Ojalá 2023: Covering the feminist era

A woman holds her child and a sign that says “I struggle, I resist and I exist” during the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25, 2023, in Lima, Peru. Photo © Connie France.

Opinion · María José López Zárate · December 21, 2023 · Leer en castellano

This short round-up features some of our most read coverage from this year, but there’s so much more to read on our website. If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We’ll be back in January with more reports from the front —Eds.

Rivers of women

On March 8 of every year, women’s capacity for self-expression and self-organization are on full display throughout the hemisphere, which is why we considered it the perfect moment to launch Ojalá.

One highlight of our coverage of protests and actions in different countries is this report on the autonomous feminist mobilization in Cochabamba, Bolivia, by Claudia López Pardo.

March 8, 2023 in La Paz, Bolivia. Photo © Folil Pueller.

Our editor Dawn Marie Paley shared an account of mass mobilizations in Mexico and our opinion editor Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar wrote this reflection on the threads that connect Women’s Day actions throughout the continent.

Water, salt and feminism

In May, residents of Montevideo organized street protests and neighborhood assemblies in response to the corporate plunder that left the Uruguayan capital with salt water instead of drinking water.

An autonomously convened mobilization in defense of water near the President’s residence in the Prado de Montevideo neighborhood. The handkerchief reads “It’s not drought, it’s theft.” Photo © Martín Varela Umpiérrez.

We shared a column by Victoria Furtado in which she explores the intersection of the struggle for water and the feminist movement in Montevideo. They’re fighting “the same process of extraction and the exploitation of land and nature for dehumanized profit,” feminist Dava Perez told Furtado.

To Palestine, from Chile

Israel’s criminal invasion of Gaza and the Palestinian people’s deeply rooted resistance shaped the course of 2023. We turned our attention to communities in the Americas that have risen up in their own geographies and contexts to oppose the war.

In this poignant text, Chilean-Palestinian journalist Yasna Mussa explores how the Palestinian community in Chile draws on rage and grief to connect with its roots.

A woman wears a photo of Palestinian poet Heba Abu Nada, who was killed in an Israeli bombing in October, during a march for Palestine in Santiago, Chile, on November 24, 2023. Photo © Sofía Yanjarí.

Saying “yes” to life

Violence is transforming Ecuador. Journalist Kimberley Brown reported on spiralling violence stemming from impunity, corruption and the country’s strategic importance to contraband and human trafficking routes.

Feminist anthropologist Ana María Morales delved into the roots of the violence and the pedagogical role that it is playing in Ecuadorian society.

In this hostile context, Lisset Coba and Cristina Vega explained how the movement in defense of the Yasuní and Andean Chocó regions won victory at the polls.

Illustration © Angie Vanessita / @angie.vanessita.

Organizing pain

As the crisis of disappearances continues in Mexico, the movement of families in search of their loved ones keeps growing.

Our editor reported on the struggle of mothers searching for their disappeared children during Mothers’ Day marches in Mexico. She also interviewed María Luisa Nuñez Barojas, who founded a search collective in Puebla, about her struggle for a little bit of justice.

A woman marches in Mexico City on May 10, 2023. Photo © Erika Lozano / @erika.kuru.

Using the Michoacán-Guanajuato Regional Search Brigade as a jumping off point, Eliana Gilet and Ernesto Álvarez walked us through the search methodology collectives use to seek the disappeared.

Guatemala’s changing political climate

Considering the size and strength of the rebellion, international media outlets have barely covered Guatemala’s dire political crisis.

We shared a story by Gladys Tzul in Guatemala City, who explained how the rebellion has been sustained by communal strategies and collective intelligence. And journalist Sandra Cuffe reported on the efforts of Indigenous and rural peoples to force the resignation of corrupt actors in the justice system, who are criminalizing communities and working to overturn the elections.

Maya Kaqchikel dancers perform at the protest outside the Public Prosecutors’ office after walking for four days from the Chimaltenango department to Guatemala City. Photo © Sandra Cuffe.

We sat down with lawyer Jovita Tzul, who put recent events in the context of the Guatemala state’s decades-long history of persecution and violence.

And we published our first collective editorial in which we outlined key lessons offered by the webs of Indigenous communal resistance in Guatemala.

Anti-capitalist feminism

Veteran writers and activists Silvia Federici and Verónica Gago came up with a list of eight key ideas to sharpen the horizon of feminist struggles in the face of the “overall plan of capital.” Among other things, this includes connecting war, crisis and debt and the need for feminist self-defense.

We also posted a two part conversation between Federici and Gago in which they discuss joyful militancy and the link between reproductive justice and labor.

If one of us wins, we all win

Women also struggle for spaces of self-assertion and self-expression in amateur and professional sports.

Journalist and soccer fan Fernanda Justo shared the vision of the women of the Barra Feminista, a group that organizes to support women’s teams in Mexico.

Illustration inspired by the Barra Feminista MX © Fernanda Justo.

The feminist use of soccer as a means to occupy and defend territory was addressed for the first time at the Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Conference, which took place for the fifteenth time in El Salvador. Journalist Melissa Amezcua covered the event for Ojalá.

Electoral currents

Our opinion editor published a much needed analysis on how state-centric politics exploit and disorganize social movements.

Even so, elections remain an important indicator of which way the political winds are blowing.

Among other electoral coverage, we ran a conversation among Paraguayan feminists about the disastrous results for the left in national elections in May, an analysis of the results of Guatemala’s municipal elections, and a deep dive on how grassroots struggles in Mexico achieved democratic progress that President López Obrador is now dismantling.

Arts and collective action

Music and the arts are pivotal in social movements throughout the region. I interviewed Vivir Quintana, a leading performer of the feminist era, about how she challenges patriarchal narratives of romantic love in her songs.

A woman from Santa María Zacatepec wades in a freshwater spring in San Lucas Nextetelco, Mexico. Photo © Somos Agua Zacatepec.

We also spoke with creators of “Rebeldía sana,” a song that was collectively written and performed, about the defense of water and life, about their creative process and their fight. And in November, I went to Tepito to meet with musicians, actors and filmmakers who lift up and celebrate resistance in Mexico City.