I am Latinx and I don’t celebrate Women’s Day

By Valerie Sanabria | Published by April 7, 2021

When the world is celebrating International Women’s Day, in Latin America women are fighting to stay alive. As a Latinx person I woke up on March 8 [International Women’s Day] feeling powerful, but sad at the same time. I chose to wear a green jumpsuit I got for Christmas and a purple scarf. I decided to wear makeup. It was simple, purple glitter and purple eyeliner.

While parts of the world celebrate International Women’s Day to “commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievement of women,” in Latin America women are marching in protest of patriarchy and femicide.

There is a femicide crisis in Latin America. Femicide is the killing of a woman just because she is a woman.

In the United States, Women’s History Month is celebrated in March. International Women’s Day is celebrated on March eight. I personally don’t celebrate it when women in Latin America are fighting everyday to stay alive.

Women in and from Latin America don’t celebrate. Women in Latin America go out and protest against patriarchy’s oppression. Women in Latin America go out wearing green to demand sexual and reproductive health and abortion rights. Women in Latin America go out to demand to be safe in countries that instead of protecting them, accept their killing.

According to the official Global  Americans website,“In the first two months of the year, Chile registered five femicides and 17 attempted homicides on women, 30 femicides in Peru, and a horrifying approximate of 160 femicides in Mexico.”

The abuse, violence and killing of women in Latin America is natural.

Thousands of women in Latin America, even during a pandemic, marched on March 8 with posters asking why should they celebrate? They won’t be able to celebrate or be happy until all women are safe. It sounds impossible, but in an area where machismo kills women and the government protects those killers a change is necessary.

Machismo is so immersed in the Latin American culture that it promotes femicides. At a young age men are taught to believe they are superior while women are taught to believe they were born to serve a man.

I will never forget when I was only eight years old and men began to shout at me in the streets things that I did not even understand. I will never forget when I was told by a man to dress modestly because men look at you and they want you. I will never forget when I was told by my grandmother that I got a flat tire because I am a woman.

Growing up in Guatemala, a small country in Central America, I saw signs of machismo everyday. I saw acts of violence against women eveyday. This never stopped and I don’t think it will soon.

In Latin America the violence, rape and killing of women is so natural that you don’t see it in the news. It’s not news that a woman is brutally killed and mutilated, it is an everyday thing. The international community hears the stories but nothing changes and nothing gets done.

As Vivir Quintana said in her feminist anthem “Canción sin miedo” (Song without fear), “we sing without fear, we ask for justice, we scream for every missing, let it resonate loudly: we want each other alive!”

In Latin America feminists are fighting for women to stay alive, but feminism is not culturally accepted. Feminists receive more hate than rapists.

Women should be celebrated but also respected. Women should not have to be afraid of getting killed. Women should not have to ask for justice.

While some people celebrate women, others are killing them. It won’t be a happy day until instead of killing us we get recognized, not as women, but as humans.

On March 8, I received many messages from friends and coworkers saying “ Happy Women’s Day.” How could I say that it was not a happy day? Where I was born women get killed so easily.

I currently live in a country where as feminists we fight to get equal payment, but I was born in a country where women are beginning to wake up and are fighting to stay alive.

While I fight for equal payment I am also dreaming about the day Latin American women won’t have to dream about staying alive.

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