El día internacional de la mujer

Happy international women´s day (last Wed 8th March)!
I am very proud to say that I have just completed my first project in Chiché, which was a procession for women´s day. The women´s association of the municipality of Chiché approached the library with a proposal, but lacked funds to do much. Between the Riecken Foundation and the Artcorps funds we managed to pull off quite a spectacular event, the like of which Chiché has never seen in its history! The coordinating group of women (about 12 or so of us) made headdresses, banners and hand-held decorations for 300 women from four local indigenous communities over a frenzied week and on Wednesday we showed Chiché what women can do! I don´t believe Chiché has ever seen a demonstration/procession of this kind and the fact that it was entirely about and by women was obviously a source of wonderment for the local population.

Each community was fronted with a vibrant, colourful banner with the following statements:
¡Vivan las mujeres luchadoras! (Long live the fighting women!),
Mujeres por la paz (Women for peace),
¡No mas violencia contra la mujer! (No more violence against women!) and
Las mujeres por una vida digna y sin probreza, (Women for a life with dignity and without poverty).
The procession was an explosion of colour; in addition to the local traje (traditional dress), which is incredibly varied and rich in colour and pattern, there was an abundance of lilac in the form of all the decorations we made. The women admired and wore their headdresses (tocados) with pride, and the few we had left over quickly dispersed among the women and girls in the market at the end of the procession, who came up in groups asking for tocados until we ran out. The fact that it was market day was a wonderful coincidence because the town is always much busier than usual and the main street was thankfully closed to traffic, making the practical organisation much easier.

After the parade, all the groups converged in front of the town hall, where my colleague librarian, the ever-more impressive Alba took the mike and sang the praises of womankind to kingdom come! She is a gifted lady. Then the parte cultural began; we all moved into the salon, the main venue for events in the town, where small performances took place followed by a participatory artistic activity. Of the performances, would you believe that yours truly took centre stage at one point in our dramatization ´un día con la mujer´(a day in the life of a woman), in which I had to act in front of a good 350 people, in Spanish, no less! Of the participatory activity, the women collaborated in groups of 20 creating murals - very simple but telling. Many of the murals contained symbols of anguish, violence, death and deep self expression. The life of indigenous women in Guatemala is extremely hard to say the least; violence and worse is all too commonplace and here in Quiché the wounds left open and still raw from the effects of the civil war (which only ended in 1996) are fresh in the memories of the collective. In the salon, at the end of the day, we all united in a massive circle, holding hands and the participants were invited to express themselves. One woman took the microphone and spoke of her dearly beloved late husband, who was assassinated during the civil war. She could hardly speak for the tears that were choking her throat.

In all, this was a memorable day indeed and for me, it being my first project, even more so, given how well it went. I am so thrilled to find myself working in the heart of the women of this country; I came here with a desire to work predominantly with women, but with little idea of where or with whom I would be working and it has just turned out that this is the group that both the foundation and the town municipality see as a priority for me while I am here. The following day I made a presentation of my work to the town mayor and council, and included a video of the procession. Both presentations were much admired and well received, and we put forward a proposal to create a sculpture garden adjoining the library in Chiché´s town centre. If this idea bears fruit, we are hoping that Chiché may yet make a grand tourist attraction in the Quiché region with the new addition of a fancy-free pleasure garden, the like of which has never been beholden before (at least not in Guatemala!). Will keep you posted as to their decision…