Author: Open Americas

La supra-madre: Una imagen del liderazgo femenino para el siglo veintiuno

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Por Linda E. Moran, Ph.D. 

Traducción por Pilar Espitia, Ph.D. 

Resumen: La investigación de Elsa Chaney publicada en 1971 sobre el compromiso político femenino en Latinoamérica le aseguró su legado como pionera del campo. Por décadas, también proporcionó un punto de partida a investigadores cuyas teorías evolucionaron con el modelo de la supermadre. Los desarrollos sociopolíticos del siglo veintiuno, de ahora en adelante, cuestionan la viabilidad de este modelo. Esta discusión sugiere una reestructuración del modelo: una “adaptación de las especies” con capacidades mejoradas: La supra-madre. 

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Bolivian Elections: No Morales Spells Uncertainty

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By Alexia Rauen and Alexandra Snodgrass

Bolivia will hold presidential elections on October 18, 2020, after numerous delays and an interim unelected presidency after the October 2019 elections. The nation’s former president, Evo Morales, who ruled land-locked Bolivia from 2006 to 2019, will not be running after a dramatic resignation. Instead, the election pits Luis Arce, the candidate of Morales’s party, against the ex-president Carlos Mesa. 

Bolivia had previously limited presidents to two consecutive terms. However, in 2013, Morales was able to run for a third term after it was found that the introduction of a new constitution in 2009 made his first term moot for counting purposes. In 2016, a referendum on whether or not to change the constitution to allow Morales to run again failed to yield results in his favor. This was reversed by Bolivia’s Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal, who ruled that term limits no longer existed for any elected official. Morales announced his candidacy for the 2019 Bolivian presidential elections in May of 2019. Luis Almagro, head of the Organization of American States (OAS), stated that given the tribunal’s ruling, Morales should be allowed to run. The election was held in October of 2019, and Morales needed a 10-point lead in order to prevent a runoff election. When Bolivia’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal released results with 83% of the vote counted, Morales was in the lead – but not enough to prevent a runoff.  Then, the website went dark, and when it returned, Morales had won by just over 10 points. The OAS released a report on November 10, 2019 that found the election’s “process was contrary to best practices and failed to abide by security standards … Given the irregularities observed, it is impossible to guarantee the integrity of the data and certify the accuracy of the results.” The post-election public outrage led to weeks of protests and Morales’s resignation. 

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Tomasa Tito Condemayta: Entrevista con la escritora e ilustradora Erika Quinteros

Traducido por Pilar Espitia

La siguiente entrevista se llevó a cabo en julio de 2020 con Erika Quinteros, escritora e ilustradora de TOMASA TITO CONDEMAYTA: Una histora de valor y coraje. Erika Quinteros es ingeniera industrial con una maestría en Comunicación Política y Gobernanza de la Universidad George Washington. Ha trabajado como asesora en el diseño y evaluación de proyectos de desarrollo comunitario. Tiene un particular interés por temas de género, los derechos de las personas indígenas y la protección medioambiental. 

¿Qué te inspiró a escribir la historia de Tomasa Tito Condemayta?

Fue la misma Tomasa y su poderosa historia. Fue una mujer indígena que lideró un batallón de mujeres para luchar contra los españoles. Esto sucedió en un periodo cuando muchos peruanos creían que la mujer no tenía un papel militar o político. 

Creo que, al haber crecido leyendo tantos libros diferentes y siendo inspirada por personas extranjeras, no podía creer que nadie me hubiera contado la historia de Tomasa. Era peruana, como yo. Era una mujer, como yo. Y aunque yo no soy indígena, mi abuela era indígena, así que una parte de mí es indígena. En Perú nuestros héroes nacionales son sobre todo hombres blancos y pudientes. Creo que todo niño/a debería poder aprender sobre héroes con los que él o ella se pueda identificar, y estoy segura que muchos estarán fascinados e inspirados por Tomasa y su valentía.

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Prejuicio racial en el sistema educativo estadounidense: Efectos del racismo en las vidas de estudiantes negros y en su éxito académico

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Escrito por Shreyansh Budhia

Traducido por Pilar Espitia

Mientras que los embates entre grupos de supremacistas blancos y opositores en Charlottesville, Virginia, en agosto 12 y 13 de 2017 demuestran que el racismo en Estados Unidos es un fenómeno generalizado que persigue a las minorías raciales, se vuelve más y más evidente que nuestra tarea como sociedad para eliminar este mal y liberar a las minorías de sus garras no está completa. A decir verdad, el racismo en ambas formas, tanto extrínseco como intrínseco, afecta a las minorías de todas las etnicidades y colores en Estados Unidos. Hoy en día, las instituciones educativas en todo Estados Unidos usan el racismo para impactar de manera desfavorable el desempeño educativo de los estudiantes negros. Las cortes y organismos policiales son liderados por reconocidos supremacistas blancos que fallan a favor de los suyos. Los hombres negros se vuelven injustamente sospechosos en encuentros con la policía, y los reclusos negros superan en números de proporciones incomprensibles a los blancos. Los profesionales negros en el gobierno y el mundo corporativo se encuentran con casos sutiles de comportamientos prejuiciosos debido al color de su piel y herencia. Todos estos ejemplos sugieren que el racismo es un problema social que actúa como un obstáculo para el desarrollo socioeconómico de la comunidad afroamericana. 

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Tomasa Tito Condemayta: An Interview with Author and Illustrator Erika Quinteros

The following interview was conducted in July 2020 with Erika Quinteros, author and illustrator of TOMASA TITO CONDEMAYTA: Una historia de valor y coraje. Erika Quinteros is an industrial engineer with a Master’s degree in Political Communication and Governance from the George Washington University. She has worked as a consultant in the design and evaluation of community development projects. She has a particular interest in issues of gender, the rights of indigenous people, and environmental protection.

What inspired you to write the story of Tomasa Tito Condemayta?

It was Tomasa herself and her powerful story. She was an indigenous woman leading a battalion of women to fight against the Spanish. This happened during a period when many Peruvians believe that women had no military or political role. 

I think, having grown up reading so many different  books and being inspired by people overseas, I just couldn’t believe that no one had told me Tomasa’s story. She was Peruvian, like me. She was a woman, like me. And even though I am not indigenous, my grandmother was indigenous, part of me is indigenous. In Peru, our national heroes are mostly wealthy white men. I think every child should be able to learn about heroes that she or he can identify with, and  I am sure many will be fascinated and inspired by Tomasa and her courage.

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Green Grabbing: The Modern-Day Colonization

By Jessica Turner

This piece was originally published on defineearth.com.

Imagine waking up one day to the news that your land, which you and your tribe have subsisted on for generations, has been sold by the government to someone else. In return, you will be moved to a small plot of land without the same kinds of resources as before. This loss of land creates a domino effect of loss in other areas such as income, traditional environmental knowledge, and general stability. Through green grabbing, government entities or private investors use their power over Indigenous and Afro-descendant groups to confiscate land under the guise of environmental conservation.

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The Palenqueras of Cartagena

Mom walking across the street in Cartagena in a blue shirt and white skirt going towards a blue wall with a palenquera selling fruits painted on it

By Nneya Richards

This piece was originally published on ‘N A Perfect World…

If you’ve been to Cartagena de Indias you’ve seen the women who are icons of the city: las palenqueras. These beautiful Afro-Latinas, dressed in colorful traditional garb and often pictured selling fruit or candy, are the pride of Colombia and on much of the country’s promotional material, especially that of the city of Cartagena. Tourists line up to get that Cartagena picture with the woman whose bright smiles and deep eyes often hold the story of Colombia that many of these same tourists might not care to know: the story of the black Colombia.

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