Women show progress

BY SANDRA VELÁZQUEZ / Vida En El Valle
(Published Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 09:10AM)

FRESNO -- The Chiapas Support Committee (Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas) from Oakland featured 'Zapatista Women Touched our Hearts' -- a special presentation of the Third Gathering of Zapatista Women -- celebrated on December 2007 at the Lacandona Jungle in Chiapas, México -- last Saturday at the Comité Pro Uno offices in Fresno.

Mary Ann Tenuto-Sánchez, member of the committee, offered an informal chat along with a photo presentation of the gathering attended by several pro indigenous organizations from the Americas as well as several European delegations.

The objective of the gathering, in Tenuto-Sánchez's opinion was "to show how far indigenous women have made it in the southern state of Chiapas," a place where the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN, Zapatista Army for National Liberation) led by Sub Commander Marcos rose to arms in 1994.

"Zapatista women have advanced in the last 14 years regardless of the objection, often, by their parents, brothers and husbands, to be able to make a place for themselves in the Zapatista movement and be able to organize the women's gathering," added Tenuto-Sánchez.

The former attorney of a workers' union in California, Tenuto-Sánchez retired from that job a while back, but at her 71 years of age, she is still commited full time to supporting projects for the improvement of those who live in the Lacandona Jungle.

The independent community of San Manuel, east of Ocosingo in Chiapas, is about to open a pharmacy warehouse. It was financed completely by the committee.

"We are the same, the farmers who suffer here (in California) and the ones who are over there," said Eddie Arguello from Huron.

Last year, this 24-year-old traveled to Baja California to show his support to the tour that members of the EZLN made all over México hoping to get in contact with the different segregated indigenous communities from that country, but the mere gesture of solidarity made for an encounter with Marcos who described the difficult conditions of immigrants in the Californian fields.

Arguello's parents, both over the age of 60, still work in the fields.

"The struggles are the same, but the level is different," points out the farm worker who defined his experience in El Mayor Cucapá, B.C. as something "spiritual."

For Mariana Castorena Rivera of Sacramento, the advancement by the indigenous women is concrete, although she says it is a gradual process.

In 1993, a year before the insurgent rise, the Revolutionary Law of Women, in which many practices close to slavery were abolished, was spread, such as the right of the landlords to rape every woman who wasn't married.

They were also made aware of their right to have an education, to speak in community assemblies, to decide who to marry and to have the right to choose whether to have children or not.

For Tenuto-Sánchez, women have traditionally faced inequality in society. She recalls when she first got married during the 60's she wasn't able to open a checking account under her name and her husband had to do it, or when she didn't have the right to vote.

In Chiapas, many indigenous people speak Spanish as a second language, just as many of the observers and international visitors, but one way or another they manage to establish communication among them.

Castorena remembers that during a visit to the jungle she ended making tortillas with other women without having to talk a lot.

"It seems as though we know with our heart what they want to tell us," said Tenuto-Sánchez.

To contact or for more information, visit www.chiapas-support.org.

Send e-mail to: svelazquez@vidaenelvalle.com