Citizen insurgency and role of Andean women 2023-02-03
By Linda Lema Tucker . sociologist
Women are being protagonists of this great story that is yet to be written: the protests of the citizen insurgency. These days, in Lima, great days of democratic struggle are taking place, in which hundreds of women, from the most infinite corners of Peru, with loud and forceful voices, demand the resignation of Dina Boluarte, the closure of Congress and Constituent Assembly.
They left behind their children, the harvest, the cattle. They have broken the private sphere and have joined political affairs, to propose solutions to old problems that are still unresolved. They have faith that a new dawn in Peru is about to arrive. In protests they are distinguished by their colorful and bright skirts, their woven llicllas that they carry on their backs and shoulders, and their wonderful Aymara or Quechua language. They are not willing to return to their towns until Dina resigns, because her resignation is to fulfill that promise they made to the sixty murdered Peruvians, who would fight until the end, until this dictatorial regime abdicates. They carry in their memory and are the inspiration of their struggles, the story of brave Quechua and Aymara heroines, who preceded them as inspiration. They also know that this is a new time, in which the collective force has to overcome the old that has to lay the foundations for a rebirth of a new state, in which forgotten sectors of the country participate in power in a constitution of a new republic.
Women, the streets and the new leaderships These days, with great intensity and force, women march through the streets of Lima, launch harangues, sing and dance huaynitos, demanding the resignation of "la Dina", as they usually call her. We have walked blocks and blocks with them, until the police surprised us and repressed us with tear gas. The gas suffocated, when I saw that, in their saddlebags, they carried handkerchiefs and vinegar to avoid burning in the respiratory tract. We continued marching and he heard the loudest proclamation, "Dina, murderer, the people repudiate you." Until arriving at Plaza Dos de Mayo, where a commission of women waits for the compañeras to get sandwiches and drinks. That solidarity surprises me. But it is striking to see new women leaders, Quechua and Aymara, who, with braids, flip flops and a Peruvian flag tied around their necks, continue to harangue with surprising force, offer interviews and express their feelings and opinions about the meaning of the struggle. of their communities and towns. They do not stop demanding Boluarte's resignation, saying: “She ordered our children and brothers to be killed and has not asked for forgiveness. She is a ruthless woman, who is militarizing our towns to continue killing us." This energetic political possession with which women speak is an expression that something important is happening in deep Peru.
They continue to protest in the central streets of Lima, in addition, they have done so in districts called exclusive, San Isidro and Miraflores, where, before, some "gentlemen" believed they belonged to them. Let us remember that, not long ago, Andean women were kicked out of Larcomar in rejection of their ways of dressing and customs of a country that, paradoxically, has a multiethnic and multicultural origin. In addition, for many years, the program La Paisana Jacinta was broadcast on television, which constituted an insult and a racist attack on the dignity of indigenous peasant women.
That is why, the insurgency that is developing now against this regime, is marked by the historical accumulation of so many abuses, discriminations and violence against the majority of the population that has an indigenous origin, therefore, the necessary democratic change must come from the original peoples in order to eliminate so much pain and establish a different destiny for millions of Peruvians.
Fighters tied to history Throughout these days, we have observed that women are united by history, that history that feminist women are now writing and that is being repeated today, by Andean women, university students, workers, housewives, and feminists, who they have joined the historic struggle in the streets, in the relief brigades, in the alternative press, in the aid of food on the highways, the women with multicolored skirts, flip flops and huaraca in hand, confront the police – like we have seen in the networks -, actions, all of women to put an end to a totalitarian regime, anti-women, as Micaela Bastidas did in Cusco, or Rita Puma Justo, in Puno, heroines who, like many others, raised their voice of protest and participated in historical episodes, against domination and gender violence, exercised by patriarchal and oppressive regimes, which considered indigenous women as an inferior race and gender.
https://www.noticiasser.pe/insurgencia-ciudadana-y-protagonismo-de-las-mujeres-andinas?fbclid=IwAR3sF6SsW1rbFRvTjfcjg6TGrVeTQ7P1uiekHjH5LohdfnxElqve66x6CJw
