Encuentro Feminista Latino Americano Y Del Caribe 2014
What happens when 1,500 women identified individuals meet in one space?
Personal, collective, and social transformation happens!
This past Encuentro Feminista was in Peru and it was very inspirational and it reaffirmed me with positivity with what I am already working on in my hometown of East L.A.
One of my new year’s resolutions for 2014 was to travel to South America and learn from amazing feministas. Some of my sisters and I began researching groups and one of the groups was Mujeres Creando from Bolivia. We were really excited to meet with them but it became too difficult to contact them that we sort of gave up. Until, a friend recommended the Encuentro Feminista, an Encuentro that has been organized for thirty years already in different countries of Latin America. This year it turned out to be in Lima, Peru where groups like Mujeres Creando will be participating.
I decided to attend with other compañeras from L.A. to learn and get exposed to other different feminisms. YES! feminisms, plural because feminism is an ideology that I accept because I think is an idea that humanizes and takes care of life but there are other types of feminism under the big umbrella. At the Encuentro I learned about Feminismo Comunitario and Economia Feminista and how women are participating in these feminisms and are putting them into practice.
The conference had so many workshops from labor rights for domestic workers, to theater, to youth and feminism, and reproductive justice workshops. Of course, it was definitely a political conference since feministas were open to disagreements, conflicts, and critical dialogue for discussion and growth.
I really enjoyed this journey and recommended to learn from other women doing important work in their communities.
