What Women Want

As my time here winds down I realized I have written very little about my other project which is teaching English at "Casa Mujer Teclina" or the City Office for Women. This project rose out of my own curiosity as the director of Casa Mujer was at our host family's house for a dinner party in mid-October. She and I got to talking about ways to empower women and she mentioned wanting to offer English classes...so of course I volunteered. Each morning I have a group of faithful students- women who are local community members, many of them disadvantaged looking to become more financially independent or able to find jobs in the workforce. We all believe that the stronger skill set you have and if you are able to support yourself you never will be dependent on a man and therefore less likely to end up in an abusive relationship. Other programs at Casa Mujer include counseling services for domestic violence, trainings for other groups about violence against women and a newly formed coalition of women dedicated to ending violence against women in their community. My sister joked about how it’s amazing I've come all this way but end up working in exactly the same subject area.
So my class is adorable. They are such enthusiastic students. We vary in size but tend to be around 10-12. This week we are working on vocabulary for visiting the US-as they all vow to come to New York City now.
This past week was also dedicated to raising awareness of violence against women. I was lucky to participate in some of the events. Monday we had a public movie viewing of a Mexican film entitled "Cicatrices" or "Scars" - very powerful, however of course I disagreed with the ending because the man changes. There was so much I wanted to say in the after-movie discussion but simply didn't have the vocabulary. Thursday there was training for male police officers. I stopped in to see what they were doing. To my excitement they were working on defining "what is a man" (see pictures) talking about the stereotypes and pressures of Latin men! Amazing project. Finally on Friday there was a huge fair in the park- information, education and induction. All of the government agencies attended with information about abuse for the public, there was a really intense play about sexual abuse in the schools (once again Deborah and I always end up watching interpretive theatrical pieces it was a bit confusing but we got the overall idea) and then many of the women I work with were inducted into a new network of women dedicated to "protecting the community against violence against women"- They all pledged to never close their eyes to the violence, and got really nice t-shirts (I got one too!).

All of these activities, my class, the projects, trainings and events have been truly inspiring and I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to share in this work. Its clear, women want justice, women want to be heard, to be self-sufficient, to be leaders, to be respected and while we still have a long way to go in many respects, I think we are beginning to get exactly what we want.

p.s. If I return here my project is definitely going to be a national campaign to end "hissing at women in the streets". Even on days I look like an absolute disaster (which is often) I still hear "ssss...chica" or "venga bebe". Ewh- stop staring and go learn English why don't you...at least if you're gonna catcall me, let it be in my own language.