Nueva Jerusalén

Parte de un sermón ofrecido por Krista Loewen y David Epp en la Iglesia Wildwood Mennonite en Canadá. Inspirado en su experiencia durante uno de los tours de aprendizaje en Guatemala y El Salvador, donde acompañaron a estudiantes del colegio RJC (Rosthern Junior Collegiate). Krista y David han visitado Guatemala muchas veces en el pasado. David Epp fue participante del programa SALT y sirvió en la comunidad de Santiago Atitlán durante 2013-2014.
 

Foto tomada por: Anna Yoder

Cuando viajé a Guatemala, una de las primeras cosas que uno nota es el hermoso tejido tradicional. Cada comunidad teje su historia en su ropa. Por ejemplo, un huipil de Santiago Atitlán cuenta con rayas blancas que representan las bendiciones de Dios y el rojo que representa la sangre derramada durante la conquista y, más recientemente, la guerra civil. Las aves muestran su relación permanente con la tierra como cuidadoras y administradoras. Cada vez que en el pueblo de Santiago Atitlán se teje una nueva pieza de tela, su historia cobra vida y una historia común se relata dentro de cada hilo.

En otras palabras, al ponerse sus trajes, las personas de Santiago Atitlán están prometiendo su lealtad a la continuación de su cultura.
Los telares que se utilizan para tejer estas piezas son complejas y es esencial que cada hilo pequeño esté en el lugar correcto, de lo contrario la visión final se arruinaría.
Este minucioso detalle puede parecer desesperante a veces, ya que es difícil imaginar cómo se vería  la pieza final. Pero, el tejedor tiene esperanza y fe en el modelo y la belleza emerge. La belleza en Guatemala se desborda como consecuencia de estos bordados.

Así como el pueblo de Santiago Atitlán recuerdan su pasado y su futuro con el uso de sus trajes tradicionales, también nosotros nos acordamos de nuestro lugar en la construcción histórica y permanente del reino de Dios.

En abril, tras pasar por la frontera de Guatemala con el grupo de  RJC (El Colegio de Rosthern Junior), nuestra guía de CCM nos animó a jugar un juego cultural para poner atención. Nuestra tarea consistía en contar todas las veces en que nos tropezábamos con un mural o una  imagen artística del ex arzobispo Oscar Romero. No pasó mucho tiempo para que el juego se terminara, pero no porque hubiera sido difícil de encontrar la cara de Romero. De hecho, ¡Él está en todas partes! A Romero se le puede encontrar en cada esquina, en todos los anuncios de tiendas pequeñas, y a los costados de aparentemente cada iglesia.

Oscar Romero fue un hombre que nació en condiciones humildes en el este de El Salvador. El entró al Seminario a una edad temprana y demostró un dominio académico y una afinidad por el trabajo pastoral. Cuando fue nombrado arzobispo de El Salvador en 1977 rápidamente se convirtió en un defensor de los pobres y desposeídos.

En ese momento, al igual que ahora, El Salvador se caracterizaba por tener una compleja historia de desigualdad y  violencia. Durante décadas, la población rural pobre había sido marginada cada vez más dentro de una economía en la que el 1% controlaba el 42% de la tierra cultivable, mientras que la parte de más abajo que representaba el 60% controlaba el 0%.
Estas condiciones llevaron a protestas y, finalmente, a una guerra civil extremadamente violenta donde los escuadrones de la muerte ejecutaban a la gente del campo a su voluntad.
Romero representó en ese contexto una de las voces más fuertes en pedir el fin de la violencia y en 1980 fue asesinado, sólo un día después de pronunciar un sermón en el que pidió a los soldados del gobierno, como cristianos, a dejar de llevar a cabo la represión del gobierno y las violaciones de los derechos humanos básicos.

Aunque la guerra civil terminó en los 90’s, todavía existe la desigualdad en los ingresos.
Al pintar la cara de Romero a los lados de los edificios, la gente está afirmando su fe en la visión de Dios por la justicia y la paz.

En El Salvador, uno de los momentos más impactantes fue nuestro servicio de adoración junto con los miembros de la Iglesia Bautista Discípulos de Cristo. Los feligreses viven en La Línea, una zona con altos índices de violencia y controlada por las pandillas. Los congregantes
actualmente no son dueños de la tierra donde viven y podrían ser desplazados en cualquier momento.

Como iglesia compraron una tierra para ellos y están en el proceso de restauración para obtener las condiciones habitables. No puedo dejar de ver a Dios trabajando a través de este proyecto con el fin de construir el Reino de Dios en la Tierra,  dejando de usar la idea del Cielo como forma de escapar a nuestras responsabilidades.

Estos ejemplos, así como los huipiles, tejen la historia del pueblo de Dios y nos apuntan hacia nuestro futuro en el Reino.

Unete y sorprendete de la parte que tienes en el bordado.











Para leer el sermón completo visita:
http://www.wildwoodmennonite.org/currently/a-recent-sermon/187-august-30-considering-the-end-of-the-story-new-jerusalem

New Jerusalem

Portion of a Sermon led by Krista Loewen and David Epp in the Wildwood Mennonite Church, in Canada. It was inspired on their experience in one of our Learning tours in Guatemala and El Salvador, where they accompanied students of the Rosthern Junior Collegiate. Krista and David had visited Guatemala many times in the past. David Epp is a former SALTer, and served in the Community of Santiago Atitlán in 2013-2014.

Picture taken by: Anna Yoder

When traveling in Guatemala one of the first things that you notice is the beautiful weaving and traditional fabric. Each community weaves their story into their clothing. For example, A huipil from Santiago Atitlan features white stripes which represent blessings from God and the red represents the blood shed during the conquest and more recently the civil war. The birds show their ongoing relationship with the land as caretakers and stewards. Each time the people of Santiago Atitlan weave a new piece of clothing their history comes to life and a common story is told within the strings of the fabric.

In other words, by donning these special garments citizens of Santiago Atitlan are pledging allegiance to the continuation of their culture.

The backstrap looms used to weave these pieces are complex and it is essential that each tiny thread is in the right place, otherwise the final vision is contaminated.
This painstaking detail can seem futile at times since it is hard to imagine what the final piece will look like. But,the weaver has hope and faith in the pattern ,and beauty emerges. Beauty overflows in Guatemala as a result of this tapestry.

Just as the people of Santiago Atitlan are reminded of their past and future by wearing their traditional clothes, so too are we reminded of our place in the historical and ongoing construction of God’s kingdom.

In April, as we passed through customs from Guatemala, our MCC guide encouraged us to play a culturally--‐based eye--‐spy game. Our task was to count how many times we could find a mural or artistic likeness of former Archbishop Oscar Romero. It didn't take long for the game to end, though not because it is difficult to find Romero's face. In fact, He is everywhere! Romero can be found on every Street corner, every small business sign, and on the sides of seemingly every church.

Oscar Romero was born into humble conditions in Eastern El Salvador. He entered
Seminary at a young age and demonstrated a proficiency in academics and an affinity for pastoral work. When he was appointed as Archbishop of El Salvador in
1977 he quickly became an advocate for the poor and dispossessed.

At the time, much like now, El Salvador was characterized by a complex history of inequality and violence. For decades the rural poor had been increasingly marginalized within an economy in which the top 1% controlled 42% of the tillable land, while the bottom 60% controlled 0.

These conditions led to protests and eventually to an extremely violent civil war and death squads roamed the countryside executing at will.
Romero stood within this context as one of the loudest voices calling for an end to the violence and in 1980 was assassinated, just a day after delivering a sermon in which he called on government soldiers, as Christians, to stop carrying out the government's repression and violations of basic human rights.
Although the civil war ended in the1990s, Income inequality still exists.
By painting Romero´s face on the side of  buildings, people are affirming their faith in God’s visión for justice and peace.
In El Salvador, one of the most striking moments was our joint worship service with the Disciples of Christ Baptist church members. The congregants live in La Linea, an area with high rates of violence and controlled by gangs. The congregants currently do not own their land and could be displaced at anytime.
As a church they purchased a land for them and are in the process of restoring it to livable conditions. I can’t help but see God working through this farm that they called ¨New Canaan¨ vocationally in order to build the Kingdom on Earth, rather than creating an elaborate heaven for us to escape to.
These examples do not exist in a vacuum but fit in with the history of God’s people, like the huipiles, and point us towards our future in God’s kingdom.

Join in and be amazed at your part in the tapestry.


To read the complete sermon:
http://www.wildwoodmennonite.org/currently/a-recent-sermon/187-august-30-considering-the-end-of-the-story-new-jerusalem

Gender Inequality and the Journey of Migrant Women

Young people performing a drama during the service week activity.

By Nancy Sabas, is the Connecting Peoples Coordinator for MCC Guatemala/El Salvador. She is originally from Honduras.

Each year, the Connecting Peoples program organizes a week long service activity, where many young people of Guatemala and El Salvador gather to discuss a relevant topic. Last year we discussed the issue of migration, and through skits, the youth acted out the realities of each of their contexts.
One of the skits was about a mother of two children who was abused by her husband. Tired of the abuse of their mother, the boys decide to migrate north in order to generate income and provide the means to remove their mother from her violent environment. This skit promteded me to ask: is abuse against women and gender inequality also as a cause of migration?

While this drama portrayed a woman in a stationary position without migrating, reality shows that the numbers of migrant women is increasing. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in 2013, the number of migrant women from Latin America and the Caribbean amounted to more than half of the total number of migrants.

If the majority of migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean are women, why do they remain invisible? Why do gender-based causes of migration not receive attention? Why is there not more attention centered on what happens to women when they arrive at destination countries?

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) points that it was not until the early 80’s that the term ´migrants and their families´ ( male migrants, plus their wives and children) stopped being used, to include women as active migrants. This, however, represented more of a semantic change, which is still poor on practicality and considerations that take into account gender variables.

Ignoring women even though they make up more than half of the migrant population in Latin America, enables the absence of state responsibility and results in the maintenance of a high-profit business that significantly increases the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the sending countries. According to the World Bank, in 2014 remittances reached 16.9% of GDP in Honduras, 16.4% in El Salvador, 10% in Guatemala and 9.6% in Nicaragua. For United States, the country that receives the largest number of Central American migrants, the work of international migrants represents 32% of their GDP.

However, abuse against women does not simply start on their journey as migrants.



A few months ago, local students in the Ataverapaz area dramatized the story of an indigenous woman washing clothes on a rock in the river. In the drama, a man approaches the girl and starts to harass her sexually. When she resists, he throws a rock at her to kill her. The rock wounded her but did not kill her, yet she responds back the same way and does kill her aggressor, unintentionally. The sketch ended in the imprisonment of the girl for killing her attacker in self-defense. Unfortunately, this drama reflects many of the situations lived by women in the different contexts of their countries of origin.

The most tangible form of violence in Central America are the recurring ‘feminicides’. A femicide is a murder that is linked to contempt for women, sexism and the assumption that women are property. The sketch illustrates the attempt of a feminicide: the aggressor feels entitled to the body of the indigenous woman and tries to kill her when she defends her body. According to the Feminist Centre for Information and Action: “’femicide’ in the countries of Central America are shooting to the point that in some countries in the region, there are over 100 homicides per 100,000 inhabitant.s¨ The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean has reported that 90% of cases of femicide remain in impunity.

Violence against women is a vicious spiral system in different areas. Sexual street harassment as seen as normal and is not condemned. Women have less access to education assume much of the unskilled work in the manfacturing sector where they face exploitation, wage inequality and harassment. In the domestic sphere, abuse against women usually goes unreported due to fear of the spouse and the lack of trust in the judicial system.

As a woman begins her journey as a migrant her vulnerability increases. Amnesty International estimates that 60% of migrant women are victims of sexual abuse on their way north, although it is speculated that this amount could reach 80%. According to the UNPF, ¨Women migrants are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, a multimillion-dollar business. Trafficked women are exposed to sexual violence and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, yet they have little access to medical or legal services.¨

Certainly, abuse to migrants on their way to the United States has gained media coverage compared with the almost zero visibility of the abuse women face in their destination country where the cruel discrimination and segregation of migrants is a real problem. During our week of service activities, a woman who worked as a cleaner and was deported from the US shared her experience: “There was an office which I was not allowed to clean, because the lady who worked there did not want a ´dirty illegal´ to touch her things.” Despiste these issues, the United States Supreme Court does not prioratize immigration reform that would benefit thousands of immigrants who are undocumented, allowing them to work temporarily under the protection of the law.

There are approximately 30,000 immigrants detained in the United States;10% are women. Human rights organizations have strong concerns about conditions at immigration detention centers, especially concerning sexual abuse, family separation, medical and mental health services, pregnancy and post-natal care, as well as access to legal counsel. The division of women’s rights at Human Rights Watch said: “Women in detention described violations such as shackling pregnant detained women or not following up on signs of breast and cervical cancer as well as affronts to their dignity. Given that immigration detention is the form of imprisonment with the fastest growth in the United States, these abuses are especially dangerous. They remain largely hidden from public scrutiny and effective oversight¨

If deported, the ´via cruxis´ of migrant women continues. The challenges faced at the time of repatriation can include: family separation, abstraction of their children born in the United States, trauma, financial problems, debts to coyotes, etc. Women who are deported usually find themselves living within an even harsher reality than the one they left before their journey and often try to migrate again.

The journey of the migrant woman is a complex reality that must be examined with a gendered perspective: one that assumes a specific context, gender and relationship with the different powers at each stage of their journey. The answers to the problem of migration must involve structural changes of the conditions that women are fleeing in their home countries. It needs to start with the visibility of migrant women and from there, target the creation of conditions and policies that ensure the non-exploitation of their labor, safety, sovereignty over their bodies, including zero tolerance of the discrimination they currently suffer , as well as sustainable change on the conditions in the country of departure.

La desigualdad de género en la trayectoria de la mujer migrante

Dos jovenes en la Semana de Servicio

Por Nancy Sabas, Coordinadora de Enlaces con CCM Guatemala y El Salvador


Todos los años, el programa de Connecting Peoples realiza la actividad Semana de Servicio, donde muchos jóvenes de Guatemala y El Salvador se reúnen a discutir un tema de relevancia de sus comunidades. El año pasado discutimos el tema de la migración, y a través de teatros, los jóvenes actuaron sus realidades en cada contexto.

Uno de los dramas, trataba sobre los hijos de una mujer abusada por su esposo. Ellos, cansados del abuso hacia su madre, deciden migrar al Norte para generar ingresos y de esta forma proveer los medios para sacarla de ese ambiente violento. Este drama, trajo a mi atención la siguiente pregunta: ¿El abuso contra la mujer e inequidad de género también como causa de la migración?

Si bien en este drama, se representaba a una mujer en una posición inmóvil sin migrar, la realidad también nos muestra que cada vez más las cifras de mujeres migrantes aumentan. Según el Fondo de Población de las Naciones Unidas (FPNU), para 2013, En Latinoamérica y El Caribe la cantidad de mujeres migrantes asciende a más de la mitad en función de la cantidad total de migrantes.

Si la mayoría de migrantes de Latinoamérica y El Caribe son mujeres, ¿Porqué las mujeres migrantes siguen invisibilizadas? ¿Porqué las causas de la migración basadas en género no reciben atención? ¿Por qué no gozan de tanta atención las cosas que les pasan a las mujeres una vez que llegan al país de destino?

El Instituto de Políticas de Migración (MPI) apunta que hasta principios de los 80´s, se dejó de utilizar el término ¨Los migrantes y sus familias¨ (léase como hombres migrantes, más sus esposas e hijos) para empezar a incluir a las mujeres como activas migrantes, aunque esto implicara más un cambio semántico y muy pobre en su practicidad en cuanto a consideraciones que tomaran en cuenta la variable ¨género¨.

La invisibilización de las mujeres en la migración permite la ausencia de una responsabilidad Estatal y la explotación hacia este sector de producción, dando como resultado la manutención de un negocio de alto lucro que provee cantidades seriamente significativas en los Productos Internos Brutos (PIB) de los países que envían migrantes. Según el Banco Mundial, para 2014 las remesas representaron el 16.9% del PIB en Honduras, el 16.4% en El Salvador, el 10% en Guatemala y el 9,6% en Nicaragua. Para Estados Unidos, uno de los países que recibe la mayor cantidad de migrantes Centroamericanos, el trabajo los migrantes internacionales representa el 32% del PIB en su economía.

Sin embargo, el abuso hacia la mujer no comienza en su trayecto como migrante.





Hace unos meses, un grupo de estudiantes locales del área de Altaverapaz dramatizaron la historia de una mujer indígena que lavaba ropa sobre una roca en el río. En el drama, un hombre se acerca a la chica y la empieza a acosar sexualmente. Ella se resiste y él le arroja una roca en su cabeza para matarla. La roca la hiere más no la mata, pero ella se defiende de la misma forma matando a su agresor, sin ser esta su intención. El drama, que pretendía ser una comedia, termina en la encarcelación de la chica por haber matado en defensa propia a su agresor. Desafortunadamente, ese drama traduce gran parte de la situación que las mujeres viven en los diferentes contextos de sus países de origen.

El tema más tangible en Centroamérica con respecto a la violencia contra la mujer, son los recurrentes ´feminicidios´. Un feminicidio es un asesinato que está ligado con el desprecio hacia las mujeres, machismo y la asunción de que una mujer es una propiedad. El ejemplo en el drama es útil para ilustrar un atento de feminicidio: El agresor se siente entitulado sobre el cuerpo de la mujer indígena y la intenta matar cuando ella defiende su cuerpo. De acuerdo con el Centro Feminista de Información y Acción: ¨Los ‘feminicidios’ en los países de Centroamérica se están disparando hasta el punto de que, en algunos países de la zona, superan los 100 homicidios por 100.000 habitantes¨. La Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe haya reportado que el 90% de los casos de feminicidio quedan en absoluta impunidad.

La violencia contra la mujer actua como un espiral en un sistema viciado en los diferentes espacios. El acoso sexual callejero se vive en Centroamerica como algo ¨normal¨ y no se condena. Las mujeres, con menos acceso a la educación y asumen en gran parte trabajos no especializados en el área de la manufactura. Desafortunadamente, las vulnerabilidades en estos trabajos son mayores –más no exclusivos- en cuanto a explotación, inequidad salarial y acoso laboral. En la esfera domestica, el abuso contra la mujer generalmente no se denuncia por ser de carácter ¨privado¨, por miedo al conyuge y por la falta de confianza en el sistema judicial.

Cuando la mujer emprende su trayecto como migrante, sus desafíos no disminuyen. Amnistía Internacional calcula que el 60% de las mujeres migrantes son víctimas de abuso sexual en su trayecto al Norte, aunque se especula que esta cantidad pudiera alcanzar hasta un 80%. Por otro lado, el FPNU agregaba: Las migrantes son especialmente vulnerables ante la trata de seres humanos con fines de explotación sexual, un negocio multimillonario. Las mujeres víctimas de la trata se ven expuestas a la violencia sexual y a las infecciones de transmisión sexual, incluido el VIH, y sin embargo su acceso a los servicios médicos o legales es escaso¨.

Sin duda, los abusos de las migrantes en su camino hacia Estados Unidos han ganado mayor cobertura mediática comparado con la casi nula visibilización del abuso hacia ellas después de haber logrado entrar al país de destino. La cruel discriminación y segregación hacia los inmigrantes en los países de destino es un problema real. Durante nuestra actividad de semana de servicio, una chica quien trabajo como aseadora y fue deportada de los EEUU compartía su experiencia: ¨Había una oficina en la que no se me permitía limpiar, pues la señora que trabajaba ahí no quería que ´una sucia ilegal´ tocara sus cosas¨.

A nivel de Estado, EEUU no parece estar muy interesado en concentrar esfuerzos para disminuir la explotación laboral que sufren los migrantes, y que doblemente sufren las migrantes. La corte suprema de los Estados Unidos no parece tener como prioridad aprobar una reforma migratoria que beneficie a miles de inmigrantes que no poseen documentos, para que puedan trabajar temporalmente con protección de la ley.

Se dice que en un día cualquiera, hay aproximadamente 30,000 inmigrantes detenidos en Estados Unidos, dentro de las cuales se calcula que un 10% son mujeres. Diferentes organizaciones de derechos humanos, quienes tienen fuertes preocupaciones sobre las condiciones particularmente alrededor del abuso sexual, separación familiar, servicios médicos y mentales, atención durante embarazos y post-natales, a la vez que el acceso a consejería legal. La división de derechos de las mujeres de Human Rights Watch afirmó: “Mujeres bajo detención describieron violaciones tales como el hecho de engrilletar a detenidas embarazadas o no dar seguimiento a señales de cáncer de mama o de cuello uterino, así como afrentas a su dignidad. En vista de que la detención inmigratoria es la forma de encarcelamiento de más rápido crecimiento en Estados Unidos, estos abusos son especialmente peligrosos. En gran medida permanecen ocultos del escrutinio público y de una supervisión eficaz”.

En caso de deportación, el ¨viacrucis¨ de la mujer migrante continúa. Los desafíos que enfrenta al momento de la repatriación, se podrían enumerar en una enorme lista: separación familiar, abstracción de sus hijos nacidos en Estados Unidos, trauma, problemas financieros, deudas con los coyotes, etc. Las mujeres que son deportadas usualmente se encuentran con una realidad aún más dura de la que dejaron antes de salir y con frecuencia, vuelven a intentar migrar.

La trayectoria de la mujer que migra es una realidad compleja que merece ser tomada en consideración bajo una mirada más profunda: una que asuma su contexto específico, su género y su relación con los diferentes poderes en cada etapa de su recorrido. Las respuestas al problema de la migración deben envolver cambios estructurales que impacten las condiciones por las que las mujeres huyen de sus países. Se requiere empezar con una visibilización de la migrante y apuntar hacia la creación de condiciones y políticas que garanticen la no explotación de su fuerza de trabajo, su seguridad, la soberanía sobre su cuerpo y la cero tolerancia hacia la discriminación de la que actualmente son víctimas, a la vez que el cambio sostenible de las condiciones en el país de partida.

The Marlin mine and Women’s Resistance

By: Nancy Sabas

Marlin Mine in San Miguel Ixtahuacán, Guatemala. Photo taken by Matthew Kok

A few weeks ago, I organized a learning tour for North American participants to discuss the mining industry in Guatemala, On the tour, we visited the department of San Marcos and surrounding communities that deal with this problem. 

Mining operations in Guatemala are not a recent issue. In 1998, two years after the signing of the peace agreement following a harsh civil war, the Foreign Investment Law removed the restrictions on trade with Guatemala, which attracted transnational companies to enter the country. Among the various companies, Goldcorp, a Canadian extractive company with high interest in exploiting gold, stands out.  

After a license granted by the Guatemalan government, the Marlin mine, operated by Montana Exploradora, a subsidiary of Goldcorp, began its operations in the community of San Miguel in western Guatemala. This was done without prior community consultation, even though it isan obligatory requirement of various international and national laws. In 2009, Goldcorp stopped appearing in the Canadian Jantzi Social Index for ethical investment due to the controversial use of cyanide in their operations. Currently the Marlin mine is considered the most lucrative mine that Goldcorp owns worldwide.

During our trip, we visited the community and interviewed community members to hear their side of the story.

MCC Thrift store group listening to Crisanta´s story about resistance. Photo taken by Matthew Kok.

I met Crisanta Pérez, a Mayan Mam woman with 6 children who lives with determination her philosophy of caring for Mother Earth and defending her territory. Crisanta resists and denounces Goldcorp’s environmental and community violations. . Despite facing intimidation, 14 arrest warrants and criminalizations  for her work in defense of her territory and human rights, Crisanta stands firm. When we asked a how the resistance movement in San Miguel was born, she explained, ”There are many men who work as miners in the company. Our community is divided in opinions, and although some of the men disagree with the mining operations in the community, they do not take a position because they are working there. It is for this reason that the resistance movement in San Miguel against mining started from the women.¨

As an indigenous woman, Crisanta faces various levels of oppression., however, she resists the roles imposed by a patriarchal hegemonic system, and has become a public figure, with a voice, empowered with knowledge about her rights and equipped to assertively demand the vindication of environmentally sustainable traditional practices, in line with the Mayan worldview. In addition, Crisanta tirelessly denounces the massive exploitation of resources.

 

Crisanta Pérez and her daughter. Photo taken by Matthew Kok.

¨Transnational companies are destroying the most valuable thing we have, Mother Earth.¨ Crisanta explained during our visit.

With her focus from the periphery, Crisanta defies the ruling capitalist logic that sacrifices the sacred elements (Mother Earth) and whose goal is the strict accumulation of wealth. The position of inequality that Crisanta has, along with other Mam women, enables her to integrate a more holistic perspective in line with her worldview and allows her to critique the mining operations from  a Maya Mam light. These women, based on their condition of oppression, have the ability to see with clarity from the base. This viewpoint enables them to understand the world from their ancestral worldview, as well as the reality of the mestizo (the Guatemalan State), and the dominant white (Goldcorp).This understanding contrasts the power groups’ viewpoint who understand and legitimize their knowledge as the only valid form of knowing. The women have become privileged epistemic subjects, for not being ¨contaminated¨ with only one way of knowledge that comes from an advantageous social position.

 

The case of mining in San Miguel Ixtahuacán, its environmental impact and the criminalization of women activists, can be understand from an ecofeminist perspective. As Vandana Shiva, in her book Stolen Harvest states: ¨For more than two centuries, patriarchal, eurocentric, and anthropocentric scientific discourse has treated women, other cultures, and other species as objects. Experts have been treated as the only legitimate knowers. For more than two decades, feminist movements, Third World and indigenous people’s movements, and ecological and animal-rights movements have questioned this objectification and denial of subjecthood.¨ The Guatemalan state and the mining company, driven by their focus on production, consumption and accumulation of wealth fail to respect the sovereignty and spirituality of indigenous peoples. The Mayan worldview is trampled by a mercantilist system that does not recognize the land as sacred, positioning  man/production over woman /nature. 

Crisanta and the anti-mining resistance group of San Miguel are reluctant to embrace the imposition of a clearly western and patriarchal “development” that despises life and legitimizes abuse from its position of power. On the contrary, the women demand ¨the good life¨, which according to their worldview and ancestral knowledge, consists in the search for harmony and balance with Mother Earth and all forms of existence. This philosophy of living naturally disapproves all forms of accumulation and exploitation that would alter the harmonious coexistence and quality of life of other beings.

In 2008, the Pastoral Commission of Peace and Ecology (COPAE) of San Marcos along with other organizations doing independent studies presented their detections of  arsenic, aluminum, copper, manganese, and other metals in some water sources near the Marlin mine. The poor management of the mine waste and their presence in natural sources of water is a good explanation for the increase in gastrointestinal and skin diseases among the neighbors of the nearby communities.

MCC Thrift store group with members of the Catholic Parish of San Miguel Ixtahuacán. Photo taken by Matthew Kok.

During my visit, as we were interviewing members of the Parish of the San Miguel community, we talked about how racism was politically used to justify these atrocities. A Parishioner tearfully explained, abuse is legitimized under the premise that ¨the Indians are dirty and unhygienic¨. The hierarchy of race or gender is illogical and cannot be interpreted if it does not fall within a base structure with political interest. This is a clear example, where the discrediting and discrimination of a population is aligned with neoliberalist interest. 

¨On the threshold of the third millennium, liberation strategies must ensure that human freedom is not achieved at the expense of other species, that freedom of one race or gender is not based on the increasing subjugation of other races and genders. In each of these struggles for freedom, the challenge is to include the other¨. Vandana Shiva.

Crisanta signing for me her book ¨The struggle of Ms. Crisanta against Goldcorp¨. Photo taken by Matthew Kok.

For me, Crisanta´s resistance is a miracle born from an oppressed community. The same system that abused and excluded Mam women, now is the same that caused the conditions for them to become creators of new knowledge outside of a dominant perspective . The heart and unbreakable spirit of these women defending their territory and returning to their ancestral knowledge, translates their struggles against the violation of the land to their female bodies and vice versa. They are women who cling to their indigenous philosophy of the ¨Good Life¨, seeking harmony and sustainable living between people and nature peacefully. Under that view, Crisanta and the women of San Miguel Ixtahuacán rethink, deconstruct and reconstruct themselves.

Father Erick from the Parish of San Miguel Ixtahuacán. Photo taken by: Matthew Kok

Photo taken by Matthew Kok

Photo taken by: Matthew Kok

Maudilia López from the San Miguel Ixtahuacán parish. Photo taken by: Matthew Kok

Crisanta, member of the Parish. Photo taken by : Matthew Kok