Women of Chiapas

Christine Eber, Christine Kovic

• Foreword, June Nash Introduction, Christine Kovic and Christine Eber I. Poverty, Discrimination, and Violence: Women's Experiences and Responses 1. Section Overview, Christine Eber and Christine Kovic 2. Juana's Story, Graciela Freyermuth 3. Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Indigenous Women and Gendered Resistance in the Wake of Acteal, Shannon Speed 4. Corrido: The Birth of Guadalupe 5. Indigenous Children: We're Not to Blame, Ruperta Bautista Vzquez 6. I Made Myself From Nothing: Women and Sex Work in Urban Chiapas, Patty Kelly 7. Letter From a Peace Camp, Heather Sinclair II. Religious Change and Women's Empowerment 8. Section Overview, Christine Kovic and Christine Eber 9. Living Their Faith in Troubled Times: Two Catholic Women, Christine Eber 10. Demanding Our Dignity as Daughters of God: Catholic Women and Human Rights, Christine Kovic 11. Song: Today, the Women 12. Irene, a Catholic Woman in Oxchuc, Pilar Gil Tébar 13. Prayer for Carly, Margarita Pérez 14. Protestantism and Family Dynamics in an Indigenous Community of Highland Chiapas, Gabriela Robledo 15. Women's Empowerment Through Religious Change in Tenejapa, Susanna Rostas III. Women Organizing for Social Change 16. Section Overview, Christine Kovic and Christine Eber 17. Contemporary Women's Movements in Chiapas, Inés Castro Apreza 18. J'Pasjoloviletik-Jolom Mayaetik-K'inal Antzetik: An Organizational Experience of Indigenous and Mestiza Women, Yolanda Castro 19. Song: Companeras 20. Learning Everything I Can About Freedom: Testimony of a Social Worker And Popular Educator, Diana Damian 21. Song For International Women's Day, March 8, 1997, Flor de Margarita Pérez Pérez 22. Hacia la Autonomia: Zapatista Women and the Development of a New World, Melissa Forbis

"This is a beautiful and extraordinary work of solidarity with those who live in political and economic marginality: the indigenous people of Chiapas. Anyone who wants to know what it means to be a woman in Mexico should read it. It is the deepest understanding of social change in Chiapas that has ever been written." -- Elena Poniatowska, author of Massacre in Mexico and Here's toYou, Jesusa!"From June Nash's forward through plays, prayers, songs, testimonies, and insightful academic articles, this wonderful collection provides a rare window on contemporary gender relations in Chiapas. Women ofChiapas is essential reading for understanding the wider context out of which women's struggles emerge. The book provides a deeply human, collaborative, and richly textured description of a range of women's experiences in urban and rural Chiapas." -- Lynn Stephen, author of Women and Social Movements in Latin America: Power FromBelow and Zapata Lives! Histories and Cultural Politicsin Southern Mexico"Women Of Chiapas goes behind the evocative image of the masked and armed Zapatista female warrior to document the much broader struggle for survival, dignity, and justice being waged by hundreds of thousands of women in southern Mexico. The essays provide history and a context for an unanticipated social-change movement which has truly come 'up from under.' Anyone concerned about what is really going on in Chiapas today will want to read this book." -- Carter Wilson, author of Crazy February: Death andLife in the Mayan Highlands of Mexico"This is the book to read if you want to learn about women in Chiapas in the wake of the Zapatista rebellion. It introduces indigenous women, mestizas, activists and researchers who speak from a broad range of perspectives. You will learn about the experiences they draw upon, the challenges they face, and the alliances that inspire them as they seek gender equity and social justice through grass-roots religious, productive, and political organization." -- George Collier, author of Basta! Landand the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas