
the tradition. In this epic
work, women speak
candidly about the practice
and explain its cultural significance within Kenyan society. From
gripping testimonials by young women who share the painful
aftermath of their trauma to interviews with elderly matriarchs who
stubbornly stand behind the practice, Longinotto paints a complex
portrait of the current polemics and conflicts that have allowed this
procedure to exist well into modern times.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the term used to refer to
the removal of part, or all, of the female genitalia. The most
severe form is infibulation, also known as pharaonic circumcision.
An estimated 15 percent of all mutilations in Africa are
infibulations. The procedure consists of clitoridectomy (where all,
or part of, the clitoris is removed), excision (removal of all, or part
of, the labia minora), and cutting of the labia majora to create raw
surfaces, which are then stitched or held together in order to form
a cover over the vagina when they heal. A small hole is left to
allow urine and menstrual blood to escape. In some less
conventional forms of infibulation, less tissue is removed and a
larger opening is left.
The vast majority (85 percent) of genital mutilations
performed in Africa consist of clitoridectomy or excision. The least
radical procedure consists of the removal of the clitoral hood. In
some traditions a ceremony is held, but no mutilation of the
genitals occurs. The ritual may include holding a knife next to the
genitals, pricking the clitoris, cutting some pubic hair, or light
scarification in the genital or upper thigh area.
Winner of many awards, The Day I Will Never Forget
demystifies the African tradition of female circumcision. Longinotto
presents Nurse Fardhosa, a woman who is single-handedly
reversing the ritual one village at a time by educating communities
about its lasting emotional and physical scars. Also profiled are an
inspiring group of runaway girls who are seeking a court injunction
to stop their parents from forcing them to go through with the
practice. Through their words the full implications of breaking with
tradition are made clear, as is the incredible courage of the
women and girls who risk social ostracism by taking a stand
against the practice.
The Day I Will Never Forget was shown at the Maxwell Theatre in the UniversityStudent Union on Feb. 26 this year and is available for viewing through the Cross
Cultural Centers office at (323) 343-5001. For more information on this film check out
the Women Make Movies website: www.wmm.com. For more on FGM visit Amnesty
International’s website at www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/femgen/fgm1.htm.
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NEW URGENCY TO FIGHT
FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
By Peggy Simpson
P
olitical hypocrisy is alive and well in Poland. In the last
election, the governing Democratic Left Alliance, or SLD,
had won votes over the Solidarity parties by promising to
liberalize Poland’s abortion law, rivaled with only Ireland’s as the
strictest in Europe. The SLD reneged on that promise in January
2003 in order to curry favor with Catholic bishops who they feared
could derail Poland’s upcoming entry into the European Union.
President Aleksander Kwaniewski takes the cake. He
favored expanding the 1993 law beyond current exceptions for
rape, incest, fetal deformities or health of the mother. Now he says
the law isn’t that bad — especially when Poland’s birth rate is so
low.
With nearly 11 million women of childbearing age, a thriving
black-market abortion industry has sprung up. Doctors charge an
average of $500 for an underground abortion — more than a
month’s wages for doctors at state hospitals. Ironically, the
opportunity for doctors to earn this significant salary supplement
appears to be one reason women eligible for legal abortions get
the runaround in state hospitals.
The good news is that more women are paying attention,
swelling the ranks of women’s studies classes, joining in protest
letters to politicians, and showing up at street demonstrations
including an annual “manifa” that takes place every International
Women’s Day. Last year’s slogans included “Yes for rights to
abortion, rights to contraception.” This year’s demonstration on
March 8 will be closely watched by both the bishops and SLD
politicians to assess the clout of the women’s rights groups.
Peggy recently returned to Washington, D.C. from Warsaw, where she spent a decade
reporting on the economic and political transitions in Central East Europe.
This article was originally printed in Ms. Magazine, Spring 2003.
www.msmagazine.com
ABORTION RIGHTS GLOBALLY
every number
tells a story
$7 BILLION Annual shortfall to meet all international familyplanning needs each year.
7 YEAR Prison sentence mandated for women in
Kenya convicted of having an abortion.
EVERY 7 MINUTES A woman somewhere in the world dies from
an unsafe abortion.
30% - 40% Percentage of women in sub-Saharan Africa
with unwanted pregnancies who die from
unsafe abortions.
50% - 60% Percentage of women in gynecological wards
of hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa who are
receiving treatment for complications from
unsafe abortions.
$34 MILLION Amount of money withheld by the United
States for U.N.-sponsored family-planning
services, under the guise that the United
Nations Fund for Population Activities
(UNFPA) purportedly supports programs in
rural China that coerce abortions.
800,000 Number of abortions that could be prevented
with that $34 million.
$1 MILLION Amount donated by concerned individuals - so
far - to make up the UNFPA shortfall.
4.6 Annual supply of condoms available, on
average, to each man in sub-Saharan Africa.
8 BILLION Estimated number of condoms required in
developing countries and Eastern Europe to
expand access for those in need.
30,000 Number of women in Africa who die each year
as the result of unsafe abortions.
440,000 Number of women worldwide who died
between 1995 and 2000 from complications
after unsafe abortions.
1 The only vote in support of U.S.-proposed
changes to the 1994 Cairo plan for population
and development that would have removed
references to “reproductive health” and
“reproductive rights.” The voter: the United
States.
This was originally printed in Ms. Magazine, Summer 2003.
Only 124 legal abortions were reported in Poland in 2001. Estimates of illegal
abortions range from 80,000 to 200,000. Polish Radical Cheerleaders demonstrate for
reproductive rights. Photo by Janek Skarzynski of the AFP.
EMPIRE
orchestrated the killing was voted back into office with a
comfortable majority. Nobody has been punished for the genocide.
Narendra Modi, architect of the pogrom and proud member of the
RSS, has embarked on his second term as the Chief Minister of
Gujarat. If he were Saddam Hussein each atrocity would have been
on CNN. But since he’s not — and since the Indian “market” is
open to global investors — the massacre is not even an
embarrassing inconvenience.
There are more than 100 million Muslims in India. A time
bomb is ticking in our ancient land. All this to say that it is a myth
that the free market breaks down national barriers. The free market
does not threaten national sovereignty; it undermines democracy.
As the disparity between the rich and the poor grows, the
fight to corner resources intensifies. To push through their
“sweetheart deals” — to corporatize the crops we grow, the water
we drink, the air we breathe and the dreams we dream —
corporate globalization needs an international confederation of
loyal, corrupt, authoritarian governments in poorer countries to
push through unpopular reforms and quell the mutinies.
Corporate globalization — or shall we call it by its name? —
imperialism — needs a press that pretends to be free. It needs
courts that pretend to dispense justice. Meanwhile, the countries of
the North harden their borders and stockpile weapons of mass
destruction. After all, they have to make sure that it’s only money,
goods, patents and services that are globalized. Not the free
movement of people. Not a respect for human rights. Not
international treaties on racial discrimination or chemical and
nuclear weapons or greenhouse gas emissions or climate change
or — god forbid — justice.
So this — all this — is empire. This loyal confederation, this
obscene accumulation of power, this greatly increased distance
between those who make the decisions and those who have to
suffer them.
Our fight, our goal, our vision of another world must be to
eliminate that distance. So how do we resist empire?
The good news is that we’re not doing too badly. There have
been major victories. Here in Latin America you have had so many.
In Bolivia, you have Cochabamba. In Peru, there was the uprising
in Arequipa. In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez is holding on,
despite the U.S. government’s best efforts.
And the world’s gaze is on the people of Argentina, who are
trying to refashion a country from the ashes of the havoc wrought
by the IMF. In India the movement against corporate globalization is
gathering momentum and is poised to become the only real political
force to counter religious fascism. As for corporate globalization’s
glittering ambassadors — Enron, Bechtel, WorldCom, Arthur
Andersen — where were they last year, and where are they now?
And, of course, here in Brazil we must ask: Who was the president
last year, and who is it now?
Still, many of us have dark moments of hopelessness and
despair. We know that under the spreading canopy of the War
Against Terrorism, the men in suits are hard at work. While bombs
rain down on us and cruise missiles skid across the skies, we know
that contracts are being signed, patents are being registered, oil
pipelines are being laid, natural resources are being plundered,
water is being privatized, and George Bush is planning to go to war
against Iraq.
If we look at this conflict as a straightforward, eye-to-eye
confrontation between empire and those of us who are resisting it,
it might seem that we are losing.
By Arundhati Roy
But there is another way of looking at it. We, all of us
gathered here, have, each in our own way, laid siege to empire.
We may not have stopped it in its tracks — yet — but we
have stripped it down. We have made it drop its mask. We have
forced it into the open. It now stands before us on the world’s stage
in all its brutish, iniquitous nakedness. Empire may well go to war,
but it’s out in the open now — too ugly to behold its own reflection.
Too ugly even to rally its own people. It won’t be long before the
majority of American people become our allies.
In Washington, a quarter of a million people marched
against the war on Iraq. Each month, the protest is gathering
momentum. Before Sept. 11, 2001, America had a secret history.
Secret especially from its own people. But now America’s secrets
are history, and its history is public knowledge. It’s street talk.
Today, we know that every argument that is being used to
escalate the war against Iraq is a lie. And the most ludicrous of
them is the U.S. government’s deep commitment to bringing
democracy to Iraq.
Killing people to save them from dictatorship or ideological
corruption is, of course, an old U.S. government sport. Here in Latin
America, you know that better than most.
Nobody doubts that Saddam Hussein is a ruthless dictator, a
murderer (whose worst excesses were supported by the
governments of the United States and Great Britain). There’s no
doubt that Iraqis would be better off without him. But, then, the
whole world would be better off without a certain Mr. Bush. In fact,
he is far more dangerous than Saddam Hussein. So, should we
bomb Bush out of the White House? It’s more than clear that Bush
is determined to go to war against Iraq, regardless of the facts —
and regardless of international public opinion. In its recruitment
drive for allies, the United States is prepared to invent facts.
The charade with weapons inspectors is the U.S.
government’s offensive, insulting concession to some twisted form
of international etiquette. It’s like leaving the “doggie door” open for
last-minute “allies” or maybe the United Nations to crawl through.
But for all intents and purposes, the new war against Iraq has
begun. What can we do?
We can hone our memory, we can learn from our history. We
can continue to build public opinion until it becomes a deafening
roar. We can turn the war on Iraq into a fishbowl of the U.S.
government’s excesses. We can expose George Bush and Tony
Blair — and their allies — for the cowardly baby killers, water
poisoners and pusillanimous long-distance bombers that they are.
We can re-invent civil disobedience in a million different
ways. In other words, we can come up with a million ways of
becoming a collective pain in the ass.
When George Bush says, “You’re either with us, or you are
with the terrorists,” we can say, “No thank you.” We can let him
know that the people of the world do not need to choose between a
Malevolent Mickey Mouse and the Mad Mullahs.
Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay
siege to it. To derive it. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our
music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our
sheer relentlessness — and our ability to tell our own stories.
Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to
believe.
The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy
what they are selling — their ideas, their version of history, their
wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: We
be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.
Arundhati Roy received the 1997 Booker Prize for The God of Small Things. This piece
can also be found in her latest book War Talk.
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SPOTLIGHT ON A LOCAL ACTIVIST
“don’t give up. we will see change.” – maria guardado
By Yazmin Araiza and Christine Petit
M
aria Guardado's life is an example of unwavering strength in the face of torture. In the early 1970s she became politically
active at a turbulent time in her home country, El Salvador. Around this time, a civil war emerged. State-sponsored
violence via the military and highly trained death squads were commonplace. The U.S. government played a large role in
the killing and destruction that occurred during this time by pouring huge sums of money into the Latin American government. This
money was used to back the military and prolong the civil war. During the civil war, approximately 80,000 civilians died or
disappeared because of their political beliefs. Thousands more, like Maria, were tortured at the hands of death squads. The
horrendous torture Maria endured did not beat her into submission. Rather, she was further radicalized. Although she sought
asylum in the United States, she continues to fight for justice on many fronts in the "Third World city” of Los Angeles. She
continues to be active in several organizations and can frequently be spotted at protests. Picking her out of a recent protest in
L.A., we ran up to greet Maria like crazed fans seeking a rock star's autograph. Maria Guardado has been an inspiration to us
since we heard her testimony at Cal State L.A. last year, and we cannot think of a woman who embodies the spirit of International
Women's Day more than she does.
¿Cómo te envolviste en el movimiento político en El
Salvador?
Cuando empecé yo no quería quitar al gobierno. Yo empecé para
ser voluntaria con el PAR (Partido Acción Renovadora) era un
partido político en El Salvador que estaba corriendo para las
elecciones presidenciales. Inicialmente yo empecé a ser
voluntaria porque necesitaba el trabajo y el PAR me prometió que
si se ganaban las elecciones me darían un trabajo de secretaria.
Estaba desesperada por un trabajo porque dos de mis hermanas
habían muerto y dejado cinco niños al cuidado de mi familia y mi
madre estaba en una silla de ruedas. Necesitaba ayudar a mi
familia de cualquier manera.
En el año 1972 tres partidos políticos se unieron para
poder ganar las elecciones presidenciales se llamaban UNO
(Unión Nacional Opositora). Las elecciones de ese año se
perdieron. Las elecciones de 1977 fueron muy grandes. El partido
UNO otra vez corrió para la elección, pero pronto las elecciones
presidenciales se convirtieron en una revolución. Muchas
personas morían cada día y nosotros los activistas tuvimos que
escondernos antes de ser capturados o asesinados.
En el 12 de enero de 1980 fui secuestrada. Me torturaron
por tres días, me dieron toques de electricidad en todo mi cuerpo,
me violaron y me golpearon muchas veces. Pensé que me moría
cuando me torturaban. Solo podía gritar al principio de cada una
porque luego ya no podía con mi cuerpo se enmudeció del dolor.
Algo que me acuerdo muy bien es que un anglo estaba dando las
órdenes de mi tortura. Eso me dio coraje para sobrevivir y decirle
a todo el mundo lo que estaba pasando. Cuando pensaron que
estaba muerta, fueron a tirar mi cuerpo a los montes.
Cuando me pude levantar me arastré a unas casas
cercanas pidiendo ayuda pero nadie respondía a mis llantos. Miré
a un taxista en la carretera y fui como pude. Le lloré, pidiéndole
que me llevara a mi casa. Él tenía miedo de los policías porque
era muy noche pero le lloré tanto que me llevó a mi casa. Ya que
estaba en casa me dieron atención médica otros activistas porque
no podía ir al hospital, los militares estaban buscando activistas
en los hospitales, universidades y clínicas. Cuando pude, me fui a
refugiar a Chiapas con mis cinco sobrinos.
de los Estados Unidos. Nuestras familias se deshacen y a veces
hasta nos morimos tratando de cruzar la línea cuando lo único
que buscamos es solo una manera mejor de vivir. La razón que
yo vine a los Estados Unidos fue porque me estaba quedando en
un refugio en el Sur de América yo di mi testimonio y las
personas que se encargaban del refugio decidieron que era más
seguro para mí en los Estados Unidos. La organización Santiago
que se enfoca a ayudar a Salvadoreños y Guatemaltecos me
ayudaron bastante. Me llevaron de iglesia a iglesia hasta que
llegué a los Estados Unidos. Yo di mi testimonio por todos los
Estados Unidos pero decidí venir a Los Angeles donde ya tenía
familia y pronto obtuve mi estatus de refugiada política.
¿Por qué decidiste venir a los Estados Unidos?
Personas del tercer mundo no vienen a los Estados Unidos no
porque queramos sino porque somos forzados a venir porque hay
tanta pobreza y las guerras que a veces son creadas con ayuda
How and why did you get involved in the political movement
of El Salvador?
When I first started I did not want to overthrow the government. I
began volunteering with PAR (Renovated Action Party), a political
LOUDmouth
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¿Tu familia alguna vez desaprobó que contribuyeras con el
movimiento político?
Por supuesto, mi familia me pidió que dejara la política muchas
veces. Yo ya estaba muy conciente politicamente para abandonar
el movimento. Me dolía dejar a mi madre y a mi familia para
organizar, pero yo me di al movimiento con esperanza de hacer
cambios. Es muy importante que pelemos por nuestros derechos
humanos pero es mucho más importante en el tercer mundo.
¿Qué te dio esperanza después que te capturaron?
Quería que las personas supieran de la pobreza y la corrupción
del gobierno del Salvador. Quería decirle a todo el mundo que la
intervención de los Estados Unidos en El Salvador hizo las cosas
peores, una guerra que hubiera durado de tres a cinco años pero
duró diez años. Yo quiero que las personas sepan lo que ocurrió
en El Salvador.
¿En honor del Día Internacional de la Mujer, qué le quiere
decir a las mujeres del mundo?
¿Qué va a pasar con el mundo si no organizamos nuestras
comunidades? Tenemos que continuar educándonos para ayudar
que todo el mundo levante armas contra el capitalismo y por la
humanidad. Para crear un mundo mejor para las generaciones
del futuro. No importa que tan duras sean las situaciones no
dejen de luchar para obtener un cambio.
University of Texas, El Paso, spoke of the
stereotypes portrayed by the government.
The authorities frame the women as those
whose “skirts are too short” and whose
“lipstick is too red.” Blame is also placed
on women who go out at night, which
dismisses the fact that working-class
women often have jobs that require late
shifts.
When Norma Andrade inquired
about her missing daughter, the police
insulted her. They told Andrade that she
“did not know who her daughter was going
around with.” Government officials were
not any better.
“[The officials] said, ‘Your daughter
is on the streets; she’s a bitch; she’ll come
back someday.’ They said, ‘Good women
are in the house. Bad women are on the
streets.’”
The mothers of the victims are
vilified by authorities. They are framed as
viejas escandalosas (scandal-mongering
women) when they inquire about their
daughters. Furthermore, the mothers are
often threatened when they speak up
about their daughters, creating a silence in
the city about the crimes.
“The authorities told me, ‘You have
one child still alive; you better shut up or
she’ll end up like your other daughter,’”
Andrade related.
The mothers and activists who
came to speak at the conference received
death threats for participating. According
to Andrade, all of the moms are being
followed back in Mexico. A 65-year-old
mother was followed, then beaten by three
people. The police claimed it was a
robbery.
FIGHTING FROM ALL FRONTS
There have been many responses to the
murders in Juárez. The first groups to
form in reaction to the murders consisted
of the mothers and relatives of the victims.
They banded together to form grassroots
groups such as Voces Sin Eco, Mujeres
Por Juárez, 8 de Marzo, and Casa Amiga
(the only rape and abuse crisis shelter in
Juárez). The groups assisted the mothers
with their basic needs, such as walking
through the desert to search for missing
daughters and bringing the remains to
forensic specialists. They also staged
protests and wrote letters to the
government.
The newest of these groups,
Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa, was
co-founded by Norma Andrade in
February 2001. Another group, Justicia
para Nuestras Hijas, is a Chihuahuabased group formed after bodies of young
women, patterned after the Juárez crimes,
were found in the city Chihuahua.
The issue of the Juárez crimes
gained major international attention in
2003 when Amnesty International released
a report titled “Intolerable Deaths, Mexico:
10 years of murder and missing women in
Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.” The report
was released during an international press
conference in Juárez on Aug. 11, 2003. It
called on the Mexican government to
improve the policing and stop these
murders. While this has drawn much press
coverage and public awareness, the killers
seem unaffected. A day after the press
conference, two more bodies turned up
dead.
Moreover, the governor of
Chihuahua, Patricio Martinez Garcia,
responded to the Amnesty report by
saying, "I want to ask Amnesty
International how many murders there are
every year in the state of California. Don't
come to us with this archaic position and
say that only in Juárez are there women
murdered."
Another way the activism has gone
international is through what writer,
performance artist and associate professor
at Columbia University School of the Arts
Coco Fusco calls “hacktivism,” which
entails the usage of electronic disturbance
as a form of protest. The “virtual sit-in” that
took place involved FloodNet, a program
that allows online participants to freeze up
the Mexican government’s computer
server.
“This is like blocking the streets in
front of the White House, but we’re
blocking the bandwidth in front of the
government server,” explained Fusco, who
initiated the FloodNet actions.
“It’s appealing to young people who
use computers to play games who don’t
want to march and vigil,” said Fusco.
Graciela Sánchez, director and cofounder of the Esperanza Peace and
Justice Center, does not agree with
reliance on technology for activism.
“Some cyber connections are
disastrous. People are not talking to each
other face to face anymore, not even
talking on the phone,” Sánchez said. She
explained that besides the fact that many
people do not have access to such
technological tools, the “hard stuff” of
political organizing is the personal
interactions, where activists must take into
account one another’s sexism, racism and
homophobia.
“[In person] is where people say,
‘Hey, you’re talking too much,’” Sánchez
noted. This keeps hierarchies from forming
within activist groups. She also mentioned
that trust must be built in person. When
sending e-mails, people are cautious with
their words, and distrust can easily shatter
movements when organizers have met
each other only through e-mails. Sánchez
believes that community building is the key
to helping the situation in Juárez.
Others believe in working from the
top down. Congresswoman Hilda Solis of
California, the only U.S. Congress member
who has dedicated energy to the Juárez
murders so far, believes that we should
get more Congress members involved in
order to affect Secretary of State Colin
Powell and President Bush.
“I don’t think it’ll take all that much
work. We just have to do it,” said Solis.
GLOBALIZATION AND JUÁREZ
While the Mexican government and police
are a source of the problem, Gaspar de
Alba points out the role of those on the
other side of the border.
“We’re not conscious of the fact that
women have died making your Walkman,
your clothes, your shoes,” Gaspar de Alba
said.
Since NAFTA was signed between
the United States and Mexico in 1993,
women have been drawn toward the
maquiladoras in Juárez, which embody
many dreams and promises of “being right
next to the wonderland.”
NAFTA allows U.S. companies to
follow Mexican labor laws instead of U.S.
laws, which is why maquiladora workers
are paid an average of $5 per day,
according to Gaspar de Alba. The majority
of these maquiladora workers are young
women. They are viewed as disposable to
the foreign companies.
“For every girl killed, there are 25
girls waiting in line to take her place,” said
Gaspar de Alba. Thus, the companies
have taken no responsibility for the safety
of their employees so far. Women in
Juárez continue to endanger their lives to
manufacture cheap goods for foreign
consumers. According to Señorita
Extraviada, over 80 percent of the
maquiladoras in Juárez are U.S.-owned.
On Valentine’s Day 2001, Norma
Andrade’s 17-year-old daughter
disappeared after leaving work at the
maquiladora. On the same day, North
Americans spent an estimated $2 billion
on goods and services, according to the
Gartner Group. The deaths in Juárez
reflect a global economy that treats its
piece workers (and peace workers) as
dispensable units, where company owners
base their actions on sales gains and may
remain distant and unaccountable for their
workers’ safety.
“These crimes are not just a
Mexican problem,” Gaspar de Alba said.
For updates, visit
www.juarezwomen.com. To help, visit
www.amigosdemujeres.org.
Emily is the editor in chief of UCLA’s feminist magazine,
FEM. Become a co-conspirator: fem@media.ucla.edu.
LOUDmouth
14
Bejarano, a professor of criminal justice at
New Mexico State University and the cofounder of Amigos de las Mujeres de
Juárez, a New Mexico-based nongovernmental organization dedicated to
assisting Juárez women. Clothes found in
the desert are often burned. Families of
victims sometimes get information from
the police, then later return to find that the
same files cannot be found anymore.
“The general population in Juárez
is scared of the police. Why would they
call the police if the police are so
corrupted? People witness crimes, but are
not willing to talk to police,” explained
Lorena Mendez, a Fox 11 News
investigative reporter and co-founder of
the Los Angeles-based Coalition for
Justice and Women’s Rights in Ciudad
Juárez.
The experience of Maria, a mother
featured in Señorita Extraviada, helps us
understand why the crimes are so difficult
to solve. When she went to the police to
inquire about her daughter’s death, she
was harassed by a female officer, then
raped by a male officer. Maria was later
followed near her house after she spoke
out about her experience. She ran inside
and wanted to call the police, but then
remembered that they are just as
dangerous as the criminals.
Dolores Huerta asked maquiladora owners
what they have been doing to protect their
employees, the owners showed her three
posters that they have been displaying
near bus stops to ensure the women’s
safety. The first poster had a picture of a
woman with ¡Cuídate! (Be careful!) printed
on it. The second one read in Spanish,
“Don’t wear your blouses too tightly.” The
third one said, “Walk in areas with street
lights.” According to Huerta, there are no
street lights around the shantytowns.
These “tips” suggest that the
women are responsible for their own
safety. Comments about clothing imply
that rape and murder are consequences
of the victims’ choice of provocative dress,
not the pathology of the assailant. The
media often focuses on whether or not
these women are or were prostitutes, as if
that would justify their death.
Irasema Coronado, an assistant
professor of political science at the
THE THEORIES
According to Diana Washington Valdez, an
El Paso Times reporter who has been
following the cases since 1995, there have
been two sets of theories about who the
culprits are: pre-2002 and post-2002. The
earlier theories have pointed to snuff
filmmakers due to the women’s similar
physiques, cult murderers due to the
matching semicircle shapes carved into
some of the women’s backs, gangs, serial
killers, copycats and organ traffickers.
The more recent lines of
investigation point to groups of serial
killers, drug dealers of the local cartels, a
band of powerful men the authorities dare
not accuse and participants in organized
crime.
“These are high-profile,
untouchable people,” said Valdez. She
explained that corruption is often “topdown,” that the murderers enjoy a level of
impunity from the government due to their
social status.
“The authorities know who’s doing
it. They’re just not doing anything about it,”
said Valdez.
Why did you decide to come to the United States?
People from Third World countries do not want to come to the
United States. We are forced to come because of the poverty and
wars often created with the help of the U.S. I was lucky, but a lot
of us end up dying at the border trying to find a better living. Our
families are also torn apart. I decided to come to the U.S. when I
was staying at a shelter for South Americans. I shared my
testimony, and the people running the shelter decided to get me
out of Mexico for safety reasons. The Santiago Organization is
focused on helping people from El Salvador and Guatemala, and
this was the organization that mainly helped me. I went from
church to church until I got to the U.S. I was giving my testimony
all over the U.S and then decided to settle in Los Angeles where I
have family. Shortly after, I was able to obtain my status as a
political refugee.
Did your family ever disapprove of your political
involvement?
Of course, they asked me to stop many times. But once someone
is conscious of what it is to fight for human rights, you give
yourself to the movement. Do you think it was not painful leaving
my mother and my family to go into hiding? It was very painful,
but I gave myself to the movement with hope to see change. It is
necessary for us to fight for our rights everywhere, but especially
in Third World countries.
BLAMING THE WOMEN
When University of California Regent and
co-founder of United Farm Workers
LOUDmouth
13
party in El Salvador running for the presidential elections. I initially
started volunteering because I needed a job and PAR promised
me they would get me a job as a secretary when they won the
presidential elections. I desperately needed a job since two of my
sisters had passed away, leaving five of their young children for
me and my family to take care of. Plus, my mother was sick and
had to be in a wheelchair. I needed to help my family in any way I
could.
In 1972, three political parties united to fight the
presidential election in El Salvador. They were named UNO
(United National Opposition). UNO lost the 1972 election and
decided to run again in 1977. The 1977 election was the big one.
This time the presidential election became more like a revolution.
A lot of people died every day. All the activists had to go into
hiding or we would get captured and tortured and even killed for
information.
Sure enough, on Jan. 12, 1980 I was captured. I was
tortured for three days. They tortured me by raping me several
times, giving me electric shocks all over my body and by beating
me endlessly. I felt I was going to die. I would scream only at the
beginning of every set of torture because my body would soon be
in too much pain to be able to scream. Something I clearly
remember about my torture is that there was an Anglo man giving
the orders. That motivated me to stay alive. I wanted to tell the
whole world what was happening.
When they thought I was dead, they dumped my body by a
road. Once I was able to get up, I dragged myself to some houses
begging for help, but no one responded to my pleas. Then, I
noticed a taxicab dropping someone off by the road. I went to the
taxi driver and begged him to take me home. He was afraid of the
police but I guess he felt sorry for me so he did take me home.
Once I got home, I received medical attention from other activists
because I could not go to a hospital or they would really kill me.
The military was checking all clinics, universities and hospitals for
signs of activists. As soon as I could, I left to Chiapas to go into
hiding along with my five nephews.
Norma Andrade (right) holds a photo of her 17-year-old daughter Alejandra, who was murdered after leaving her work
at the maquiladora. Photo by Carol Petersen.
the United States in El Salvador made things worse. Because of
U.S. intervention, the war did not last three to five years. Instead,
it lasted 10 years. I wanted to make sure that everybody knows
what really happened in El Salvador.
In honor of International Women's Day, what would you like
to tell the women of the world?
What would become of the world if we did not organize our
communities? We need to continue educating ourselves to help
the world rise up and fight for humanity and against capitalism to
create a better world for the coming generations. It does not
matter how hard it gets sometimes. Don’t give up. We will see
change.
If you would like to buy a copy of the video Testimony: The Maria
Guardado Story, please contact Randy Vasquez at (323) 6509083. Proceeds will benefit the Farabundo Marti para la
Liberación Nacional (FMLN) in El Salvador.
In addition to being a student activist, Yazmin is an incredible painter. Send her some
color at araizayazmin@yahoo.com. Christine thinks politicians should be replaced with
activists. Cast votes her way at activistgrrrl_wrc@hotmail.com.
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
6 - 10 pm
Student Housing
California State University, Los Angeles
Join us for this special event to help end sexual violence.
The evening will include entertainment, speakers, a
candlelight march around campus, and an open
microphone for survivors to speak out.
For more information, call the Cross Cultural Centers
Office at 323-343-5001.
What gave you hope after your capture and torture?
I wanted to speak up about the poverty and the corruption in El
Salvador. I wanted to tell the whole world that the intervention of
LOUDmouth
10
PALESTINIAN WOMEN
the murders of maquiladora workers in ciudad juárez, mexico
By Maria Neal
W
hen one thinks about crusaders for women’s rights,
Palestinian women living under Israeli occupation in the
Gaza Strip and the West Bank are not the first to come
to mind. In fact, submission in the midst of oppression, political
and familial, seems more characteristic of this group.
Women in occupied territories live in a patriarchal society in
which both their ethnicity and gender place them at a
disadvantage. Their political and social positions make them
especially vulnerable to exploitation; Palestinian women from
occupied territories are the lowest-paid wage earners in the
region.
Honor killings, underreported in light of civil unrest, have
not diminished with time but have actually increased. This past
November, a woman in Gaza confessed to a reporter that she did
what “any good Palestinian mother would do” — murdered her
own daughter in order to restore family honor after the teen,
pregnant and unwed, refused to commit suicide.
This hardly seems a landscape in which advocates of
women’s rights could be born and prosper. However, in the midst
of severe oppression, women in Palestine have been organizing
themselves and others in the fight for national liberation and
gender equality.
Historically, Palestinian women have played key roles in
nonviolent resistance to British and Israeli occupation by
organizing and participating in marches, demonstrations, peace
conferences, petitions and letter campaigns. During the first
Intifada, which began in 1987 and was a six-year insurgence
against Israeli occupation, Palestinian women established their
own industries, including baking bread, making cheese and
building community gardens in order to make possible the boycott
of Israeli goods. In doing so, they also helped to build a local
Palestinian economy. Women’s groups such as the Women’s
Center for Legal Aid and Counseling have sought to raise
international awareness as well as offer solutions to local
community problems, both in terms of immediate crisis relief and
long-standing goals.
In addition to supporting political and humanitarian efforts,
Palestinian women play crucial roles for the subsistence of their
families. This has been especially true since the formation of
Israel in 1948. As many Palestinian men have been injured,
imprisoned and killed during the Israeli occupation, women often
provide the sole source of income for their families. In this way,
the occupation has helped to foster a social environment more
hospitable to the development of equality for women.
However, the impact of Israeli occupation on the feminist
movement in Palestine is multifaceted. While Palestine’s struggle
for independence has afforded women the opportunity to fill a
variety of important roles within society, would-be social gains
have been restricted by the occupied territories’ failure to obtain
political autonomy. Political efforts concentrate on disputes with
foreign powers and the fight for liberation at the expense of
domestic issues. Without the means to introduce legislation that
can be passed into law and effectively enforced by a sovereign
state, women’s rights have been seriously impeded.
In the wake of the Oslo Accord, many non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) have become involved in humanitarian
LOUDmouth
11
FACTORY FEMICIDE
efforts in Palestine. While offering much-needed humanitarian
relief, these organizations will not aid liberation efforts. This has
negatively affected feminist efforts in occupied territories, as real
and long-term changes for women hinge on Palestinian selfgovernance. Women’s organizations, seeking monetary aid from
NGOs, often change their agendas and divorce themselves from
national liberation efforts in order to become eligible for support.
Organizations end up treating symptoms of occupation while
restricting themselves from making a substantial impact on the
causal forces.
In spite of this, some encouraging signs persist. A scientific
poll conducted by Palestinian Working Women in 2002 revealed
that over 70 percent of Palestinian women believe that achieving
equality for women is the task of the entire society. More than half
of those polled supported the introduction of a unified electoral
women’s slate and felt that election law should include a women’s
quota. According to Maria Holt of Cambridge University, “Women
are now represented in most sections of [Palestinian] society:
They are university lecturers, poets, doctors, business leaders,
and members of the Palestine Legislative Council.” Besides their
involvement in the PLC, Palestinian women have created a mock
parliament called Palestinian Parliament: Women and Legislation
whose goal is to dispel negative attitudes about women’s
leadership and decision-making capabilities.
Palestinian women continue to seek peace and justice in
their lives and for their communities, bringing fresh ideas as well
as a willingness to listen to Israeli women and one another and
work together in order to find a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Maria comes through in a pinch. Send her your praises: aveairameva@yahoo.com.
the poet of palestine
Fadwa Tuqan died in her hometown of Nablus on Dec. 12
of last year. She was 86. During her life, she received
numerous awards for her poetry. She will be remembered
for her undying love for the land and people of Palestine.
Enough for Me
By Fadwa Tuqan
Enough for me to die on her earth
be buried in her
to melt and vanish into her soil
then sprout forth as a flower
played with by a child from my country.
Enough for me to remain
in my country's embrace
to be in her close as a handful of dust
a sprig of grass
a flower.
By Emily Ng
O
n Valentine’s Day 2001, 17-yearold Alejandra did not come home
after her shift at the maquiladora.
Her nude body was found in a deserted lot
seven days later. She had been kept alive
and raped for six days, then strangled and
dumped off.
“Alejandra dreamed of becoming a
reporter,” said Alejandra’s mother, Norma
Andrade, her voice cracking as she
sobbed and, in Spanish, described her
“timid, shy, always daydreaming” daughter.
The circumstances of Alejandra’s murder
are not unique. Over 370 bodies of
women and girls have been found within
Juárez, a city in Chihuahua, Mexico, since
1993. These were not just random killings.
All the victims were poor, petite, darkskinned, working-class young women,
most of whom work in maquiladoras. (The
maquiladora program allows foreign
manufacturers to send production
components into Mexico duty-free, where
they are assembled and usually reexported.) The source of the crime wave
has not been pinpointed. Most of the
murderers have not been convicted. Most
mothers do not have the equipment or
support to find their daughters’ bodies.
Due to state corruption and devaluation of
the young women’s lives, these crimes
have been systematically ignored by
Mexican authorities. The global economic
context in which these maquiladoras are
situated also adds an international
dimension to the crime. After years of
small-scale organizing among the victims’
mothers and relatives, the crimes have
finally come to international attention.
Andrade was one of three mothers
who participated in the three-day
international conference titled “The
Maquiladora Murders: Or, Who is Killing
the Women of Juárez?” that took place
from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 at UCLA. The
conference included presentations from
victims’ mothers, forensic specialists,
politicians, journalists, academics, artists
and activists from the United States and
Mexico; a film screening of Señorita
Extraviada, a documentary about the
murders; and art exhibits at the Kerckhoff
Gallery and Fowler Museum. Additionally,
the entire conference was broadcast
online, and a simultaneous “virtual sit-in”
drew tens of thousands of supporters from
around the world. Two women sitting
behind a small glass screen inside the
Ackerman Grand Ballroom provided a
Spanish translation for the audience via
wireless headsets. The crowd consisted of
high-school students, college students,
academics, journalists and others. Alicia
Gaspar de Alba, associate director of the
UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center
and associate professor of Chicana/o
studies, organized the event.
“It takes power to talk to power.
That’s why the conference took place at
UCLA,” explained Gaspar de Alba. With
the co-sponsorship of UCLA student
organizations such as Ni Una Más!,
Razawomyn, Conciencia Libre, la Gente
de Aztlán, and others, Gaspar de Alba put
on the conference not only to inform the
community, but to increase the burden of
responsibility among academics and
politicians who have been unwilling to
“dirty their hands” with this topic for 10
years.
“The activists are there; it’s the
academics that are missing,” she said.
“Let’s bring our grant money and use it to
go into an in-depth analysis of social,
cultural, economic and psychological
aspects of the Juárez border that might
explain why these murders are happening
to this particular demographic of women.”
THE MURDERS
There have been numerous theories
constructed to make sense of these
crimes. All of the women targeted have
been young, working-class, petite and
dark-skinned. Most of them immigrated to
Juárez from the southern parts of Mexico
to work in maquiladoras that opened after
the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) was signed in 1993. Juárez, a
city of two million, is located across the
border from El Paso, Texas. Most of the
victims were in their teens or twenties; the
youngest was a 5-year-old girl found with
stab wounds and her eyes cut out. Most of
the bodies were found in the city, places
people walk past every day: in the bushes,
near railroads, buried in drainpipes and
dropped off in the desert.
Candice Skrapec, a forensic
psychologist who has researched
incarcerated serial murderers in different
countries for the past 18 years, said that
the unique element of these murders is the
way men are killing repeatedly in groups.
“Most serial killers act alone. It’s not
wise to include others because others can
become witness, [thus leading to the
killer’s] own undoing,” said Skrapec. This
unusual tactic may also reveal something
about the victims.
“[The group killings] suggest that
the value of women is so low that it’s really
not such a big deal,” explained Skrapec.
These killings have been deemed
“femicides,” as the common term
“homicide” does not account for the
misogynistic and sexually violent nature of
these crimes.
THE POLICE
The Mexican police, who are supposed to
be protecting these women, are neither
equipped nor genuine in their
investigations, according to Skrapec.
When she went to the police station, she
found that there was not even an evidence
room. Other panelists echoed similar
experiences: finding police stations with no
maps and no photos of the women.
Skrapec was once told that the weapon
used to bludgeon a woman, covered with
blood and hair, was thrown out by a janitor.
Without evidence, the convictions are
made the “traditional way” — by
confessions. So far, many false
accusations and convictions have been
made. Bus drivers, relatives of victims and
foreigners have been tortured by the police
into making fake confessions.
The police have not only lost but
destroyed evidence, said Cynthia
LOUDmouth
12
PALESTINIAN WOMEN
the murders of maquiladora workers in ciudad juárez, mexico
By Maria Neal
W
hen one thinks about crusaders for women’s rights,
Palestinian women living under Israeli occupation in the
Gaza Strip and the West Bank are not the first to come
to mind. In fact, submission in the midst of oppression, political
and familial, seems more characteristic of this group.
Women in occupied territories live in a patriarchal society in
which both their ethnicity and gender place them at a
disadvantage. Their political and social positions make them
especially vulnerable to exploitation; Palestinian women from
occupied territories are the lowest-paid wage earners in the
region.
Honor killings, underreported in light of civil unrest, have
not diminished with time but have actually increased. This past
November, a woman in Gaza confessed to a reporter that she did
what “any good Palestinian mother would do” — murdered her
own daughter in order to restore family honor after the teen,
pregnant and unwed, refused to commit suicide.
This hardly seems a landscape in which advocates of
women’s rights could be born and prosper. However, in the midst
of severe oppression, women in Palestine have been organizing
themselves and others in the fight for national liberation and
gender equality.
Historically, Palestinian women have played key roles in
nonviolent resistance to British and Israeli occupation by
organizing and participating in marches, demonstrations, peace
conferences, petitions and letter campaigns. During the first
Intifada, which began in 1987 and was a six-year insurgence
against Israeli occupation, Palestinian women established their
own industries, including baking bread, making cheese and
building community gardens in order to make possible the boycott
of Israeli goods. In doing so, they also helped to build a local
Palestinian economy. Women’s groups such as the Women’s
Center for Legal Aid and Counseling have sought to raise
international awareness as well as offer solutions to local
community problems, both in terms of immediate crisis relief and
long-standing goals.
In addition to supporting political and humanitarian efforts,
Palestinian women play crucial roles for the subsistence of their
families. This has been especially true since the formation of
Israel in 1948. As many Palestinian men have been injured,
imprisoned and killed during the Israeli occupation, women often
provide the sole source of income for their families. In this way,
the occupation has helped to foster a social environment more
hospitable to the development of equality for women.
However, the impact of Israeli occupation on the feminist
movement in Palestine is multifaceted. While Palestine’s struggle
for independence has afforded women the opportunity to fill a
variety of important roles within society, would-be social gains
have been restricted by the occupied territories’ failure to obtain
political autonomy. Political efforts concentrate on disputes with
foreign powers and the fight for liberation at the expense of
domestic issues. Without the means to introduce legislation that
can be passed into law and effectively enforced by a sovereign
state, women’s rights have been seriously impeded.
In the wake of the Oslo Accord, many non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) have become involved in humanitarian
LOUDmouth
11
FACTORY FEMICIDE
efforts in Palestine. While offering much-needed humanitarian
relief, these organizations will not aid liberation efforts. This has
negatively affected feminist efforts in occupied territories, as real
and long-term changes for women hinge on Palestinian selfgovernance. Women’s organizations, seeking monetary aid from
NGOs, often change their agendas and divorce themselves from
national liberation efforts in order to become eligible for support.
Organizations end up treating symptoms of occupation while
restricting themselves from making a substantial impact on the
causal forces.
In spite of this, some encouraging signs persist. A scientific
poll conducted by Palestinian Working Women in 2002 revealed
that over 70 percent of Palestinian women believe that achieving
equality for women is the task of the entire society. More than half
of those polled supported the introduction of a unified electoral
women’s slate and felt that election law should include a women’s
quota. According to Maria Holt of Cambridge University, “Women
are now represented in most sections of [Palestinian] society:
They are university lecturers, poets, doctors, business leaders,
and members of the Palestine Legislative Council.” Besides their
involvement in the PLC, Palestinian women have created a mock
parliament called Palestinian Parliament: Women and Legislation
whose goal is to dispel negative attitudes about women’s
leadership and decision-making capabilities.
Palestinian women continue to seek peace and justice in
their lives and for their communities, bringing fresh ideas as well
as a willingness to listen to Israeli women and one another and
work together in order to find a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Maria comes through in a pinch. Send her your praises: aveairameva@yahoo.com.
the poet of palestine
Fadwa Tuqan died in her hometown of Nablus on Dec. 12
of last year. She was 86. During her life, she received
numerous awards for her poetry. She will be remembered
for her undying love for the land and people of Palestine.
Enough for Me
By Fadwa Tuqan
Enough for me to die on her earth
be buried in her
to melt and vanish into her soil
then sprout forth as a flower
played with by a child from my country.
Enough for me to remain
in my country's embrace
to be in her close as a handful of dust
a sprig of grass
a flower.
By Emily Ng
O
n Valentine’s Day 2001, 17-yearold Alejandra did not come home
after her shift at the maquiladora.
Her nude body was found in a deserted lot
seven days later. She had been kept alive
and raped for six days, then strangled and
dumped off.
“Alejandra dreamed of becoming a
reporter,” said Alejandra’s mother, Norma
Andrade, her voice cracking as she
sobbed and, in Spanish, described her
“timid, shy, always daydreaming” daughter.
The circumstances of Alejandra’s murder
are not unique. Over 370 bodies of
women and girls have been found within
Juárez, a city in Chihuahua, Mexico, since
1993. These were not just random killings.
All the victims were poor, petite, darkskinned, working-class young women,
most of whom work in maquiladoras. (The
maquiladora program allows foreign
manufacturers to send production
components into Mexico duty-free, where
they are assembled and usually reexported.) The source of the crime wave
has not been pinpointed. Most of the
murderers have not been convicted. Most
mothers do not have the equipment or
support to find their daughters’ bodies.
Due to state corruption and devaluation of
the young women’s lives, these crimes
have been systematically ignored by
Mexican authorities. The global economic
context in which these maquiladoras are
situated also adds an international
dimension to the crime. After years of
small-scale organizing among the victims’
mothers and relatives, the crimes have
finally come to international attention.
Andrade was one of three mothers
who participated in the three-day
international conference titled “The
Maquiladora Murders: Or, Who is Killing
the Women of Juárez?” that took place
from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 at UCLA. The
conference included presentations from
victims’ mothers, forensic specialists,
politicians, journalists, academics, artists
and activists from the United States and
Mexico; a film screening of Señorita
Extraviada, a documentary about the
murders; and art exhibits at the Kerckhoff
Gallery and Fowler Museum. Additionally,
the entire conference was broadcast
online, and a simultaneous “virtual sit-in”
drew tens of thousands of supporters from
around the world. Two women sitting
behind a small glass screen inside the
Ackerman Grand Ballroom provided a
Spanish translation for the audience via
wireless headsets. The crowd consisted of
high-school students, college students,
academics, journalists and others. Alicia
Gaspar de Alba, associate director of the
UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center
and associate professor of Chicana/o
studies, organized the event.
“It takes power to talk to power.
That’s why the conference took place at
UCLA,” explained Gaspar de Alba. With
the co-sponsorship of UCLA student
organizations such as Ni Una Más!,
Razawomyn, Conciencia Libre, la Gente
de Aztlán, and others, Gaspar de Alba put
on the conference not only to inform the
community, but to increase the burden of
responsibility among academics and
politicians who have been unwilling to
“dirty their hands” with this topic for 10
years.
“The activists are there; it’s the
academics that are missing,” she said.
“Let’s bring our grant money and use it to
go into an in-depth analysis of social,
cultural, economic and psychological
aspects of the Juárez border that might
explain why these murders are happening
to this particular demographic of women.”
THE MURDERS
There have been numerous theories
constructed to make sense of these
crimes. All of the women targeted have
been young, working-class, petite and
dark-skinned. Most of them immigrated to
Juárez from the southern parts of Mexico
to work in maquiladoras that opened after
the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) was signed in 1993. Juárez, a
city of two million, is located across the
border from El Paso, Texas. Most of the
victims were in their teens or twenties; the
youngest was a 5-year-old girl found with
stab wounds and her eyes cut out. Most of
the bodies were found in the city, places
people walk past every day: in the bushes,
near railroads, buried in drainpipes and
dropped off in the desert.
Candice Skrapec, a forensic
psychologist who has researched
incarcerated serial murderers in different
countries for the past 18 years, said that
the unique element of these murders is the
way men are killing repeatedly in groups.
“Most serial killers act alone. It’s not
wise to include others because others can
become witness, [thus leading to the
killer’s] own undoing,” said Skrapec. This
unusual tactic may also reveal something
about the victims.
“[The group killings] suggest that
the value of women is so low that it’s really
not such a big deal,” explained Skrapec.
These killings have been deemed
“femicides,” as the common term
“homicide” does not account for the
misogynistic and sexually violent nature of
these crimes.
THE POLICE
The Mexican police, who are supposed to
be protecting these women, are neither
equipped nor genuine in their
investigations, according to Skrapec.
When she went to the police station, she
found that there was not even an evidence
room. Other panelists echoed similar
experiences: finding police stations with no
maps and no photos of the women.
Skrapec was once told that the weapon
used to bludgeon a woman, covered with
blood and hair, was thrown out by a janitor.
Without evidence, the convictions are
made the “traditional way” — by
confessions. So far, many false
accusations and convictions have been
made. Bus drivers, relatives of victims and
foreigners have been tortured by the police
into making fake confessions.
The police have not only lost but
destroyed evidence, said Cynthia
LOUDmouth
12
Bejarano, a professor of criminal justice at
New Mexico State University and the cofounder of Amigos de las Mujeres de
Juárez, a New Mexico-based nongovernmental organization dedicated to
assisting Juárez women. Clothes found in
the desert are often burned. Families of
victims sometimes get information from
the police, then later return to find that the
same files cannot be found anymore.
“The general population in Juárez
is scared of the police. Why would they
call the police if the police are so
corrupted? People witness crimes, but are
not willing to talk to police,” explained
Lorena Mendez, a Fox 11 News
investigative reporter and co-founder of
the Los Angeles-based Coalition for
Justice and Women’s Rights in Ciudad
Juárez.
The experience of Maria, a mother
featured in Señorita Extraviada, helps us
understand why the crimes are so difficult
to solve. When she went to the police to
inquire about her daughter’s death, she
was harassed by a female officer, then
raped by a male officer. Maria was later
followed near her house after she spoke
out about her experience. She ran inside
and wanted to call the police, but then
remembered that they are just as
dangerous as the criminals.
Dolores Huerta asked maquiladora owners
what they have been doing to protect their
employees, the owners showed her three
posters that they have been displaying
near bus stops to ensure the women’s
safety. The first poster had a picture of a
woman with ¡Cuídate! (Be careful!) printed
on it. The second one read in Spanish,
“Don’t wear your blouses too tightly.” The
third one said, “Walk in areas with street
lights.” According to Huerta, there are no
street lights around the shantytowns.
These “tips” suggest that the
women are responsible for their own
safety. Comments about clothing imply
that rape and murder are consequences
of the victims’ choice of provocative dress,
not the pathology of the assailant. The
media often focuses on whether or not
these women are or were prostitutes, as if
that would justify their death.
Irasema Coronado, an assistant
professor of political science at the
THE THEORIES
According to Diana Washington Valdez, an
El Paso Times reporter who has been
following the cases since 1995, there have
been two sets of theories about who the
culprits are: pre-2002 and post-2002. The
earlier theories have pointed to snuff
filmmakers due to the women’s similar
physiques, cult murderers due to the
matching semicircle shapes carved into
some of the women’s backs, gangs, serial
killers, copycats and organ traffickers.
The more recent lines of
investigation point to groups of serial
killers, drug dealers of the local cartels, a
band of powerful men the authorities dare
not accuse and participants in organized
crime.
“These are high-profile,
untouchable people,” said Valdez. She
explained that corruption is often “topdown,” that the murderers enjoy a level of
impunity from the government due to their
social status.
“The authorities know who’s doing
it. They’re just not doing anything about it,”
said Valdez.
Why did you decide to come to the United States?
People from Third World countries do not want to come to the
United States. We are forced to come because of the poverty and
wars often created with the help of the U.S. I was lucky, but a lot
of us end up dying at the border trying to find a better living. Our
families are also torn apart. I decided to come to the U.S. when I
was staying at a shelter for South Americans. I shared my
testimony, and the people running the shelter decided to get me
out of Mexico for safety reasons. The Santiago Organization is
focused on helping people from El Salvador and Guatemala, and
this was the organization that mainly helped me. I went from
church to church until I got to the U.S. I was giving my testimony
all over the U.S and then decided to settle in Los Angeles where I
have family. Shortly after, I was able to obtain my status as a
political refugee.
Did your family ever disapprove of your political
involvement?
Of course, they asked me to stop many times. But once someone
is conscious of what it is to fight for human rights, you give
yourself to the movement. Do you think it was not painful leaving
my mother and my family to go into hiding? It was very painful,
but I gave myself to the movement with hope to see change. It is
necessary for us to fight for our rights everywhere, but especially
in Third World countries.
BLAMING THE WOMEN
When University of California Regent and
co-founder of United Farm Workers
LOUDmouth
13
party in El Salvador running for the presidential elections. I initially
started volunteering because I needed a job and PAR promised
me they would get me a job as a secretary when they won the
presidential elections. I desperately needed a job since two of my
sisters had passed away, leaving five of their young children for
me and my family to take care of. Plus, my mother was sick and
had to be in a wheelchair. I needed to help my family in any way I
could.
In 1972, three political parties united to fight the
presidential election in El Salvador. They were named UNO
(United National Opposition). UNO lost the 1972 election and
decided to run again in 1977. The 1977 election was the big one.
This time the presidential election became more like a revolution.
A lot of people died every day. All the activists had to go into
hiding or we would get captured and tortured and even killed for
information.
Sure enough, on Jan. 12, 1980 I was captured. I was
tortured for three days. They tortured me by raping me several
times, giving me electric shocks all over my body and by beating
me endlessly. I felt I was going to die. I would scream only at the
beginning of every set of torture because my body would soon be
in too much pain to be able to scream. Something I clearly
remember about my torture is that there was an Anglo man giving
the orders. That motivated me to stay alive. I wanted to tell the
whole world what was happening.
When they thought I was dead, they dumped my body by a
road. Once I was able to get up, I dragged myself to some houses
begging for help, but no one responded to my pleas. Then, I
noticed a taxicab dropping someone off by the road. I went to the
taxi driver and begged him to take me home. He was afraid of the
police but I guess he felt sorry for me so he did take me home.
Once I got home, I received medical attention from other activists
because I could not go to a hospital or they would really kill me.
The military was checking all clinics, universities and hospitals for
signs of activists. As soon as I could, I left to Chiapas to go into
hiding along with my five nephews.
Norma Andrade (right) holds a photo of her 17-year-old daughter Alejandra, who was murdered after leaving her work
at the maquiladora. Photo by Carol Petersen.
the United States in El Salvador made things worse. Because of
U.S. intervention, the war did not last three to five years. Instead,
it lasted 10 years. I wanted to make sure that everybody knows
what really happened in El Salvador.
In honor of International Women's Day, what would you like
to tell the women of the world?
What would become of the world if we did not organize our
communities? We need to continue educating ourselves to help
the world rise up and fight for humanity and against capitalism to
create a better world for the coming generations. It does not
matter how hard it gets sometimes. Don’t give up. We will see
change.
If you would like to buy a copy of the video Testimony: The Maria
Guardado Story, please contact Randy Vasquez at (323) 6509083. Proceeds will benefit the Farabundo Marti para la
Liberación Nacional (FMLN) in El Salvador.
In addition to being a student activist, Yazmin is an incredible painter. Send her some
color at araizayazmin@yahoo.com. Christine thinks politicians should be replaced with
activists. Cast votes her way at activistgrrrl_wrc@hotmail.com.
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
6 - 10 pm
Student Housing
California State University, Los Angeles
Join us for this special event to help end sexual violence.
The evening will include entertainment, speakers, a
candlelight march around campus, and an open
microphone for survivors to speak out.
For more information, call the Cross Cultural Centers
Office at 323-343-5001.
What gave you hope after your capture and torture?
I wanted to speak up about the poverty and the corruption in El
Salvador. I wanted to tell the whole world that the intervention of
LOUDmouth
10
SPOTLIGHT ON A LOCAL ACTIVIST
“don’t give up. we will see change.” – maria guardado
By Yazmin Araiza and Christine Petit
M
aria Guardado's life is an example of unwavering strength in the face of torture. In the early 1970s she became politically
active at a turbulent time in her home country, El Salvador. Around this time, a civil war emerged. State-sponsored
violence via the military and highly trained death squads were commonplace. The U.S. government played a large role in
the killing and destruction that occurred during this time by pouring huge sums of money into the Latin American government. This
money was used to back the military and prolong the civil war. During the civil war, approximately 80,000 civilians died or
disappeared because of their political beliefs. Thousands more, like Maria, were tortured at the hands of death squads. The
horrendous torture Maria endured did not beat her into submission. Rather, she was further radicalized. Although she sought
asylum in the United States, she continues to fight for justice on many fronts in the "Third World city” of Los Angeles. She
continues to be active in several organizations and can frequently be spotted at protests. Picking her out of a recent protest in
L.A., we ran up to greet Maria like crazed fans seeking a rock star's autograph. Maria Guardado has been an inspiration to us
since we heard her testimony at Cal State L.A. last year, and we cannot think of a woman who embodies the spirit of International
Women's Day more than she does.
¿Cómo te envolviste en el movimiento político en El
Salvador?
Cuando empecé yo no quería quitar al gobierno. Yo empecé para
ser voluntaria con el PAR (Partido Acción Renovadora) era un
partido político en El Salvador que estaba corriendo para las
elecciones presidenciales. Inicialmente yo empecé a ser
voluntaria porque necesitaba el trabajo y el PAR me prometió que
si se ganaban las elecciones me darían un trabajo de secretaria.
Estaba desesperada por un trabajo porque dos de mis hermanas
habían muerto y dejado cinco niños al cuidado de mi familia y mi
madre estaba en una silla de ruedas. Necesitaba ayudar a mi
familia de cualquier manera.
En el año 1972 tres partidos políticos se unieron para
poder ganar las elecciones presidenciales se llamaban UNO
(Unión Nacional Opositora). Las elecciones de ese año se
perdieron. Las elecciones de 1977 fueron muy grandes. El partido
UNO otra vez corrió para la elección, pero pronto las elecciones
presidenciales se convirtieron en una revolución. Muchas
personas morían cada día y nosotros los activistas tuvimos que
escondernos antes de ser capturados o asesinados.
En el 12 de enero de 1980 fui secuestrada. Me torturaron
por tres días, me dieron toques de electricidad en todo mi cuerpo,
me violaron y me golpearon muchas veces. Pensé que me moría
cuando me torturaban. Solo podía gritar al principio de cada una
porque luego ya no podía con mi cuerpo se enmudeció del dolor.
Algo que me acuerdo muy bien es que un anglo estaba dando las
órdenes de mi tortura. Eso me dio coraje para sobrevivir y decirle
a todo el mundo lo que estaba pasando. Cuando pensaron que
estaba muerta, fueron a tirar mi cuerpo a los montes.
Cuando me pude levantar me arastré a unas casas
cercanas pidiendo ayuda pero nadie respondía a mis llantos. Miré
a un taxista en la carretera y fui como pude. Le lloré, pidiéndole
que me llevara a mi casa. Él tenía miedo de los policías porque
era muy noche pero le lloré tanto que me llevó a mi casa. Ya que
estaba en casa me dieron atención médica otros activistas porque
no podía ir al hospital, los militares estaban buscando activistas
en los hospitales, universidades y clínicas. Cuando pude, me fui a
refugiar a Chiapas con mis cinco sobrinos.
de los Estados Unidos. Nuestras familias se deshacen y a veces
hasta nos morimos tratando de cruzar la línea cuando lo único
que buscamos es solo una manera mejor de vivir. La razón que
yo vine a los Estados Unidos fue porque me estaba quedando en
un refugio en el Sur de América yo di mi testimonio y las
personas que se encargaban del refugio decidieron que era más
seguro para mí en los Estados Unidos. La organización Santiago
que se enfoca a ayudar a Salvadoreños y Guatemaltecos me
ayudaron bastante. Me llevaron de iglesia a iglesia hasta que
llegué a los Estados Unidos. Yo di mi testimonio por todos los
Estados Unidos pero decidí venir a Los Angeles donde ya tenía
familia y pronto obtuve mi estatus de refugiada política.
¿Por qué decidiste venir a los Estados Unidos?
Personas del tercer mundo no vienen a los Estados Unidos no
porque queramos sino porque somos forzados a venir porque hay
tanta pobreza y las guerras que a veces son creadas con ayuda
How and why did you get involved in the political movement
of El Salvador?
When I first started I did not want to overthrow the government. I
began volunteering with PAR (Renovated Action Party), a political
LOUDmouth
9
¿Tu familia alguna vez desaprobó que contribuyeras con el
movimiento político?
Por supuesto, mi familia me pidió que dejara la política muchas
veces. Yo ya estaba muy conciente politicamente para abandonar
el movimento. Me dolía dejar a mi madre y a mi familia para
organizar, pero yo me di al movimiento con esperanza de hacer
cambios. Es muy importante que pelemos por nuestros derechos
humanos pero es mucho más importante en el tercer mundo.
¿Qué te dio esperanza después que te capturaron?
Quería que las personas supieran de la pobreza y la corrupción
del gobierno del Salvador. Quería decirle a todo el mundo que la
intervención de los Estados Unidos en El Salvador hizo las cosas
peores, una guerra que hubiera durado de tres a cinco años pero
duró diez años. Yo quiero que las personas sepan lo que ocurrió
en El Salvador.
¿En honor del Día Internacional de la Mujer, qué le quiere
decir a las mujeres del mundo?
¿Qué va a pasar con el mundo si no organizamos nuestras
comunidades? Tenemos que continuar educándonos para ayudar
que todo el mundo levante armas contra el capitalismo y por la
humanidad. Para crear un mundo mejor para las generaciones
del futuro. No importa que tan duras sean las situaciones no
dejen de luchar para obtener un cambio.
University of Texas, El Paso, spoke of the
stereotypes portrayed by the government.
The authorities frame the women as those
whose “skirts are too short” and whose
“lipstick is too red.” Blame is also placed
on women who go out at night, which
dismisses the fact that working-class
women often have jobs that require late
shifts.
When Norma Andrade inquired
about her missing daughter, the police
insulted her. They told Andrade that she
“did not know who her daughter was going
around with.” Government officials were
not any better.
“[The officials] said, ‘Your daughter
is on the streets; she’s a bitch; she’ll come
back someday.’ They said, ‘Good women
are in the house. Bad women are on the
streets.’”
The mothers of the victims are
vilified by authorities. They are framed as
viejas escandalosas (scandal-mongering
women) when they inquire about their
daughters. Furthermore, the mothers are
often threatened when they speak up
about their daughters, creating a silence in
the city about the crimes.
“The authorities told me, ‘You have
one child still alive; you better shut up or
she’ll end up like your other daughter,’”
Andrade related.
The mothers and activists who
came to speak at the conference received
death threats for participating. According
to Andrade, all of the moms are being
followed back in Mexico. A 65-year-old
mother was followed, then beaten by three
people. The police claimed it was a
robbery.
FIGHTING FROM ALL FRONTS
There have been many responses to the
murders in Juárez. The first groups to
form in reaction to the murders consisted
of the mothers and relatives of the victims.
They banded together to form grassroots
groups such as Voces Sin Eco, Mujeres
Por Juárez, 8 de Marzo, and Casa Amiga
(the only rape and abuse crisis shelter in
Juárez). The groups assisted the mothers
with their basic needs, such as walking
through the desert to search for missing
daughters and bringing the remains to
forensic specialists. They also staged
protests and wrote letters to the
government.
The newest of these groups,
Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa, was
co-founded by Norma Andrade in
February 2001. Another group, Justicia
para Nuestras Hijas, is a Chihuahuabased group formed after bodies of young
women, patterned after the Juárez crimes,
were found in the city Chihuahua.
The issue of the Juárez crimes
gained major international attention in
2003 when Amnesty International released
a report titled “Intolerable Deaths, Mexico:
10 years of murder and missing women in
Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.” The report
was released during an international press
conference in Juárez on Aug. 11, 2003. It
called on the Mexican government to
improve the policing and stop these
murders. While this has drawn much press
coverage and public awareness, the killers
seem unaffected. A day after the press
conference, two more bodies turned up
dead.
Moreover, the governor of
Chihuahua, Patricio Martinez Garcia,
responded to the Amnesty report by
saying, "I want to ask Amnesty
International how many murders there are
every year in the state of California. Don't
come to us with this archaic position and
say that only in Juárez are there women
murdered."
Another way the activism has gone
international is through what writer,
performance artist and associate professor
at Columbia University School of the Arts
Coco Fusco calls “hacktivism,” which
entails the usage of electronic disturbance
as a form of protest. The “virtual sit-in” that
took place involved FloodNet, a program
that allows online participants to freeze up
the Mexican government’s computer
server.
“This is like blocking the streets in
front of the White House, but we’re
blocking the bandwidth in front of the
government server,” explained Fusco, who
initiated the FloodNet actions.
“It’s appealing to young people who
use computers to play games who don’t
want to march and vigil,” said Fusco.
Graciela Sánchez, director and cofounder of the Esperanza Peace and
Justice Center, does not agree with
reliance on technology for activism.
“Some cyber connections are
disastrous. People are not talking to each
other face to face anymore, not even
talking on the phone,” Sánchez said. She
explained that besides the fact that many
people do not have access to such
technological tools, the “hard stuff” of
political organizing is the personal
interactions, where activists must take into
account one another’s sexism, racism and
homophobia.
“[In person] is where people say,
‘Hey, you’re talking too much,’” Sánchez
noted. This keeps hierarchies from forming
within activist groups. She also mentioned
that trust must be built in person. When
sending e-mails, people are cautious with
their words, and distrust can easily shatter
movements when organizers have met
each other only through e-mails. Sánchez
believes that community building is the key
to helping the situation in Juárez.
Others believe in working from the
top down. Congresswoman Hilda Solis of
California, the only U.S. Congress member
who has dedicated energy to the Juárez
murders so far, believes that we should
get more Congress members involved in
order to affect Secretary of State Colin
Powell and President Bush.
“I don’t think it’ll take all that much
work. We just have to do it,” said Solis.
GLOBALIZATION AND JUÁREZ
While the Mexican government and police
are a source of the problem, Gaspar de
Alba points out the role of those on the
other side of the border.
“We’re not conscious of the fact that
women have died making your Walkman,
your clothes, your shoes,” Gaspar de Alba
said.
Since NAFTA was signed between
the United States and Mexico in 1993,
women have been drawn toward the
maquiladoras in Juárez, which embody
many dreams and promises of “being right
next to the wonderland.”
NAFTA allows U.S. companies to
follow Mexican labor laws instead of U.S.
laws, which is why maquiladora workers
are paid an average of $5 per day,
according to Gaspar de Alba. The majority
of these maquiladora workers are young
women. They are viewed as disposable to
the foreign companies.
“For every girl killed, there are 25
girls waiting in line to take her place,” said
Gaspar de Alba. Thus, the companies
have taken no responsibility for the safety
of their employees so far. Women in
Juárez continue to endanger their lives to
manufacture cheap goods for foreign
consumers. According to Señorita
Extraviada, over 80 percent of the
maquiladoras in Juárez are U.S.-owned.
On Valentine’s Day 2001, Norma
Andrade’s 17-year-old daughter
disappeared after leaving work at the
maquiladora. On the same day, North
Americans spent an estimated $2 billion
on goods and services, according to the
Gartner Group. The deaths in Juárez
reflect a global economy that treats its
piece workers (and peace workers) as
dispensable units, where company owners
base their actions on sales gains and may
remain distant and unaccountable for their
workers’ safety.
“These crimes are not just a
Mexican problem,” Gaspar de Alba said.
For updates, visit
www.juarezwomen.com. To help, visit
www.amigosdemujeres.org.
Emily is the editor in chief of UCLA’s feminist magazine,
FEM. Become a co-conspirator: fem@media.ucla.edu.
LOUDmouth
14
NEW URGENCY TO FIGHT
FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
By Peggy Simpson
P
olitical hypocrisy is alive and well in Poland. In the last
election, the governing Democratic Left Alliance, or SLD,
had won votes over the Solidarity parties by promising to
liberalize Poland’s abortion law, rivaled with only Ireland’s as the
strictest in Europe. The SLD reneged on that promise in January
2003 in order to curry favor with Catholic bishops who they feared
could derail Poland’s upcoming entry into the European Union.
President Aleksander Kwaniewski takes the cake. He
favored expanding the 1993 law beyond current exceptions for
rape, incest, fetal deformities or health of the mother. Now he says
the law isn’t that bad — especially when Poland’s birth rate is so
low.
With nearly 11 million women of childbearing age, a thriving
black-market abortion industry has sprung up. Doctors charge an
average of $500 for an underground abortion — more than a
month’s wages for doctors at state hospitals. Ironically, the
opportunity for doctors to earn this significant salary supplement
appears to be one reason women eligible for legal abortions get
the runaround in state hospitals.
The good news is that more women are paying attention,
swelling the ranks of women’s studies classes, joining in protest
letters to politicians, and showing up at street demonstrations
including an annual “manifa” that takes place every International
Women’s Day. Last year’s slogans included “Yes for rights to
abortion, rights to contraception.” This year’s demonstration on
March 8 will be closely watched by both the bishops and SLD
politicians to assess the clout of the women’s rights groups.
Peggy recently returned to Washington, D.C. from Warsaw, where she spent a decade
reporting on the economic and political transitions in Central East Europe.
This article was originally printed in Ms. Magazine, Spring 2003.
www.msmagazine.com
ABORTION RIGHTS GLOBALLY
every number
tells a story
$7 BILLION Annual shortfall to meet all international familyplanning needs each year.
7 YEAR Prison sentence mandated for women in
Kenya convicted of having an abortion.
EVERY 7 MINUTES A woman somewhere in the world dies from
an unsafe abortion.
30% - 40% Percentage of women in sub-Saharan Africa
with unwanted pregnancies who die from
unsafe abortions.
50% - 60% Percentage of women in gynecological wards
of hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa who are
receiving treatment for complications from
unsafe abortions.
$34 MILLION Amount of money withheld by the United
States for U.N.-sponsored family-planning
services, under the guise that the United
Nations Fund for Population Activities
(UNFPA) purportedly supports programs in
rural China that coerce abortions.
800,000 Number of abortions that could be prevented
with that $34 million.
$1 MILLION Amount donated by concerned individuals - so
far - to make up the UNFPA shortfall.
4.6 Annual supply of condoms available, on
average, to each man in sub-Saharan Africa.
8 BILLION Estimated number of condoms required in
developing countries and Eastern Europe to
expand access for those in need.
30,000 Number of women in Africa who die each year
as the result of unsafe abortions.
440,000 Number of women worldwide who died
between 1995 and 2000 from complications
after unsafe abortions.
1 The only vote in support of U.S.-proposed
changes to the 1994 Cairo plan for population
and development that would have removed
references to “reproductive health” and
“reproductive rights.” The voter: the United
States.
This was originally printed in Ms. Magazine, Summer 2003.
Only 124 legal abortions were reported in Poland in 2001. Estimates of illegal
abortions range from 80,000 to 200,000. Polish Radical Cheerleaders demonstrate for
reproductive rights. Photo by Janek Skarzynski of the AFP.
EMPIRE
orchestrated the killing was voted back into office with a
comfortable majority. Nobody has been punished for the genocide.
Narendra Modi, architect of the pogrom and proud member of the
RSS, has embarked on his second term as the Chief Minister of
Gujarat. If he were Saddam Hussein each atrocity would have been
on CNN. But since he’s not — and since the Indian “market” is
open to global investors — the massacre is not even an
embarrassing inconvenience.
There are more than 100 million Muslims in India. A time
bomb is ticking in our ancient land. All this to say that it is a myth
that the free market breaks down national barriers. The free market
does not threaten national sovereignty; it undermines democracy.
As the disparity between the rich and the poor grows, the
fight to corner resources intensifies. To push through their
“sweetheart deals” — to corporatize the crops we grow, the water
we drink, the air we breathe and the dreams we dream —
corporate globalization needs an international confederation of
loyal, corrupt, authoritarian governments in poorer countries to
push through unpopular reforms and quell the mutinies.
Corporate globalization — or shall we call it by its name? —
imperialism — needs a press that pretends to be free. It needs
courts that pretend to dispense justice. Meanwhile, the countries of
the North harden their borders and stockpile weapons of mass
destruction. After all, they have to make sure that it’s only money,
goods, patents and services that are globalized. Not the free
movement of people. Not a respect for human rights. Not
international treaties on racial discrimination or chemical and
nuclear weapons or greenhouse gas emissions or climate change
or — god forbid — justice.
So this — all this — is empire. This loyal confederation, this
obscene accumulation of power, this greatly increased distance
between those who make the decisions and those who have to
suffer them.
Our fight, our goal, our vision of another world must be to
eliminate that distance. So how do we resist empire?
The good news is that we’re not doing too badly. There have
been major victories. Here in Latin America you have had so many.
In Bolivia, you have Cochabamba. In Peru, there was the uprising
in Arequipa. In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez is holding on,
despite the U.S. government’s best efforts.
And the world’s gaze is on the people of Argentina, who are
trying to refashion a country from the ashes of the havoc wrought
by the IMF. In India the movement against corporate globalization is
gathering momentum and is poised to become the only real political
force to counter religious fascism. As for corporate globalization’s
glittering ambassadors — Enron, Bechtel, WorldCom, Arthur
Andersen — where were they last year, and where are they now?
And, of course, here in Brazil we must ask: Who was the president
last year, and who is it now?
Still, many of us have dark moments of hopelessness and
despair. We know that under the spreading canopy of the War
Against Terrorism, the men in suits are hard at work. While bombs
rain down on us and cruise missiles skid across the skies, we know
that contracts are being signed, patents are being registered, oil
pipelines are being laid, natural resources are being plundered,
water is being privatized, and George Bush is planning to go to war
against Iraq.
If we look at this conflict as a straightforward, eye-to-eye
confrontation between empire and those of us who are resisting it,
it might seem that we are losing.
By Arundhati Roy
But there is another way of looking at it. We, all of us
gathered here, have, each in our own way, laid siege to empire.
We may not have stopped it in its tracks — yet — but we
have stripped it down. We have made it drop its mask. We have
forced it into the open. It now stands before us on the world’s stage
in all its brutish, iniquitous nakedness. Empire may well go to war,
but it’s out in the open now — too ugly to behold its own reflection.
Too ugly even to rally its own people. It won’t be long before the
majority of American people become our allies.
In Washington, a quarter of a million people marched
against the war on Iraq. Each month, the protest is gathering
momentum. Before Sept. 11, 2001, America had a secret history.
Secret especially from its own people. But now America’s secrets
are history, and its history is public knowledge. It’s street talk.
Today, we know that every argument that is being used to
escalate the war against Iraq is a lie. And the most ludicrous of
them is the U.S. government’s deep commitment to bringing
democracy to Iraq.
Killing people to save them from dictatorship or ideological
corruption is, of course, an old U.S. government sport. Here in Latin
America, you know that better than most.
Nobody doubts that Saddam Hussein is a ruthless dictator, a
murderer (whose worst excesses were supported by the
governments of the United States and Great Britain). There’s no
doubt that Iraqis would be better off without him. But, then, the
whole world would be better off without a certain Mr. Bush. In fact,
he is far more dangerous than Saddam Hussein. So, should we
bomb Bush out of the White House? It’s more than clear that Bush
is determined to go to war against Iraq, regardless of the facts —
and regardless of international public opinion. In its recruitment
drive for allies, the United States is prepared to invent facts.
The charade with weapons inspectors is the U.S.
government’s offensive, insulting concession to some twisted form
of international etiquette. It’s like leaving the “doggie door” open for
last-minute “allies” or maybe the United Nations to crawl through.
But for all intents and purposes, the new war against Iraq has
begun. What can we do?
We can hone our memory, we can learn from our history. We
can continue to build public opinion until it becomes a deafening
roar. We can turn the war on Iraq into a fishbowl of the U.S.
government’s excesses. We can expose George Bush and Tony
Blair — and their allies — for the cowardly baby killers, water
poisoners and pusillanimous long-distance bombers that they are.
We can re-invent civil disobedience in a million different
ways. In other words, we can come up with a million ways of
becoming a collective pain in the ass.
When George Bush says, “You’re either with us, or you are
with the terrorists,” we can say, “No thank you.” We can let him
know that the people of the world do not need to choose between a
Malevolent Mickey Mouse and the Mad Mullahs.
Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay
siege to it. To derive it. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our
music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our
sheer relentlessness — and our ability to tell our own stories.
Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to
believe.
The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy
what they are selling — their ideas, their version of history, their
wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: We
be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.
Arundhati Roy received the 1997 Booker Prize for The God of Small Things. This piece
can also be found in her latest book War Talk.
LOUDmouth
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LOUDmouth
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CONFRONTING
THE
HIV/
AIDS
EPIDEMIC
By Julie Sabatier
I
People around the world are standing up to the World Trade Organization. Photo courtesy of the Focus on the Global South, Manila Office.
Editor’s note: As we go to print, activists, artists and intellectuals
are gathering from all over the globe at the World Social Forum
(WSF) in India (www.wsfindia.org). This talk was presented at last
year’s WSF in Porto Alegre, Brazil, yet is still relevant today.
Arundhati takes a look at the atrocities taking place — before the
United States invaded Iraq last year — that continue in the present
day. At the same time, she gracefully offers a beacon of hope that
resistance is not only possible, it is inevitable.
I
have been asked to speak about how to confront empire. It’s a
huge question, and I have no easy answers. When we speak of
confronting empire, we need to identify what empire means.
Does it mean the U.S. government (and its European satellites),
the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade
Organization (WTO) and multinational corporations? Or is it
something more than that?
In many countries, empire has sprouted other subsidiary
heads, some dangerous byproducts — nationalism, religious
bigotry, fascism and, of course, terrorism. All these march arm in
arm with the project of corporate globalization.
Let me illustrate what I mean. India, the world’s biggest
democracy, is currently at the forefront of the corporate
globalization project. Its “market” of one billion people is being pried
open by the WTO. Corporatization and privatization are being
welcomed by the government and the Indian elite.
It is not coincidence that the prime minister, the home
minister, the disinvestment minister — the men who signed the deal
with Enron in India, the men who are selling the country’s
infrastructure to corporate multinationals, the men who want to
privatize water, electricity, oil, coal, steel, health, education and
telecommunications — are all members or admirers of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing, ultraLOUDmouth
7
nationalist Hindu guild that has openly admired Hitler and his
methods.
The dismantling of democracy is proceeding with the speed
and efficiency of a structural-adjustment program. While the project
of corporate globalization rips through people’s lives in India,
massive privatization and labor “reforms” are pushing people off
their land and out of their jobs. Hundreds of impoverished farmers
are committing suicide by consuming pesticides. Reports of
starvation deaths are coming in from all over the country.
While the elite journey to their imaginary destination
somewhere near the top of the world, the dispossessed spiral
downwards into crime and chaos. This climate of frustration and
national disillusionment is the perfect breeding ground, history tells
us, for fascism.
The two arms of the Indian government have evolved the
perfect pincer action. While one arm is busy selling India off in
chunks, the other, to divert attention, orchestrates a howling, baying
chorus of Hindu nationalism and religious fascism. It conducts
nuclear tests, rewrites history books, burns churches and
demolishes mosques. Censorship, surveillance, the suspension of
civil liberties and human rights, the questioning of who is an Indian
citizen and who is not, particularly with regard to religious
minorities, are all becoming common practice.
Last March, in the state of Gujarat, 2,000 Muslims were
butchered in a state-sponsored pogrom. Muslim women were
especially targeted. They were stripped and gang raped before
being burned alive. Arsonists burned and looted shops, homes,
textile mills and mosques. More than 150,000 Muslims have been
driven from their homes. The economic base of the Muslim
community has been devastated.
While Gujarat burned, the Indian Prime Minister was on MTV
promoting his new poems. In December 2002, the government that
t may be a new year, but Africa finds itself facing the same
problems in an ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis. In a culture where
people have limited access to family-planning facilities and basic
information about sexual health, women are particularly at risk.
Many young girls struggling to pay their school fees are
approached by “sugar daddies” who offer to pay for their
education among other things in exchange for sexual favors.
Many of these often older men are infected with HIV and spread it
to many young women at once. The spread of deadly
misinformation perpetuates infection. For example, it is widely
believed amongst men that a quick cure to the disease is to have
sex with a virgin.
When women become pregnant, they have very few
options besides carrying the child to term. On average, an African
woman will give birth to six children during her lifetime. One of the
leading causes of death for a pregnant woman is AIDS.
Though the HIV/AIDS crisis, as well as Africa’s maternal
mortality rate, is clearly linked to the lack of information about
sexual health and birth control, the Bush administration’s solution
to the problem is to increase funds while restricting sex education.
The United States is directing the bulk of these funds into
drug-treatment programs. In late 2003, South Africa, one of the
continent’s richest nations, revealed a plan to provide antiretroviral
drugs (ARVs) to its citizens free of charge. Zambia hopes to
implement a similar program in the upcoming year.
The United States is not the only country attempting to gain
control of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. In late 2003, Canada
announced that it was changing its patent laws to allow the sale of
generic drugs at reduced prices to developing countries. This
makes Canada the first industrialized country to offer ARVs at
lower prices to Africa.
Last year, the South African government struggled with
drug companies to change patent laws that would cut ARV prices
by over 50 percent. This year, with medication available at
reduced costs, perhaps the focus can return to reopening clinics
and arming the African people with more comprehensive
information on the spread of AIDS and sexual health in general.
Julie lives in Portland, Ore., where she wishes the sun visited a little more often. Send
her some light: sabatierjulie@yahoo.com.
FILM
T
he Day I Will Never
Forget is a gripping
feature documentary
by acclaimed filmmaker
Kim Longinotto (Divorce
Iranian Style and Runaway)
that examines the practice
of female genital mutilation
(FGM) in Kenya and the
pioneering African women
who are bravely reversing
the tradition. In this epic
work, women speak
candidly about the practice
and explain its cultural significance within Kenyan society. From
gripping testimonials by young women who share the painful
aftermath of their trauma to interviews with elderly matriarchs who
stubbornly stand behind the practice, Longinotto paints a complex
portrait of the current polemics and conflicts that have allowed this
procedure to exist well into modern times.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the term used to refer to
the removal of part, or all, of the female genitalia. The most
severe form is infibulation, also known as pharaonic circumcision.
An estimated 15 percent of all mutilations in Africa are
infibulations. The procedure consists of clitoridectomy (where all,
or part of, the clitoris is removed), excision (removal of all, or part
of, the labia minora), and cutting of the labia majora to create raw
surfaces, which are then stitched or held together in order to form
a cover over the vagina when they heal. A small hole is left to
allow urine and menstrual blood to escape. In some less
conventional forms of infibulation, less tissue is removed and a
larger opening is left.
The vast majority (85 percent) of genital mutilations
performed in Africa consist of clitoridectomy or excision. The least
radical procedure consists of the removal of the clitoral hood. In
some traditions a ceremony is held, but no mutilation of the
genitals occurs. The ritual may include holding a knife next to the
genitals, pricking the clitoris, cutting some pubic hair, or light
scarification in the genital or upper thigh area.
Winner of many awards, The Day I Will Never Forget
demystifies the African tradition of female circumcision. Longinotto
presents Nurse Fardhosa, a woman who is single-handedly
reversing the ritual one village at a time by educating communities
about its lasting emotional and physical scars. Also profiled are an
inspiring group of runaway girls who are seeking a court injunction
to stop their parents from forcing them to go through with the
practice. Through their words the full implications of breaking with
tradition are made clear, as is the incredible courage of the
women and girls who risk social ostracism by taking a stand
against the practice.
The Day I Will Never Forget was shown at the Maxwell Theatre in the UniversityStudent Union on Feb. 26 this year and is available for viewing through the Cross
Cultural Centers office at (323) 343-5001. For more information on this film check out
the Women Make Movies website: www.wmm.com. For more on FGM visit Amnesty
International’s website at www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/femgen/fgm1.htm.
LOUDmouth
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Sex
&
Pow er
AN INTERVIEW WITH
ABELINA GALUSTIAN
By Jessica Hoffmann
A
belina Galustian’s paintings
explore patriarchy, Orientalism,
sex and more. She believes in
turning gender roles on their head, and
then some. LOUDmouth writer Jessica
Hoffmann recently spent an hour talking
with Abelina over coffee. They’re
garrulous girls; the following is a
condensed version of their conversation.
JH: When we met, you introduced
yourself as “a feminist artist.” Why do
you choose to immediately identify
yourself as an artist and as a feminist?
AG: The reason I identify myself as a
feminist artist is because I’m an activist
first and an artist second...Art gives an
immediate assault to the senses, and it
leaves no room for niceties or political
correctness.
You’re clearly not interested in
niceties; your work is bold and direct. I
wonder if you’ve always been that
way—
I’ve never been that way. I became that
way recently. I’ve been taught to respect
and to stay quiet and to not talk that
much. A woman in my cultural context
shouldn’t say more than three words at a
time, she should be very modest and...act
very chaste. She has to know...the
theatrics of how to be feminine.
“Feminine,” in our definition, is to be
submissive, to be quiet, to be agreeable
— with men.
Photo of the artist by Vachik Galustian.
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Can you describe for readers what
your “cultural context” is?
I come from a diasporic background. I’m
Armenian, but I was born and raised in
Iran. I was 10 years old when I came to
the U.S. It was very difficult in the
beginning. I was never allowed to do the
things that my Western friends did. I was
HONORING INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
m y grandmo t her ’s knit ting needles
By Emma Rosenthal
“What the woman who labors wants is to live, not simply exist — the right to life as the
rich woman has it, the right to life, and the sun, and music and art. You have nothing that
the humblest worker has not a right to have also. The worker must have bread, but she
must have roses too.” — Garment worker Rose Schneiderman, August 1912
H
er hands moved like mercury. The click-clack of the
needles, back and forth, the yarn spinning from the ball on
the floor into the moving swarm of hands and needles,
emerging as form, as hats, gloves, scarves, sweaters. “Watch and
learn,” she would tell me, and I tried but all I saw was the
miraculous transformation of a ball of yarn into cloth. She had
grandmother hands, bumpy where the veins stood out, loose, soft
skin.
“Before a girl could get married in my village, she had to
prove that she was patient enough for the task,” she told me.
“They would give her a bundle of tangled yarn,” she would say, as
we would struggle to untangle wool, or rope or extension cords.
She told the story as she wound yarn into balls for knitting. “If she
could not untangle the yarn, she could not get married.” I
remember that story every time I have something to untangle. I
would never settle for a village marriage, but patience is a skill
applied to any task worthy of completion.
By the time she was five she had lost her entire immediate
family. It is not clear if they died of illness and starvation or were
killed in pogroms, massacres committed by Polish or Russian
authorities against the Jewish peasants throughout the 19th and
20th centuries. Either way, it was governmental policies toward
the Jews that killed them, living in the region that was Poland one
day, Russia the next, bombarded by Cossacks, governmentsanctioned thugs that rode in on horseback killing and destroying
everything in their sight, slashing open the bellies of pregnant
women, raping children, killing the livestock, burning homes. She
remembered being thrown into a root cellar by her aunt when she
was only six to hide from the Cossacks, hidden among the carrots
and parsnips, potatoes and rutabagas, while death and
destruction ravaged in the streets above her.
At six, she landed on Ellis Island in New York Harbor with
her aunt and nephews on the false passport of her dead cousin.
They came to join her uncle in New York, in America, where there
was supposed to be such abundance that they shoveled gold in
the streets. What she found were the tenements of New York’s
Lower East Side. Delancy Street, Hester Street. A three-room,
cold water walk-up flat on the fourth floor. There was no bath. The
toilet was in the hallway, shared by all the families on the floor.
She slept in the kitchen.
She decided to go to work. At age 9 she went to the factory
by day and to school at night. Now she had three different
identities, something as common to the immigrant experience as
cheap labor and cloth dust. She was of course, herself — Anna
Kaufman — daughter of Aaron Moses Kaufman and Choma
Reingold. Her passport gave her the identity of her dead cousin.
And now she had a third set of documents, for work, identifying
her as a 13-year-old. She found employment in an umbrella
factory making the tips of umbrellas.
She worked there for three years. By the time she was 12,
she was able to make every part of the umbrella and was now a
shop forelady. It was that year, 1909, that a strike broke out in the
garment industry. The strike, led mostly by Jewish and Italian
immigrant teenagers, was named the Uprising of the 20,000. Not
a machine whirred, not a wheel turned. The strike, which began
on Nov. 22, 1909, lasted almost four months — through the winter
— and ended on March 8, 1910. She wasn’t a leader in the strike,
but she left her lofty position of middle management and walked
out with the other workers in one of American history’s biggest
strikes. “I didn’t want to be a scab,” she told me.
Such a different world, where a 12-year-old girl knows the
sanctity of a picket line and the importance of righteous bread.
“Watch and learn,” she would tell me, her hands moving
like silver as yarn became cloth. “Watch and learn.”
I still can’t knit. I never have crossed a picket line.
Emma is an artist, educator and human-rights activist who was one of 30,000 striking
teachers in the Los Angeles teachers’ strike of 1989. Reach her at
queenmuse@earthlink.net.
At the International Conference of Socialist Women,
held in Copenhagen in 1910, feminist and
revolutionary Clara Zetkin offered a resolution to
establish International Women’s Day (IWD) in
solidarity with the strikers in the Uprising of the
20,000. The motion passed unanimously. The first
IWD was held on March 19, 1911. It was moved to
March 8 in 1919, the one-year anniversary of the
strike for bread and peace held by women in St.
Petersberg, Russia, which turned into four days of
rioting culminating in the abdication of the czar.
Founded in honor of the fierce young women
fighting for their rights in the United States, many
Americans have never heard of IWD, although it is
celebrated annually all over the globe.
LOUDmouth
6
LIST
books all feminists need in their toolbox
editor’s
By Jessica Hoffmann (JH) and
Gregory Alan Kingman Hom (AK)
Feminism Without Borders
by Chandra Talpade Mohanty –
This collection of Mohanty’s essays
on transnational feminism will, in
the words of Angela Davis,
“radically [change] the way we
think about such categories as
‘Third World women,’ ‘women of
color’ and ‘globalization.’” (JH)
Women’s Activism and
Globalization
ed. by Nancy A. Naples and
Manisha Desai – This anthology
contains more than a dozen articles
about contemporary women’s
struggles around the world,
including pieces on maquila
workers’ rights, Okinawa women’s
resistance to U.S. militarism and rural women
organizing around local/global economic issues.
The collection looks at how women in diverse
regions are engaging in local/global struggles. (JH)
Global Sex Workers: Rights,
Resistance, and Redefinition
ed. by Kamala Kempadoo and Jo
Doezema–Combining scholarly
essays with personal narratives,
interviews and reports, this
anthology presents the
perspectives of sex workers from
Asia, Australia, the Americas, the
Caribbean, Africa and Western Europe. Major
themes: rethinking sex work, migrations and
tourism, sex workers’ organizations and AIDS
prevention as well as sex workers’ empowerment.
(JH)
v-day
Borderlands/La Frontera
by Gloria Anzaldúa – There is
nothing like Borderlands. In her
exploration of psychological,
sexual, spiritual, physical, cultural
and social borderlands – the U.S.Mexico border, the borders
between identities, the border
between queer and straight, and
more – Anzaldúa moves between poetry and prose,
English and Spanish, critical theory and intimate
memoir, weaving a text that is as complex and fluid
and difficult and urgent as its subject. (JH)
Sandino’s Daughters
by Margaret Randall, ed. by Lynda
Yanz – At the time of its
publication, this book was the first
book-length account of the
Nicaraguan Revolution.
Additionally, its focus was
exclusively on women who were
involved in revolutionary politics
and action. A variety of class,
religious and age opinions show the myriad ways in
which women were searching for liberation before
and after an inspiring struggle and in the face of a
counterrevolution. The pictures are beautiful. (AK)
Daughters of Maharashtra:
Portraits of Women Who Are
Building Maharashtra
by Abhijit Varde, ed. by Vidya Bal –
Inspired by Sandino’s Daughters,
the photographer and interviewer
spoke to women in a Maharashtra
village about their involvement in
anti-colonial struggles. The
interviews took place long after the women’s
participation and reveal their long-lasting wisdom.
The book is also meaningful because these
women’s stories had never been told before this
account. (AK)
By Mary Montoro
E
ve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues is an
Obie Award-winning play that is composed
of a series of monologues based on
interviews from over 200 women of the precious
vagina. A lot of the monologues deal with rape,
incest, domestic violence and all other
unspeakable acts against women. The play talks
about what is usually kept silent and buried.
From the success of The Vagina Monologues
spawned the idea to start V-Day, a non-profit
organization that Ensler started in 1998 with the
focus on aiding women worldwide.
The V-Day organization brings cultural
awareness to women who desperately need
help. Simple things like little girls being able to
attend school safely are a crucial step for female
empowerment. The website gives a list on how
everyone can do their part to stop the madness
and destruction of the female body, mind and
LOUDmouth
5
picks
Cunt: A Declaration of
Independence
by Inga Muscio – The essence
of self-help and revolution. As
Margaret Cho put it: Anyone
who was born out of one needs
to read this. Broken up into
three parts – the word, the
jewel and reconciliation – she
looks at everything from blood
to Whoredom, orgasm to rape. Moon cycles and
womanifestos as well. Practical and profound.
Read the 2002 version with the new afterword.
To Be Real: Telling the
Truth and Changing the
Face of Feminism
ed. by Rebecca Walker –
Twenty personal essays written
by “an eclectic gathering of
folks: a lawyer, videomaker,
actor, cultural critic, professor,
student, and yes, among
others, two men and a
‘supermodel,’” who grapple with what it means to
be a feminist today even when it feels like their
version of feminism might not be “politically
correct.” Sex, beauty, bachelor parties and
identity politics are a few of the things touched
on. True. Honest. Insightful. Inspirational.
Orientalism
by Edward W. Said – Although
Professor Said, a Palestinian
American, passed away this
year, his works continue to
influence and inspire. This
groundbreaking book had a
great impact on the lens
through which the Middle East
is viewed and has significantly
influenced filmmakers, artists (see interview with
Abelina) and intellectuals alike. He looks at how
history, empire, religion and then some have
affected the way “the Orient” is viewed,
scrutinized and misunderstood.
Woman, Native, Other
spirit. There are campaigns both worldwide and
small ones at colleges and universities that bring
the awareness to your town. Also, the site has
an extraordinary list of programs such as Afghan
Women’s Summit and the Stop Rape Contest to
illustrate how serious the problems are and what
can be done about them. On a lighter note, the
members of the ever-growing and popular vulva
choir share stories of their own vaginas.
Actresses Gina Gershon, Calista Flockhart and
Oprah Winfrey are only a handful of women who
participate in events ending domestic violence
against women. You can learn how to get
involved with V-Day, be a part of their events
and find out where the nearest V-Day event is
near you at www.vday.org.
When it comes to v-words, Mary prefers victory over
vagina. Send your favorite words her way:
mmontoro69@yahoo.com.
by Trinh T. Minh-ha – In this
important work, Trinh questions
language and writing in relation
to the notions of ethnicity and
femininity; of identity,
authenticity, and difference; of
commitment as to the function
and role of the woman writer;
and of storytelling as one of the
oldest forms of building historical consciousness.
Her critical lens challenges the reader to rethink
privilege, the role of the written word, and
language itself.
never allowed to go to parties as a
teenager. I was perceived as a woman by
then and I’m not supposed to be “wasting
my time,” because nice girls stay at
home.
So how did you become a feminist
artist?
It was an amalgamate of many things,
many situations that just one day blew up,
and I said, “That’s it. Either I’m going to
die living like this or I have to stand up to
my word and to my true self.”
Can you describe, in general, your
artistic project?
I just wanted to turn the mirror to the
other 50 percent of the population, which
is men. I wanted them to see what we
see. But I wasn’t successful in doing that.
So many things have been so canonized
that it’s not easy with just, say, five
paintings, to have viewers see what I see
— “I” meaning women in general.
Let’s take Jean-Leon Gerome’s
The Slave Market — a nude woman
being sold off. That is seen as a classical
work of beauty. I did the same exact
thing, except with a male nude, and that
was seen as a vulgar, crude, perverted
expression. With Jean-Leon Gerome,
viewers applaud his technique. My
technique could inter-compare with his.
But viewers saw the penis and couldn’t
get over the fact that there is a
viable, hard penis in that
painting. “Why is he sitting
there, in that position — in a
shamed position — yet his
penis is hard? How did that
happen? How come these
older women are scrutinizing
him and testing him?”
In addition to the work
you’re doing in subverting
the canonized male gaze,
you’re also doing work
around Orientalism. How
would you define
Orientalism?
Orientalism is a Western
thought. It’s a Western fantasy
...to really exoticize the other.
It’s been a way for Western
artists to capitalize on Oriental
literature, paintings — a way of
“transcending” the Occident. In
the late 18th century, it became
a fashion, a mode. Most artists
would go to Turkey or North
Africa and they would stay
there for months, doing their
paintings. Schools started
forming. The French and
British were the forerunners. So it became
a fashion, and these paintings ended up
in the living rooms of the French and
British bourgeoisie. They would end up in
living rooms and dining rooms of
bachelors, of powerful men — these
nudes of Eastern women.
So, in choosing to recast these
particular paintings, gender-wise,
you’re making a very specific choice.
Yes. I’m choosing, specifically, ones that
are very well known. I want the viewers to
do a double-take and say, “Wait a minute.
We recognize this. We’ve seen this
somewhere — but, we haven’t!” Secondly,
they also have a historical meaning for
me. For example, The Deposed Favorite
was in Sultan Abdul Aziz‘s court. He had
the biggest harem. Most of the women
were Armenian. Men would just go and
kidnap these women and use them as
they pleased and then depose them.
Also in 1915, the Turks massacred
more than a million-and-a-half Armenians.
This is my way of saying something about
the genocide. In The Deposed
Favorite...these women are being
deposed, but here I have the Turkish man
and the Armenian queen — or Sultana —
who has power over male sexuality, who
has power of her own sexuality. And she’s
not afraid to use it.
What do you think of the concept of
“global feminism?”
I think there’s value in uniting globally.
There should be a United Nations of
Feminists. And there should be
collaboration. For example, I’m dealing
with my own cultural oppressions, but
when I look into Western feminist thought,
it interweaves with my own concerns and
elucidates certain things that I wouldn’t
otherwise think about. Secondly,
empowerment of other women, in other
areas or arenas, is also empowerment for
me...That’s one of the reasons that Iran is
not happy with Shirin Ebadi’s Nobel prize
— because women, all of a sudden,
became empowered. The headscarves
became a little loose, and the ayatollahs
became a little worried. It was like, if she
can win the Nobel prize, can’t we win one
piece of rights, even in our homes? This
is going to build up to a revolution for
women. Because of one woman.
Learn more about Abelina and her work at
www.womansword.com.
Jessica collaborates with Abelina and other ferocious
chicks on KPFK’s Feminist Magazine (90.7 FM in Los
Angeles). She loves getting e-mail, so indulge her at
chickenrothbaum@hotmail.com.
Abelina Galustian, Examining Slaves, oil on canvas, 6 ft. x 5.5 ft., 2002.
LOUDmouth
18
HEALTH
Queer
Guy
& Girl
WORLD EYE ON THE
J
• There are nine countries in the world
today that call for the execution of
people convicted of committing
homosexual acts — among them are
Afghanistan, Sudan, Chechen
Republic and Saudi Arabia.
• In the mid-1990s, “social cleansing” of
LGBT communities was rampant in
Colombia, where according to attorney
and activist Juan Pablo Ordonez,
7,000 of the 40,000 murders in the
country in that period were committed
against LGBT-community members by
a “right-wing death squad.” Ordonez
fled Colombia to the United States
after investigating and publicizing his
findings. In her 2003 novel, The Dirty
Girls Social Club, Alisa Valdes
Rodriguez explores the issue of
Colombian social cleansing through
the Elizabeth Cruz character.
• The social cleansing of queer folks
has been a common practice in
countries such as Indonesia, Iran, and
Yemen, where LGBT people have
been routinely harassed, beaten and
ordered to leave their towns.
• The president of Zimbabwe claimed
that homosexuals are “lower than
dogs and pigs.”
LOUDmouth
19
THE F-WORD
what feminism means to me
Joanna E. Gaspar, M.S., M.P.H.
By Shauna Robinson
Q
: My boyfriend
sometimes gets
really angry at me
and begins to throw things.
We've been talking about
moving in together, but I feel
hesitant. What should I do?
Also, is name calling really
"abuse?"
By Frederick Smith
ust when you thought the queer
community in the United States had it
bad, you begin to realize that lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
folks around the world have some tough
challenges of their own. Take for example:
Joanna
Dear
Audre Lorde (1934-1992) in her own words, was a “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior
poet.” She was also an activist, teacher, cancer survivor and author of 17 books of
prose and poetry. Photograph by Jean Weisinger.
• In many countries, the intersection of
sexism and heterosexism makes the
issues of lesbians either invisible or
extremely exoticized. Either way,
queer men’s issues dominate and fuel
the discussion and debate.
• The U.S. Supreme Court struck down
a Texas sodomy law in 2003, saying
the private sexual conduct of people is
not the business of the government.
2003 … in the United States!
Around the world, the human rights of the
queer community are violated daily.
Individuals are imprisoned and killed by
their own governments for being LGBT;
they are also harassed, beaten, murdered
and discriminated against on a regular
basis. And the few advocates who speak
up in those situations are often the targets
of death threats and harassment.
Amnesty International has taken up
the fight for those who cannot speak for
themselves in many countries. With the
belief that all people deserve equal
protection under the law, and that all
people deserve basic human rights, the
organization has created OUTfront, a
small army of activists working to confront
human-rights violations of the queer
community.
Communities of faith are taking it
upon themselves to raise awareness of
LGBT issues. LGBT Muslims and nonMuslims came together for the First
International Retreat for LGBT Muslims in
Boston in 1998. A second retreat took
place in South Africa in 2000.
“We have finally taken the first
steps to come together to address the
issues that are important to us as a gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender Muslim
community,” said Faisal Alam, Retreat
Coordinator and founder of Al-Fatiha.
For members of the LGBT
community in the United States, joining
the international fight for human rights can
be empowering. Because even though the
community is debated over politically,
talked about socially and argued over
religiously, queers in the United States still
have some basic protections under the
law that aren’t even in the books
elsewhere.
To look further into international queer
issues, check out the Amnesty
International website,
www.amnestyusa.org/outfront, or the
International Gay and Lesbian Association
website, www.ilga.org.
Fred has just completed a fiction manuscript about four
queer men of color in L.A. and is seeking a literary
agent. Contact him at fsmith827@aol.com.
A
: It may not seem like it,
but throwing things and
name calling are forms
of abuse, and you need to
seriously consider where this
relationship might lead.
Dating/domestic violence are
Questions for Joanna? Send them to
dearjoanna@wildmail.com.
patterns of behavior that one
partner uses to gain power over
the other. They include public humiliation, playing mind games,
name calling; isolating you from family/friends; making threats;
hitting, slapping, kicking and sexual assault/rape. Dating/domestic
violence is against the law.
Dating/domestic violence often occurs as a “cycle of
violence” consisting of three phases that increase in both
frequency and severity over time. During the tension-building
phase, abusing partners are “edgy” and often verbally abuse their
partners. As tension increases, minor episodes of violence occur,
such as throwing things or shoving. The tension-building phase
ends in an explosion of uncontrolled violence, the acute battering
phase. Abusers discount this violent episode and may refuse to
summon medical help for their partners. During the loving
reconciliation phase, abusers may apologize and “shower” their
partners with love. This pleasurable time may convince partners to
stay with abusers. Without help, the cycle repeats, and eventually
the tension-building phases become shorter and more intense, the
battering incidents more frequent and severe, and the lovingreconciliation period shorter and less intense.
For help and more information, call the 24-hour National
Domestic Violence Hotline (www.ndvh.org) at (800) 799-SAFE
(7233) or (800) 787-3224 (TTY); talk with a health professional at
the Student Health Center; speak with a campus police officer at
(323) 343-3700; and/or visit the California Courts Self-Help Center
at www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/dv/. Call 911 if you are in
immediate danger.
The Student Health Center is located on the main walkway across from Biological
Sciences and adjacent to the Center for Career Planning and Placement. For more
information call (323) 343-3300 or go online to www.calstatela.edu/univ/hlth_ctr/.
Services for women and men include but are not limited to family planning, counseling
and prescribing, immunizations and testing for STDs. Pap smears for cancer screening
are available for women. Outpatient care is available Monday and Thursday, 8:30 a.m.7 p.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday, 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m.; and Friday, 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Send Shauna your thoughts on the f-word:
shaunarobinson@hotmail.com.
“The F-WORD,” a regular column which
made its debut in the fall, features poets,
artists, intellectuals and good-hearted
folk talking about what “feminism”
means to them. Here, writer Shauna
Robinson delves into what the word, the
movement, and the feminist identity
mean to her. We, at LOUDmouth,
believe the debate needs to be ongoing.
Again, we encourage you to start one up
with your friends and enemies today.
t seems like most people flee from feminism like it’s a dirty little
label. Black women, like me, try to escape it because we are
Black first, female second and, “Those white women don’t even
speak my language.” Men often run from it because the word
alone connotates various types of power (some real, some
perceived, some authentic, some exaggerated).
I’m here to claim that dirty little label. I’m stitching it on my
backside because I am proud to be a feminist. Frankly, I don’t care
what came first — the chicken or the egg, the right to vote or the
right to freedom. For me, I’m as Black as I am female. I have
kinky hair and a clitoris. And, being a feminist serves all parts of
me because feminism is an analogy for humanity and humanity is
something that every human has the power to bestow.
In the context of the evolution of the human race, women a
thousand years from now will probably be amazed that it was
once necessary to dissect our decency into little group-appropriate
labels, to liberate aspects of ourselves one section at a time. But
today, feminism exists because the storm of oppression on
females continues to rain down across the world. And, even in the
midst of the storm, feminism fights back like welcome sunshine.
I
Shauna, a screenwriter and more, was recently selected for the Guy Hanks & Marvin
Miller Fellowship program founded by Drs. Camille and Bill Cosby. She hopes to
change the world one image at a time.
LOUDmouth
4
OUR
feminist
SHEROES
By Joseph Coleman
KNOW YOUR
FeministFACULTY
By Amanda R. Davis
of the South Central Colemans
B
orn and raised in San Pedro, Calif., Yuri Kochiyama grew
up in a small, working-class community. Her parents were
both Japanese immigrants and were diligent about keeping
Yuri as religious, provincial and apolitical as possible. After the
bombing of Pearl Harbor, things dramatically changed for Yuri’s
family as well as thousands of other Japanese American citizens.
Seized by hysteria, the United States forced many Japanese
Americans into internment camps. Due to the onslaught of
government paranoia, many Japanese Americans, including Yuri’s
own father, were
accused of false
charges of espionage.
Imprisoned in a federal
penitentiary, Yuri’s
father was forced to
undergo harsh
conditions and
interrogation.
After learning the
hard way about the
injustices of the U.S.
government, Yuri
recognized the parallels
between the treatment
of African Americans
and Japanese
Americans. In 1960,
Yuri moved with her
husband, Bill, to New
York which was
steaming with political
activity and the
Yuri Kochiyama
beginnings of major
political movements for black liberation. Yuri further transformed
her political ideals into action in 1963 when she became friends
with Malcolm X. Her encounter with Malcolm influenced many of
her perceptions on life and infused a passion that moved her to
enlist in the battle for civil rights.
Some of her highlights as a political activist include her
work with the Black Panther Party and the takeover of the Statue
of Liberty in 1977 to demand freedom for Puerto Rican political
prisoners. As a couple, both Yuri and Bill helped fight for
reparations for the Japanese Americans who were imprisoned
during World War II.
Yuri is still immersed in the fight against social injustice and
works to inspire the next generation of young activists to continue
the struggle. Yuri is a true freedom fighter, and she has helped to
set the tone for social change in this country. I was blessed to
have the opportunity to hear Yuri speak and to let her know that
she’s had a positive impact on my life as a black man. Thank you,
Yuri, you are an inspiration to us all.
D
r. Ann Garry is a professor of philosophy and director of
the Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities.
She calls herself a feminist without hesitation and says
that she “didn’t like people telling me I couldn’t do something
because I was a girl.” She thinks of feminism as a “movement
that advocates that women can be full-fledged people.”
Her classes Contemporary Moral and Social Issues in
a Multicultural Society and Philosophy of Gender and Culture
are strictly related to gender and feminism. However, Dr.
Garry incorporates feminism into every class that she
teaches. She encounters a number of students who do not
self-identify as feminists, but even if they do not claim the
label, Dr. Garry believes that most people are in fact feminists
because they hold what are feminist beliefs. She says that
many people are reluctant to assume the label because of the
common misconceptions associated with the term.
“It’s not an accident that people still have those
[stereotypes]. People that are opposed to feminism keep
dragging them up,” she says. As head of the Center for the
Study of Genders and Sexualities, Dr. Garry encourages
students to get involved. There are internships available and
several programs scheduled. One of the goals of the center is
to provide an institutional base of support for feminist, gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender scholarship. You can learn
more at www.calstatela.edu/centers/csgs.
Dr. Garry has taught at Cal State L.A. for more than 30
years and has received such recognitions as the Outstanding
Professor Award, the President’s Distinguished Professor
Award and the Distinguished Woman Award. She edited the
book Women, Knowledge and Reality: Explorations in
Feminist Philosophy and serves as associate editor of
Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, which she also
helped found.
inside the ring
THE BUSINESS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING
By Kate Herman and Sarah A.West
T
he practice of buying and selling
humans for profit is an age-old
enterprise, yet it is alive and well
today in the form of human trafficking —
the world’s fastest-growing criminal
industry. Consider these statistics:
UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children
worldwide are trafficked each year. The
numbers are so difficult to track that
annual estimates of global trafficking,
including men, women and children, vary
from 700,000 to 4 million. And it’s not just
in tawdry Asian brothels or European redlight districts: In 1997 the CIA estimated
that 50,000 persons were trafficked to the
United States annually.
Though the numbers are disputed,
one fact is accepted across the board:
Trafficking ranks third-largest in sources of
profits for organized crime, placing the
multi-billion dollar industry behind only
drugs and guns. While the sex trade gets
considerably more media attention than
other forms of trafficking, reports of forced
labor trafficking show the problem is much
broader.
Countries facing economic strain,
high unemployment rates, a lack of
women’s rights and corrupt governments
show higher numbers of trafficked
persons. Trafficking is predominant
throughout East Asia and the Pacific, for
instance, and spiked in Central and
Eastern Europe after the collapse of the
Soviet Union in the early 1990s. But the
problem can be found in nearly every
country around the globe, including the
United States.
In the wake of this sharp increase in
trafficking, leaders around the world are
taking notice — and action. Policy-makers,
governments, nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs), women’s groups and
activists all have honed in on this problem.
Indeed, trafficking has become a unifying
issue among feminist and religious
fundamentalists, Democrats and
Republicans.
Breaking the Cycle
With stronger laws and worldwide
awareness, the human-trafficking industry
is under the harshest scrutiny to date.
Nevertheless, the January/February 2003
issue of Foreign Policy listed the illegal
trade of persons as one of the top five
wars we, as a global society, are losing.
The tangible effects of human
trafficking, and sex trafficking in particular,
are impossible to ignore. Children
ensnared in trafficking circles suffer lifelong
losses — from education to health to their
very lives.
“Sex trafficking is an almost
inevitable death sentence for victims for
several reasons,” Holly Burkhalter of
Physicians for Human Rights testified to
Congress.
Children have no ability to insist on
the use of condoms, they are forced to
have sex with multiple partners daily, and
the often-violent sexual encounters expose
girls’ physically immature bodies to a
greater number of infections and diseases,
Burkhalter said. At the height of Thailand’s
AIDS epidemic, more than 80 percent of
HIV/AIDS cases could be attributed to
women in the sex industry and their
clients.
“It seems highly likely that coercing
or forcing millions of cases of girls and
women into violent, unprotected sex acts
with multiple partners is a significant factor
in the spread of the AIDS pandemic,”
Burkhalter explained.
Often, a promise of hope becomes
a child’s worst nightmare. For millions of
children around the world, that nightmare
is a daily reality.
This story was first printed in Outlook, the
magazine of the American Association of
University Women. www.aauw.org
Kate is a senior editor at Outlook. Sarah is a research
associate at Progressive Policy Institute.
Contact Dr. Garry at agarry@calstatela.edu.
LOUDmouth
3
LOUDmouth
20
HAZME UN TRABAJO, MANITA
By Erika Coronado
O
felia was a curandera from Inglewood — or at least that
was where she set up her shop, Botánica Cielito Lindo,
like the rich endless sky that blankets the universe. And
like the sky, she never said where she was born or raised,
never where she had visited. She had beautiful brown skin,
brown like a steaming cup of chocolate caliente. Her hair, soft
and curly, worked a blue-black halo of thought about her head.
And she never failed to smile a warm saludo as you walked into
the store. One of her customers was Doña Lupe. A tiny, 68year-old woman, Doña always wore cotton dresses with flower
prints and a brown reboso that her late niece had knit for her.
Every week after the Saturday service at her church she walked
into the store to buy (only from Ofelia) a white candle that had
been sprinkled with brown sugar and sand, which she lit in
honor of her niece, Regina. “Los muertos, they need luz to light
their way,” the old woman would always say to Ofelia. She
would agree. There wasn’t much that she could do for Doña
Lupe and her sorrow.
El dolor de la muerte es como el del parto; nadie te lo
puede — ni debe — quitártelo. Aunque sientas que tu pecho se
convierte en un vacío Negro, y tu corazón en una réplica de
barro que — al latir — se quiebra repetidamente.
Ofelia spoke in a soft, comforting tone as she brought a
brown cigarette to her lips. Her words, engulfed in a sweetsmelling smoke, were the only magia that she could offer Doña
Lupe. Nothing you can do about the dead except remember
them. And the living — never let them forget. Regina was 17
when she first started to sew at the maquila. “ASSEMBLED IN
MEXICO OF U.S. COMPONENTS.” Those were her hands
working — as though part of the machine — creating, stitching
together string and mezclilla, running the tela through her hands
like the hot sand from her pueblo in Yucatán. She had not been
home for three days when her body was found in the peripheral
sphere of the city, that outside rung of CIVILIZATION where
only the beasts live. She was raped, tortured, beaten to death.
One of her hands was clutching the sand around her, the other
held on tightly to the hand of the girl that was found with her.
EXISTEN MÁS DE 500 DESAPARECIDAS.
Ofelia’s words were her magia: of comfort, of anger, of
borrowed pain (there was an abundance to borrow). She
borrowed Doña Lupe’s memory of Regina and spread it like a
hand dropping magic sand. The mujeres at the Bodacious
Sistas’ Beauty Salon next door reacted with sympathy. They
had been witness to the constant beatings that one of their
neighbors, Mary, took from her husband. Twice a month after
his borrachera, he came home to bash his wife into black and
blue. She was silenced, excusing his aggression toward her as
this or that. But he was wearing her away, blurring the shine in
her eyes until they shut for good.
Ofelia’s magia reached all of her customers: the ones
that came in looking for love potions and amarramientos; those
curious about the Botánica who walked away with a cauldron
full of incense. Guillermo stopped by the store on his way to
school. For the longest time, it seemed, his heart beat just a
little louder when Antonia was around. The only problem, as
Guillermo saw it, was that Antonia wasn’t quite aware of his
existence. He brought in a picture and a lock of hair, hoping that
it would be enough for the amarramiento. “Hazme un trabajo,
Manita. Bind her to me.” He exposed his situation to Ofelia, and
LOUDmouth
21
a short story
she asked him about Antonia and about himself. “She’s like an
angel,” he said. “She’s always smiling, always tranquila, always
surrounded by her friends.” Ofelia suggested that he talk to her.
Pierde ese miedo — fear will get you nowhere. He would not
need a trabajo de amarramiento if he spoke to her, got to know
more than that beautiful smile of hers. Guillermo bought some
incense and promised to come back. Two weeks later he came
back to the Botánica. He wanted to tell Ofelia that he had
worked up the courage to talk to Antonia. That she liked to read
books on astronomy. That she felt an incredible and satisfying
awe at the vastness and complexity of the Universe. And that
she wanted to be an astrophysicist.
The sun shone brightly in the sky full of clouds as
Guillermo walked toward the Botánica entrance. The door
needed a paint job to fix the cracked, aging brown paint. He
thought to offer himself for the task. And just as he was thinking
of the way he would tell Ofelia about the paint, he noticed the
store was closed and empty. All he found was a piece of paper
taped to the door and right beside it, an open paper bag filled
with copal incense that read “Pa’ Los Muertos.” The paper had
a poem scribbled on it along with the words, “Hay Que Esparcir
Las Arenas.” He understood that the need to scatter the magical
sands of knowledge had carried Ofelia away. He slowly took the
note from the door and read it carefully:
Pa’ Los Vivos
Tengo: I have
Unos ojos cafés
eyes that look upon the men around me
and women
Ojos de mujer that take in
(like black holes in the Universe)
images of violent things
Azules para variar ante mi piel Morena
Mine the darkest skin
with lines of birth and lines of age
and lines, well etched, of scar and pain
Blanca como la luz del amanecer
Como una taza de leche
Con café
Y labios with which to speak of where we’ve been
A veces pequeños
A veces anchos
Loud
louder
until the whole round Earth can hear you
Tengo: I have
Magia entre mis dientes
Para dar poder a mi voz y
Cambiar al mundo
magic in my scars and in my wounds
so that the body remembers
and the mind never forgets
Magia en mis hermanas
Para sanar, para luchar, para curar esas heridas que
Tenemos: We have
Erika doesn't have magia in her hands, but she has seen magia in other hands and
eyes and souls. Write to her with your magia at yaometzli@hotmail.com.
the Editor
From the Heart
of
«¡Yo no te hice nada — tú estás loca!» Max uttered with disgust,
asserting that I was crazy and he had done nothing wrong. Surely, it
must have been me imagining his tongue thrusting down my throat in
an unsolicited forced-kiss reminiscent of the ravenous “French” kisses
of junior high and high school. Here I stood in a salsa club apparently
breaking all the rules. To kiss and tell was one thing, but to be forced
to kiss and call it out was quite another. “¿Qué te pasa? Why are you
so angry?” his friends asked, trying to shush me.
Angry? This was an understatement. If it were only rage
running through my bloodstream. The shock, self-doubt and “maybe I
am overreacting” thoughts all began to gnaw at me immediately, as
they do when women, people of color and working-class folk stand up
for themselves. Even my female friends perpetuated these feelings.
“You guys look good together!” Carolina said,
insinuating the possibilities for romance. “Why
are you so upset?”
“HE STUCK HIS TONGUE DOWN MY
THROAT!” I declared again.
“Yeah, but you two were dancing sexy,”
she said plainly, dismissing my feelings of
violation, suggesting that I should not only
expect it, but enjoy it.
Certainly in a court of law this would be
the sentiment. I could hear all the arguments
that would be used: Well, what do you expect
dancing like that? Look at how provocatively
you’re dressed. You shouldn’t have gone there if
you weren’t willing to deal with the
consequences.
Granted, it was only a kiss. But it was a violent one. And we
were on a dance floor in a crowded room. What if we had been at a
small gathering? Or alone in his hotel room? Where would that kiss
and the drive behind it have led? I contemplated the facility with which
rape happens and how women brunt the blame.
His hand on my shoulder interrupted my thoughts. “What’s
wrong — do you have a boyfriend?” he asked. As if the only reason I
could be mad was not for my own sake but because my man was
going to get upset.
Not a month earlier a good guy friend of mine had pulled the
same kind of male privilege, ignoramus act on me. One sunny
afternoon, he cupped his hands around my face and almost
successfully forced his lips on mine. I managed to wiggle out and ask
as politely as possible, “What the hell are you doing?” This was no
salsero hotshot. He was a friend I trusted, with whom I had spent
hours discussing the dynamics of sexism. When I asked him if he
would have attempted to kiss me if I’d had a partner, his honest
response was, “Probably not.”
Is sovereignty over my own body only granted if I’m protecting
or saving myself for a man? As Inga Muscio writes in Cunt, “As a
woman living in this society, I’m consistently reminded I am a potential
Whore whenever a man is not escorting me, which is rather most of
the time.” Escort or not, a woman’s body seems to still be perceived
as unmarked territory available for conquest at any time.
John Mayer’s song “Your Body is a Wonderland” is a hopeful
hit that relishes the best of butterflies-in-your-stomach romance,
invoking the excitement that can come with the anticipation of
exploring a lover’s body. Yet, as this edition of LOUDmouth started
coming together, I began to realize that, in fact, the lyrics should more
appropriately read, “Your body is a battlefield.”
This issue is a tribute to International Women’s Day, which is
March 8. It’s an annual holiday founded in honor of the young women
in the United States who fought for their rights. Ironically, it is
celebrated and recognized more often outside this country than in it
(see “My Grandmother’s Knitting Needles”). Our cover story offers an
overview of the horrors taking place in Juárez, Mexico, as women
disappear and are raped and murdered. Maria Guardado talks to us
about what it was like to survive the U.S.-funded tortures in El
Salvador. We also cover female genital mutilation, the HIV/AIDS
epidemic and cutbacks on abortion and birth control. Times are hard.
Capitalist feminism, sometimes known as mainstream or
bourgeois feminism, would have us believe that sexism is dead.
Women are equal — end of story. Indeed, we have made gains.
However, all too often, upper- and middle-class white women in the
first world are the ones reaping the benefits of this “equality” and
“liberation.” Internationally, there’s another reality.
Of course, freedom is a matter of perception, and people have
to define what it means for themselves. Yet, as we look around the
world I must assert that sexism is far from dead, and we are far from
liberated. By “we” I mean not only women, but all people. No one is
free when others are oppressed. Period.
This capitalist, white-supremacist
patriarchy was not built in a day. It won’t be
dismantled overnight either. There is hope.
While it is true that women are victims of
atrocities (and it is essential that we recognize
this), it is also true that females are neither
paralyzed nor cowering, but are fighting tooth
and nail to bring about societal changes in
order to muster conditions under which all
people can bloom. In this issue you will also
find examples of great resistance taking place
all over the globe.
It’s not that we’re not powerful. It’s that
we so rarely understand how powerful we truly
are. Although, I must admit, my childhood shero
Pippi Longstocking understood it. She didn’t give a fuck — she would
not be oppressed under any circumstances. She even (gasp) refused
to go to school. Talk about breaking all the rules. She loved herself in
all of her mismatched-socks glory.
When Pippi came upon a beauty salon advertisement for a
product to hide freckles that asked, “Do you suffer from freckles?” she
marched right into the shop and up to the saleslady and said, “No, I
don’t suffer from freckles.”
The lady took one look at Pippi and burst out, “But, my dear
child, your whole face is covered with freckles!”
“I know it,” said Pippi, “but I don’t suffer from them. I love them.
Good day.”
If we all took her lesson to heart, we’d bring the multi-billion
dollar beautification industry tumbling down.
Pippi refused to take grief from anyone. She would not take
“no” as an answer or fall prey to any bully in her environment. It was
by following Pippi’s lead that I asked Max to dance six weeks after the
forced-kiss incident, trusting that I could define the situation on my
own terms by setting boundaries and affirming my own self-respect. I
don’t know that I’ll ever be alone with him or that we’ll ever be friends.
But I do know that while addressing real questions of victimization, I
refuse to be a victim.
So, here’s to you Pippi! Ironic to use a white girl from Sweden
as a role model for our international women’s issue. Yet the rebellious
redhead, that traviesa peliroja, offers us an example of how to tackle
the heavy oppressions that bind us with a defiant, childlike, “ain’t no
one gonna hold me down” spirit. We, too, can make the kind of trouble
and magic that she made, exercising the power that comes with
knowing what we want and how to get it.
In the tongue of my Syrian and Lebanese grandmothers —
Al-hurriyya bintizharuna. Freedom awaits us.
Stephanie Abraham, Editor in Chief
LOUDmouth
2
Speak
POETS
e
feminism: fem- -niz- m – n.
International Woman
the movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and all oppression
By Felicia Montes
zapartxic@hotmail.com
The Women’s Resource Center (WRC) is part of the Cross Cultural Centers at California State University, Los Angeles.
Its mission is to encourage student learning as well as to foster an inclusive campus environment free of racism, sexism, heterosexism
and other forms of oppression. With a commitment to increasing cross-cultural awareness, we offer a wide variety of programs and
services that explore both the shared and unique experiences, histories and heritages of our diverse community. Please contact the
WRC at: (323) 343-3370 or by mail at: University-Student Union, 5154 State University Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90032.
Jessica Hoffman, Thatcher Collins, and Mom, without whom nothing is possible.
DESIGNER................................................ Kristy Wong
DESIGN CONSULTANT........................... Eve NaRanong
SPECIAL THANKS: To all the behind-the-scenes LOUDmouths, especially
Stephanie Abraham
Jennifer Ashley
Daria Teruko Yudacufski
Connie Martinez
EDITOR IN CHIEF..........................
COPY EDITOR................................
CONSULTING EDITOR..................
AD SALES......................................
6
e
Front cover:
Back cover:
Photo by Carol Petersen.
Larry Salamone, Iris, oil on canvas, 30 in. x 24 in., 2002. www.larrysalamone.com
On the Cover
12
16
19
21
remembering the women of
international women’s day
femicide south of the border
hiv/aids is still spreading
the global queer community
hazme un trabajo manita – a short story
7
9
11
15
16
17
20
confronting empire – arundhati breaks it down
maria guardado tells her story
palestinian women – holding it all together
global abortion update
abelina colors us blind
women, men, children sold into bondage
2
3
4
5
22
from the heart of the editor
our feminist sheroes
know your feminist faculty
dear joanna – a health column
the f-word
the LOUDmouth list
poets speak
Special
In Every Issue
Be part of our growing community. Contact Connie Martinez of the Cross Cultural Centers
at (323) 343-5001 or cmartinez@cslanet.calstatela.edu.
LOUDmouth encourages you to get LOUD!
Send letters to the editor to: loudmouthzine@wildmail.com. Or, place them in our mailbox in the
Women’s Resource Center, on the 2nd floor of the University-Student Union. Letters may be
edited for length and clarity.
WRC
The views expressed in LOUDmouth do not necessarily reflect those of California
State University, Los Angeles, the University-Student Union, or their students, staff or
administrators. And, because feminism is not a monolithic ideology, there may be as
many viewpoints expressed here as there are feminists. Opinions are those of their
respective authors and are not necessarily those of LOUDmouth.
Soy una mujer de maiz
Y la madre tierra es mi pais
Representing all four directions
I am trying to make the connection
Between my dreams and reality
And the duality of my sexuality
After all womb.man we are the land
Connected to the center
The other world within ourselves
And from my body flows a constant stream of truth
Marking the rebirth of consciousness
the re-evolution of el sexto sol
The trembles are felt all over the globe
As la madre cries her tears
cleansing herself from the evil within
Her mijo, el hijo de la chingada
The creation of destruction, given vida ‘cuz oh yes
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”
Still taken from Surname Viet Given Name Nam, a film by Trinh T. Minh-ha.
Alone looking into the turquesa stone
I see the blood red road ahead
The rain and clouds bringing a storm
Tensions to all my relations
And as Getty banners speak of imagining in hoods across L.A.
I am reminded why the world is still a ghetto
From the corner Chinese Fashion Land
To the vegetarian Taco Stand
To the Vietnamese acrylic tips of the world
Advertise with LOUDmouth
My true roots weaved together
In trenzas, china curls, and blown out frizz
Realizing that adornment can have consequences
Whether Xolotl blues or Nike shoes...
I keep strong with my Jordana hues
Living in the jungle, Chiapas and L.A.
We live to remember the Pachamama’s way
Mujeres de Maiz,
M.C.’s — mujeres en Ceremonia
With life juices that flow like water from our bodies,
Waves in tune with the moon,
Seen at its fullest – by the eyes of those who look
to the sky, the land, and the fire
To create sacreds from sacreds
And drink of these Mixed Waters
Designed
by U-SU Graffix.
“poetry is the culture of a people. we
are poets even when we don’t write
poems…we are all preachers
because we are one.”
– nikki giovanni
Mutiny in the Body
By Susan Ahdoot
susu.ahdoot@verizon.net
I just found out
I’m going to be an aunt again
and my ovaries
just grabbed my uterus
and squeezed.
Hard.
They’re getting pissed
and taking hostages.
The eggs are worried
and ready to scramble.
They’ve elected a scout
for a kamikaze mission.
It’s dodging guards
in it’s search for freedom
on it’s way to certain death.
Because the swimmers are scarce
and they’re scared to commit,
hiding in latex foxholes
and napalm jelly,
killing themselves in their fury
to avoid the fallopian falls.
Yes, the ovaries are pissed
and seeking revenge.
There’s a battle being fought
and it isn’t always pretty.
I’m on a diplomatic mission
seeking a cease fire
with sweet talk and promises
of better men to come.
LOUDmouth
22
What feminism
means to me…
Having the choice to do with my body and life
what I want, without societal stigma — whether
it be pursuing a career, or having children, or
both.
Chrissy, 29
Standing up to chauvinistic men even when it
means putting myself in a dangerous situation.
Reynaldo, 20
A stay-at-home mother.
Liana, 29
Having the self-worth that prevents you from
settling for being involved with and dealing with the
game of a married man.
Jason, 30
An understanding of the true equality of all human
beings including the one between men and women,
being strong to speak what you believe but not to
ignore the contrary opinions, leading and helping
those who need assistance to protect themselves
verbally and physically.
Aska, 31
Being able to look at her eyes and not her chest.
Santi, 32
Strength!
Leah, 22
Sticking to everything you believe in through the
hell and highwater of other people-habitshistory-failure-community-society-oppositionhostility-patriarchies-media-genocide-povertypolitics-reputation-status-parents-family-self and
more that say or imply that your truth is or
should be otherwise.
Jennifer, 21
The most basic manifestation of self-love.
Nachito, 26
belieF
accEptance
open-Mindedness
relatIonships
harmoNy
communIty
reSpect
every man, woMan and child
Tommy, 31
LOVE!
´
FEMICIDE IN JUAREZ
Milton, 60
Being proud of being a woman and being
"thankful" that in this day and age we can
educate our minds at our own free will and
knowing that no matter which road we chose —
motherhood or career woman — married or
single, straight or gay — we mean something to
this world, as we women make this world turn!
Rachelle, 28
S PEA K UP
loudmouthzine@wildmail.com
Free and Priceless
Rebekah, 29
Gretchen, 58
Common sense.
Issue 4 | Winter 2004
T H E W OR L D I S LIS T E NIN G
’
CELEBRATING
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN S DAY
MARCH 8
A LOOK AT THE
AIDS PANDEMIC
RIGHTS
QUEERR
A R O U N D THEW
WORLD
PLU new ficción!
!
Everything that inequality is not; it celebrates unity,
equity and positive progression over senseless
power structures kept in place by assumed and
promoted inequity.

R - University-Student Union

Transcription

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