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Junio-Juin-Junho-June 2021
Political Articulation of the Women's Sector of Guatemala
27 Years Building a Future
Alejandra Laprea
Last May, the Political Articulation of the Women's Sector of Guatemala celebrated 27 years of existence or to paraphrase one of its slogans, 27 years building a future for me, for ourselves and for the others.
To celebrate with the women of the Women's Sector Political Alliance we interviewed two Guatemalan militants, Sandra Moran and María Dolores Marroquín, who have been with this political articulation since its inception.
Sandra Moran the tambora woman, the first Guatemalan deputy to publicly declare herself a lesbian, a poet, a guerrilla, is also part of the founding group of the Women's Sector. In May 1994 Sandra joined the organization as a delegate of the Center for Research and Popular Education, CIEP. Later she would participate as a delegate for the collective Nuestra Voz and ARTESANA, she is currently a delegate of the organization Mujeres Feministas de Izquierda.
María Dolores Marroquín is also part of the founding group of the Women's Sector. At only 25 years of age and as a representative of the student movement, María Dolores was the first Executive Coordinator of the Sector, since then, María Dolores has been part of various political leadership and monitoring bodies of the Women's Sector. María Dolores is currently a delegate for the feminist communication collective Voces de Mujer, who has been carrying out the communication project Voces de Mujeres for 26 years (see Voces de Mujer www.FGER.ORG/radioenlinea).
To celebrate with the women of the Women's Sector Political Alliance we interviewed two Guatemalan militants, Sandra Moran and María Dolores Marroquín, who have been with this political articulation since its inception.
Sandra Moran the tambora woman, the first Guatemalan deputy to publicly declare herself a lesbian, a poet, a guerrilla, is also part of the founding group of the Women's Sector. In May 1994 Sandra joined the organization as a delegate of the Center for Research and Popular Education, CIEP. Later she would participate as a delegate for the collective Nuestra Voz and ARTESANA, she is currently a delegate of the organization Mujeres Feministas de Izquierda.
María Dolores Marroquín is also part of the founding group of the Women's Sector. At only 25 years of age and as a representative of the student movement, María Dolores was the first Executive Coordinator of the Sector, since then, María Dolores has been part of various political leadership and monitoring bodies of the Women's Sector. María Dolores is currently a delegate for the feminist communication collective Voces de Mujer, who has been carrying out the communication project Voces de Mujeres for 26 years (see Voces de Mujer www.FGER.ORG/radioenlinea).
Some context
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Guatemala suffered an armed conflict for more than 30 years (1960 – 1996). The conflict takes place in the context of the cold war and the profound inequalities caused by a country practically smothered by corrupt governments compliant to the wishes of U.S. commitments like the United Fruit Company.
In 1986, with the Esquípulas Accord, the peace process began in the region, which in the words of Sandra Moran "was really to pacify the region to promote free trade agreements." Despite this, there is no denying of the deep popular desire to overcome conflicts and build a peace with justice. |
María Dolores Marroquin y Sandra Moran
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This is how the civil sectors are incorporated into building the peace, and the Assembly of Civil Society (ASC) was established in Guatemala, a space that called forcefully for the peace agreements to not only take into account the needs of the government, the military and the guerrilla, but also those of communities, political and social sectors.
It was not without debate
Sandra Moran
At first the women's sector was not in the ASC. Both Sandra and María Dolores remember that the creation of the Women's Sector included the classic debates on whether or not to create a Women's Sector, whether women and their demands were already contained or represented in the other sectors and whether or not the sector would divide the mixed sectors.
María Dolores points out “At that time more than 40 diverse women's organizations, from the popular, academic and political sectors, made a first agreement: to form the Women's Sector; this after many deliberations on the relevance or not of creating a specific sector, since many of us participated in the trade union and popular sectors.”
So women from grassroots organizations, widows, students, women participating in women's collectives and committees/commissions, that had been coalescing since the 80s in spaces like Coincidencia de Mujeres or Asamblea de Mujeres por la Construcción de la Paz, with professional women who had a track record in political parties and government positions and with all those women who came forward, the Women's Sector of the ASC was established.
The words of Sandra Moran convey the intensity of those days, "We were the ones who organized ourselves to make the problems of women visible in society and put them on the table for discussion with the other 9 sectors of society, the proposals of women… The sector then, is the result of a political agreement between more than 30 organizations who did not know each other, but knew we had to appropriate the space and take up the challenge ... We did it...”
María Dolores points out “At that time more than 40 diverse women's organizations, from the popular, academic and political sectors, made a first agreement: to form the Women's Sector; this after many deliberations on the relevance or not of creating a specific sector, since many of us participated in the trade union and popular sectors.”
So women from grassroots organizations, widows, students, women participating in women's collectives and committees/commissions, that had been coalescing since the 80s in spaces like Coincidencia de Mujeres or Asamblea de Mujeres por la Construcción de la Paz, with professional women who had a track record in political parties and government positions and with all those women who came forward, the Women's Sector of the ASC was established.
The words of Sandra Moran convey the intensity of those days, "We were the ones who organized ourselves to make the problems of women visible in society and put them on the table for discussion with the other 9 sectors of society, the proposals of women… The sector then, is the result of a political agreement between more than 30 organizations who did not know each other, but knew we had to appropriate the space and take up the challenge ... We did it...”
Your struggle is my struggle
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From 1994 to 2000 the Women's Sector dedicated its strength and energy to positioning women's proposals within the Civil Society Assembly and the negotiating tables for the peace accords. As well as to resisting, together with the other sectors, the pressures to get the agreements signed quickly and without any social content.
During this first stage the organization was able to build its strength, position the women’s agenda for peace, concretize the monitoring aspect of the National Women’s Forum Peace Accords, initiate processes of political education, create the Presidential Secretariat for Women and the public policy on equal opportunities, was part of the coordination committee of the Beijing space, the network for non-violence and other issue-based convenings. |
María Dolores Marroquín
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This first moment ends when the women of the various organizations realize that it is not enough to create institutions to overcome the conditions of exclusion and oppression they live in, it is then that the natural approach to feminism occurs.
In 2000, a new stage started for the Women's Sector, the only sector of the Civil Society Assembly that had managed to maintain itself over time, becoming the Women's Sector Political Alliance (APSM). Sandra points to this transformation as a political leap, which transcends the monitoring of the peace agreements to deal with the construction of the political subject of Guatemalan women collectively. Sandra characterizes the APSM as "The organization that dialogs and makes alliances with organized women in the peasant, trade union and other sectors. We have built political thought because we have decided to carry out education and discussion processes that we then systematized. We have been part of the Mesoamerican women in resistance, of the March and of the Alba movement.”
In 2006, APSM joined the March of Women as part of its search and growth within feminism and approaches such as internationalism or feminist economics.
In 2000, a new stage started for the Women's Sector, the only sector of the Civil Society Assembly that had managed to maintain itself over time, becoming the Women's Sector Political Alliance (APSM). Sandra points to this transformation as a political leap, which transcends the monitoring of the peace agreements to deal with the construction of the political subject of Guatemalan women collectively. Sandra characterizes the APSM as "The organization that dialogs and makes alliances with organized women in the peasant, trade union and other sectors. We have built political thought because we have decided to carry out education and discussion processes that we then systematized. We have been part of the Mesoamerican women in resistance, of the March and of the Alba movement.”
In 2006, APSM joined the March of Women as part of its search and growth within feminism and approaches such as internationalism or feminist economics.
The Future does not arrive, it is built
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APSM celebrated 27 years of existence by reviewing its strategic planning for the next 5 years, aligning its political positions with reality and with the particular agendas of the Alliance organizations. When we asked María Dolores about the future, she replied, "I see a difficult, uncertain future, but the future has always been like this. That is why we draw strength from the slogan that has always guided us "The future does not arrive, it is built", as a way of understanding ourselves as subjects and not falling into despair, but continuing to dream of a more dignified society and to put our bodies, our desires and complicities into it so that our present contributes to achieving it."
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¡Resistimos para vivir, marchamos para transformar!
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