The Feminist Movement In Puerto Rico at the Dawn of the New Millennium

By Maribel Caro

I consider myself part of the feminist movement not because I have followed its trajectory and know it fully, but because in my experience as a woman I have recognised how important it is to have policies and action plans which would look critically at the question of oppression, and promote peace, justice and the welfare of women in every sense of the world.

The women’s movement has fought tirelessly to achieve equity between the sexes, equal opportunity and non-exploitation of women in the workplace, fair conditions of employment and wages, the recognition of a woman’s right to control her body, her life and her sexuality and to live a life free from any kind of violence. We have struggled for our rights as human beings and to maintain and broaden our achievements. We have affirmed the right to participate in the processes that promote economic policies that are committed to the eradication of poverty, guaranteeing adequate housing, health, education and many other needs. All of this valuable work has been carried out from different spaces: work centres, women’s organisations and the non-governmental organisations, academia, student movements, political parties and organisations, human rights organisations; through everyday work, political activism, integration in the media, international conferences, public policies, research and educational activities.

This work has been of inestimable value in which many women and men, who are committed to justice and dignity, have invested a lot of energy. As a result of efforts in the political, academic, legal and social spheres there have been significant achievements in favour of the welfare of women.However, it seems that in the process of intellectualising, politicising, legalising and socialising these conditions we have lost something essential

What do I mean? What I am trying to say is that it seems fair and necessary to carry out research on the matters that affect us and to undertake research of a political, legal and social nature to improve our lives, but it seems that occasionally the perception is that women are something abstract and homogenous, when in reality there is great diversity among women with specific needs that are not necessarily represented. And beyond that, we women do not only need to be aware and take action to guarantee our welfare and development, but also that efforts should be taken and space provided where we can undergo the healing process and express our thoughts and feelings about what it has been like to be oppressed. We are ready, so that apart from voices speaking on our behalf, we should shout aloud about what has hurt us and what we need to heal. The awareness and the ideas are only one aspect of the change, they are only one aspect of the human person. In order to change the external conditions of women’s lives, it is necessary to begin with a process of transformation from within, from inside our very selves and from within the movement.

The women’s movement in Puerto Rico is at a stage of reflection and self-evaluation. The time has now come to stop and reflect. Day by day we celebrate our chievements and we continue the struggle to protect and broaden them. But we often listen to our colleagues, veterans in the movement, who acknowledge how tired they are, and the need and urgency to do things another way. It is good that some of them recognise this. Tiredness as a result of working for women, sometimes forgetting that we are included among these women and we have our own needs."

We have become lost in the whirlwind of meetings, lobbying, and international conferences, reports, proposals and presentations. And perhaps part of the reason why it is difficult for us to prepare for the changing of the guard is that we ourselves are not attractive, our style as workaholics does not necessarily appeal to young women.”

One of the arguments that inspired the movement is that what is personal is political. “What is personal is still political.” This is the title of one of the articles published in December, 2000, by Adriana Santa Cruz, a feminist, activist and director of the Fempress Journal. Santa Cruz says: “I suffer in my own flesh from the syndrome that affected a large number of women who have formed the last wave of the feminist movement in Latin America: we came, we met each other and we became accomplices answering an irresistible call.

We got the strength, imagination and passion to demand changes which are in sight today. In the process we also became institutionalised, professionalised, and bureaucratised. We made laws, political alliances, we created women’s offices in the United States, Chairs for women at universities, we organised conferences at regional and world level, and spaces for communication like this one. We became efficient workers for women’s causes and without knowing how, an important part of the innards fell by the way side.

What inspired the movement seems in some way to have been lost. We promote women’s health, but we do not take care of our bodies, our minds, our emotions and our spirit; we demand peace and non-violence, but at times we are the first to be violent and boycott our own processes. We demand better working conditions, but it is difficult for us to stop overworking. And above all, we have ignored and we have swallowed the rage, the frustration, the sadness and the pain that all of this has caused.

Another point that is discussed within the feminist movement in Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries, I think, are the working models, the structures within which we are trying to function. And What is happening is that there is an excess of work, distributed among a minimum of persons. The administrative tasks related to requests for funding for our programmes is very time consuming and requires a lot of energy. The structure of the governing boards demanded by the funding agencies does not always correspond to our needs and expectations. This kind of hierarchical structure is part of a male, patriarchal model that is opposed to our interest in creating structures that are more horizontal and equitable. Educational activities sometimes fail, due to the lack of participation. What we regard as alternatives to this situation is greater involvement in mass communication and the processes of decision making, and encouraging voluntary participation by persons committed to the movement.

Beyond these challenges, I would like to acknowledge and pay tribute to the women, projects and grassroots organisations that have undertaken the work of feminism from a holistic and integral perspective, accepting women as total spiritual, political and social beings who form part of an ancestral history that sustains and motivates them.
As a young woman who is relatively new to the movement, I must say that I value the introspection and self-criticism that we are seeing at the beginning of this millennium. I think that it is part of a renewal process. I feel that the passion is still there and this is precisely what makes us visualise new styles and other forms of change. I firmly believe in the need to maintain the commitment and to work for a life of justice, dignity and peace for women, starting with ourselves. I see the need to integrate our individual experiences into the struggle, instead of excluding them. Everything must start with us and extend to others. In this way the movement will be an integrated whole and not fragmented.

To belong to the feminist movement has been a blessing for me. I feel that I have developed an awareness and a sense of alert, that allow me to see clearly in daily life the evidence of different kinds of oppression. I have grown as a woman, as a worker, as mother, activist, organiser, and there is still a lot of room for growth. That is precisely why I am writing this, to continue growing, and to indicate that the movement in favour of change and peace for women and for the world can count on me.