by Ana Maria Portugal

What does it mean to be a feminist in Latin America? Is there a Latin American women's movement? Fifteen years ago such questions were quite unimaginable. Few women even dared to think of tackling the obstacles and pressures that have traditionally prevented us from launching into the public world.

In a continent characterized by dependency and under-development, our first rallying cry came out of the Cuban Revolution when both women and men joined enthusiastically in the fight against imperialism. Inspired by heroes like Che Guevara, the early 6()s were a period of widespread guerrilla activity and political radicalism, transforming our region into a veritable volcano bubbling with ideas, passions, dreams, threats and nightmares that influenced the lives of a whole generation. By the end of the decade the courage of revolutionary women like Laura Allende (sister of the late Chilean president), Domitila Chungara in Bolivia, Cecilia Sanchez and many others had become important symbols for militant women committed to social transformation.

In 1970 feminism appeared like some canned product "made in the USA", its echoes filtered through to us via the cables of international press agencies, far too alien to have any meaning. That women in the most powerful country on earth should suddenly stop wearing bras in protest against machismo seemed to us no more than a curious foreign whim, probably stemming from boredom. Once again we were misled by manipulation from the mass media, largely responsible for linking the expression "feminist" with the image of bitter women, anti-men, and creating the illusion of feminism as a dangerous enemy, threatening to "divide the class struggle", and quite irrelevant to Latin American reality.

A Historical Bridge

The truth was very different. Feminism is not a recent phenomenon in Latin America, but formal history has always chosen to obscure the presence and achievements of women, both in terms of their specific demands and their participation in the overall political struggle.

Early this century, women's right to vote, access to education and paid work, together with calls in favor of changing laws that discriminated against married women, were just some of the issues of concern to the first wave of feminists in Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Puerto Rico. In 1910 the First International Feminist Congress was held in Buenos Aires. Argentina, to be followed nine years later by the formation of a National Feminist Party. Chile in 1910 saw the birth of the Pan-American Feminist Federation, also leading later to the creation of a National Feminist Party. In 1916 in Uruguay a National Council of Women was formed, fighting as much for the right to vote as against the "white slave-trade". Other feminist actions were taking place in Cuba, centering on women's equal political rights, Mexico and Peru, where Maria Jesus Alvarado Rivera established the organization "Women's Evolution", based on the need for "material and spiritual benefits for women." 

These are just a few examples of the early feminist movement which was to some extent developing in almost every country in the region and which provided an important bridge for the new wave of feminist activity that grew up throughout the 1970s.

Our Background

Behind the emergence of the "second feminism" lay all the characteristics of a Third World continent. The 7()s were a period of great social upheaval in Latin America. Land seizures in the countryside and the mass migration of people to the big cities in search of work prepared the ground for a resurgence of popular movements, incorporating peasants and the urban poor as well as contributing to the political radicalization of sectors of the middle classes, namely students, intellectuals and certain groups of professionals. The events of May "68 in Paris undoubtedly touched the spirit and minds of a "new Left" which, after the disastrous failures of the guerrilla movement and subsequent government moves to the right. was quick to start shedding its old Stalinist robes in favor of a more flexible political approach. The attitudes of comrades in the home, however, remained quite untouched by the revolution as did relations between men and women within political parties. Here the companeras still made the coffee, did the typing and carried out other services on top of shouldering most of the economic burdens at home in a period of sharp recession. Under these circumstances all initial efforts at feminist organization were greeted with outright attack and condemnation by the entire Left of both sexes. It's a curious paradox that ten years later it was precisely women from these political l groups who took part in the formation and development of the Latin American women's movement.

Impact of the Women's Decade

In 1975 the United Nations announced the beginning of its Decade for Women. It was to be a tough ten years for Latin America. The daily lives of thousands of people were dominated by widespread political repression in the form of ruthless dictatorships, imprisonment, torture, the disappearance of friends and relatives and disintegration of the family. The unofficial forum during the First International Women's Decade Conference in Mexico in 197.5 provided a platform for us to speak out, including participation from the first contingent of Chilean women in exile, among them Hortencia Bussi, wife of the assassinated Chilean President, Allende.

Exile, besides the obvious suffering it caused, in fact had a kind of liberating effect on many women who suddenly found themselves faced with opportunities for breaking with tradition. A significant number ended up renouncing their party political past in favour of reclaiming their own identity and, when the time came to return, were only too eager to help consolidate and strengthen the autonomous women's groups which had started to emerge in their own countries. In 1980. partly fuelled by energy from these new converts to feminism, the rebellion exploded.

The mid-Decade conference in Copenhagen launched a number of challenges. Our first decisive victory came in a referendum called by a Latin American group within the alternative conference, who decided to define the proposed first-ever regional meeting of Latin American and Caribbean women as feminist, rather than simply being of women - a principle upheld by the organizers of the reunion which took place in Colombia the following year. Latin American feminism emerged from this historic meeting strengthened, both as a movement and as a new political force.

A Thousand More Battles to be Won

The question "What does it mean to be a feminist in Latin America?" raises a number of issues, all of which need to be looked at in the context of social conditions characterized by poverty, hunger, lack of housing, discriminatory health services, massive unemployment and the ruthless exploitation of waged labor. Basically, our countries are run in line with economic models dictated in large part by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the pressures of American imperialism with the support of our own national ruling classes and oligarchies.

Against this background in our continent, with all its geographic, racial and cultural diversity, more and more women every day are taking up the challenge and becoming feminists. By this I mean campaigning specifically against sexism, authoritarianism, domestic violence and sexual repression. In our own way we Latin American women are "abandoning the veil" and demanding our right to exist. Our challenge is to confront the links between economic discrimination and oppression from machismo, in other words between capitalist and patriarchal oppression.

The problem of exploited classes in Latin America is so extreme that it tends to overshadow and diminish the subordinate position of women, which in reality effects all races and strata of society. This is illustrated by the words of a woman organizer from a poor urban community in Peru: "In Inca times we were taught to be subservient in the way that nustas [virgins sacrificed to the sun] were given up to the Inca gods. Now we have changed and if we Indians have become feminists it's because we have seen another cause to identify with... Patriarchy exists in all sectors of society, but women suffer most discrimination in the countryside. They have to carry children on their backs and till the earth. In addition they have to prepare food to take it to their men in the fields before joining in the work. Husbands toil on the land and that's it, but we also have to run the house..." (From "Indian Women are becoming Feminists" in Viva. no. 5, November Lima. Peru.)

The feminist movement clearly faces a major battle in its confrontation with institutions like the State, the Church, party organizations, areas where patriarchy exerts every kind of power over us. The Catholic Church has an especially strong influence on the culture and life of Latin American people. Supporter of all types of inquisitions from the burning of witches through to the invention and maintenance of sexual taboos, backed up by both party and State, the Church persistently interferes with every woman's right to control over her own body.

It's no coincidence that two of the most dominant characteristics of Latin American culture are machismo and marianismo, the latter resulting from a manichean vision of obscurantist religion. To quote Chilean feminist, Ximena Bunster: "Machismo and marianismo are the bi-polar gender concepts that underlie the socialization of men and women in Latin America. Machismo, as the cult of virility is a Latin American manifestation of global patriarchy whereby males enjoy special privileges within the society and within the family and are considered superior to women. Marianismo, Mariology or the cult of the Virgin Mother is the cult of feminine spiritual superiority - she who embodies simultaneously the ideal of nurturance/ motherhood and chastity. Latin American women are supposed to pattern their role as women after this perfect model inspired through pervasive Catholicism." (p. 95. "The Torture of Women Political Prisoners: A Case Study in female Sexual Slavery" in International Feminism: Networking Against Female Sexual Slavery, Report of the Global Feminist Workshop o Organize Against Traffic in Women, Rotterdam 1983, edited by Kathleen Barry, Charlotte Bunch and Shirley Castley, 1984.)

At the other extreme lie the political parties with whom a degree of hostility, or at least disharmony, has been left over from the past. There's nothing unusual or threatening in the fact that so many feminists come from a background of party militancy. But there is a real danger of the autonomy of our organizations being coopted in favor of slogans used in the overall political struggle. This is probably one of the hardest knots to untie.

In 1985, ten years on from the initiation of the International Women's Decade, nearly 1,000 women gathered together in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for the Third Latin American and Caribbean feminist meeting. The event was a convincing testimony to the existence of a true movement, rejoicing in its diversity and aims to fight against patriarchy in all its forms, whether linked to capitalism, fascism or socialism. A fourth meeting in Mexico is planned for 1987.