Women today are facing numerous challenges and problems, not only them, but so are our indigenous people and Latinx community. Some of the main challenges that they all face in society includes discrimination and marginalization. Despite various human rights activists and non-governmental organizations to abolish and eliminate discrimination and marginalization of women and other races, there are still evidence indicating that minorities and women are still highly marginalized in society today. In addition, one of the most frequent human rights violations in the world is violence against women.
As I stated previously, over time the world has made great progress in the issue of domestic violence against women. This may seem like a great moral victory for us as a society, however, we have a long way to go before the issue is under control. As we can see based on history and from the articles and films demonstrated in this course, themes such as gender and violence overall has played a big role to shape our society today. This essay will promote the importance of women’s human rights, the significant role of gender and violence within the film industry. As well as, the representation of these themes through articles, and how women whom are Afro-descendant activists and Latinx people in Latin America such as the Mirabal Sisters, took part in social movements and became the voices for women towards their civil rights in Latin America.
Not only are women experiencing violence, so are the indigenous people and anyone who dares to oppose a military dictatorship, or fight for their own simple human/civil rights. Violence has been and still is a social problem that continues to increase over the years. From the beginning of time with slavery, to Latin American and all the way till this day with police brutality and so much more.
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Violence is shown the most throughout movies, TV shows and social media, and these are the kind of things our children and scholars are watching and if not educated properly it will not change our perspectives and political viewings for a change within our future generations. There isn’t only one type of violence, as society progresses, we come to find out that there exists sexual violence, domestic violence, physical, youth and so much more. In this case today, I will be discussing the physical violence demonstrated through every social movements we have seen as well as domestic violence against women.
In my perspective there is no main definition for violence, there is so much that could be categorized under this word. However, the main idea of violence is the abuse occurring to a person or even a group of people. In our case, films such as Como Agua Para Chocolate, Time of the butterflies, Resistencia: Fight for the Aguan Valley, and Infancia Clandestina all have their own demonstration of violence and its significance. What we can tell based form these films are that all cultures experience some sort of violence. Violence can arise from many different sources such as biological, cultural, and social which can then evoke violent behaviors.
Throughout this course, there were many eras as well as events that were examined, resulting in great findings of the history of the world. One specific theme that seemed to be recurrent in many events and time periods is that of violence. This was seen through the effects of globalization. The U.S. seems to always play a role when it comes to where does violence begin. Initially violence began with slavery, not only was this happening in America, but it was a worldwide issue that many countries including Latin America experienced and dealt with.
For example, starting with recent issues, in Argentina, as well as, Honduras and many other Latin American countries, violence occurs on the daily. In the film Resistencia: Fight for the Aguan Valley, the director demonstrates what the Hondurans were doing, all they wanted is to fight and claim their rights. They did this by demonstrating resistance and creating a group called Resistencia. This film was very gruesome, this group whom were marching and fighting back peacefully were punished back by the military as they were protesting. This is when we see the huge effect of violence playing a role. In the film, there is a scene in which I had to look way, there were campesinos on the floor dead and blood all over the ground.
Many citizens like family member and kids were crying, this really shows how violence can really get out of hand and affect those of the community. This is the type of violence that is ignored in TV and news, it is a structural violence in which shows invisibility. In addition, the first text that I will be relating to is written by Valley by Belen Fernandez in 2015, it’s an article called “Warscapes: Resistencia: Fight for the Aguan Valley”. This article really showed how even as people try to fight for their human rights, they get punished for it. In the article the author states,
“Human Rights Watch reports that, according to the National Human Rights Commissioners of Honduras, ninety-two people—most of them members of peasant organizations—were killed in land disputes in the Aguán between 2009 and 2012 alone.” (Fernandez, 2015)
As we can see we forget to think on the amount of violence that happened to these indigenous people. We forget that as we benefit from their profit and their land, they are the ones who are suffering. All of this is due to the fact that they tend to be poor and marginalized, which makes indigenous peoples vulnerable to the temptation of economic incentives that both lure them into others’ conflicts and create conflicts within indigenous communities. This is not something that only happened in Honduras in the 21st century, this is an issue that has been going on for years and in many other Latin American communities.
In the same way, in Argentina there occurred many violence, pain and suffering as well. From previous knowledge, this moment of great violence occurred during the Dirty war of Argentina which was around 1974 until the end of 1983 a time where Jorge Videla was the leader of the military government in Argentina. This time period was characterized by the suppression and oppression at the hands of the government of law. There were approximately 10,000 to 30,000 missing due to the violence of the right-wing regime. Films like Infancia Clandestina shows us a snippet of what it meant to live under a military dictatorship and having to live in hiding all the time. Not only where the lives of citizens and mothers being affected but those of the children as well.
In this film the director focus on the life of Argentina during the dirty war through the life of a young boy. His parents move him from Cuba to Argentina to take part in the Montonero movement which basically means that they are opposed to the government’s military regime and therefore created a social group just like they did in Honduras to fight for their human rights. With this movement occurred many violence as well. During this state period, it is said that there were 10,000 people estimated by the Argentinian government who disappeared, however, those who were activists and human rights group have estimated double that amount of 30,000 individuals (WordPress, 2018).
In addition, the Activist Post concluded that there we nearly 30,000 death and some of those death included people being thrown of helicopter (ActivistPost, 2016). This is honestly, another period of state violence in which we must not forget or ignore. In correlation to the film, those moments where we see violence the director animated those scenes as due to it was seen in the eyes of the young boy. One perfect example where we see this was when his uncle was shot by the police and murdered. Although the boy was not there to see the death, he pictured it, and what we can tell is that that was a mechanism to help him get through this horrific time and soften the reality of true violence that we saw in the film of Resistencia.
This is one of the differences that we see in where the film industry has different representations of showcasing violence. As we can see the amount of deaths really put the citizens in a state of terror. With these many deaths the ones who suffered the most were the women/ the mothers. This time in Argentina a very special well-known movement called las Madres de Plaza de Mayo really took the initiative to fight against this violence and help find those who were desaparesidos. There are many films like Las Madres and articles that focus on this important social movement and the women’s involvement within politics.
These mothers created an awareness around the world to show this social injustice, they were, and are, the main symbol of resistance. They accomplished what they did using their own identity for their benefit. In fact, in the article, “Madres de Plaza de Mayo: The Mothers of Argentina” posted in 2018 by WordPress talks about the historical context and how this group of women began to form. The articles states,
“The dictatorship did not discriminate: they took men and women, teenagers and adults, even the unborn were not off limits.” (WordPress, 2018)
This was the reason for the creation of Las Madres and it just continues to show that violence never ends. Although these mothers were in great danger, they were able to create a strong human rights organization and refused to stop fighting until they got answers. They continued to work for justice after the disappearances ended, and until this day still continue, to use their recovered political rights to focus on the future of a better Argentina.
As we can see thus far, women have played a significant role in society. Although, we see these positive images of them fighting and being involved in human rights movements, there are other views in which media’s representation of women reflects the values and dominant male attitudes in society and teaches society how to behave and believe in traditional sex roles. Back in the days, women were to be known to be housewives. Their role was to stay at home, cook, clean, and care for the husband and children. As a woman, we are given a specific role to follow determined by society.
We are told how we should act, think, feel, and dress. Throughout generations there has been this pressure for women to be seen as the ideal “perfect women”, with this comes the responsibility of becoming a “good” mother. Surprisingly, still till this day there are many men and people in society who strongly believes women should stick to the traditional gender role. They expect women to have their family as top priority and anything else has to be put aside until their ‘initial’ motherhood or wife duty is completed. Us women are constantly doing whatever we can to be successful and to continue to be on top. In relation to the course, the film Como Agua Para Chocolate the director showed various of images of what it was to be a woman.
There are various characters that demonstrate these different roles and one of them is Tita, she was the youngest daughter of Doña Elena and therefore was not allowed to marry. Tita embodies the ideals of the perfect wife and mother. She is the primary caregiver for her mother, sister Rosaura, Pedro, and their children. Secondly, one of my favorite characters is the eldest daughter Gertrudis who represents the opposite of what it was to be a woman in society. In the film, we see that she becomes independent y running away and becoming a soldier. She goes and fights within the Mexican revolution and not only does she fight alongside men, but she also dominates them. She is the representation of female liberation and has the power to go against the system through empowerment of others.
Although, this character demonstrated strength and power, men have been and still are dominating our society. In the film, there was a scene where the mother and the young house cook were taken by men and as they were ripping of their clothes and sexually assaulting them is just showed a vulnerability and weakness of women. Women representation within society and media has always been over sexualized. We see this throughout the entire film as well with nudity and the female characters. In addition, the article, “At Boiling Point: Like Water for Chocolate and the Boundaries of Mexican Identity” by N. Finnegan written in 1999 discusses this issue as well. In the article Finnegan refers to other researchers to back up his argument, he states,
“In Like Water for Chocolate, much of the sexual innuendo is created and articulated through the central character of Tita…. Paranaguá says that the Mexican woman was obedient, seductive, resigned, servile, devoted to her family, and enslaved to her children’ (Paranagua, 1995: 123)” (Finnegan, 1999)
This clearly proves that although women are powerful and strong, they are still hypersexualized and undermined by many men and other people in society. Women are not only under-represented in the media but more importantly are portrayed to be as sexual objects and housewives; whose lives revolve around landing the right man. Therefore, when see women playing a big role like Las Madres and like these important women feminists today fighting for women rights and empowering women, we must take that into acknowledgment and continue to fight because even in our own homeland and in America violence continues especially violence against women.
What it was like to be a woman in the twentieth century, was the traditional stigmatization of being a stay at home mom. Yet, there were many women who did not follow these traditions. As we saw through the film of Like Water for Chocolate in México there were many women who became women soldiers and did not follow those traditions either. More recently, in Dominican Republic during Trujillo’s Military dictatorship many women were either following these traditions or like the Mirabal Sisters they did not, they fought and became part of the movement that was opposed to the president and which lead to their deaths. From my own personal experience, I had asked my grandmother what it was like living during his regime as women. She then answered me that no women dared to reject him and if he took a young girl, someone’s daughter there was not much you can do unless you wanted to be dead, beaten or imprisoned.
In the film, Time of the butterflies, the director did a great job in demonstrating this issue as well of all the violence that occurred as well. During 1930 until 1961 Trujillo was the president / dictator of the Dominican Republic. During this time, there was much censorship in politics, and it was a stage of violence and death, and nobody dared to go against Trujillo. He had all the power one can have over a country, but it was due to the state of fear he instilled. We see this power taken advantage in two great scenes in the film. One of them was when Minerva Mirabal was a young girl in a school play, Trujillo came to see the play and once he left, he decided to take one of the young adolescent girls back to his palace.
Although the movie does not clearly say it, however we can infer is that he would take these young girls without their will and sexually use them. Through many dictionaries, films and articles domestic violence refers to the inclusion of many types of harmful physical, emotional and sexual behaviors against women, which in most cases are shown by a family member or, at times, by strangers. Another example of unwanted attention is when Minerva was invited to Trujillo’s party and when he was dancing with her, he grabbed her ass without her consent, she then slapped him.
After this incident the father was taken and imprisoned where he was also beaten. Here we see how as a male in power he believed he could do as he please with no consequence and when things do not go his way he goes above and beyond to show who in charge and how has the power. Because of this the Mirabal sisters, Minerva, Patricia and María Teresa created social group called Las Mariposas and this is where the title of the film comes into play. Trujillo’s rule included instances of bribery, murder, the disappearances of anything or anyone who challenged him, sexual advances towards a number of unwilling women, along with a number of other injustices.
Consequently, the Mirabal sisters, being the strong, intelligent, and outspoken women that they were, realized that they were unwilling to live under Trujillo’s corrupt and harmful regime. Their involvement and leadership in the revolution against Trujillo was never done before and tis the reason they serve as advocates for women’s rights, but ultimately to act as heroines for their country in the Dominican Republic. Furthermore, the sisters have become symbols of women and human rights worldwide.
Not only this, but the sisters have become a symbol of feminist resistance and radical activism in Latin America and have been remembered through the right to a life without violence, and that is why the day of their death, on November 25, became the Day International Elimination of Violence against Women, this is proven in the film and as an educator I have learned this over the previous years while in college. Overall, we can conclude that in Latin American their occurred many violence and discrimination against women. However, that did not stop civilian and leaders to create movements and become a voice in society that fights for their human rights.
In conclusion, the interests of the minorities such as women and the Latinx community should be well addressed and this can be done through increasing the political representation of the groups facing discrimination. Laws that are aimed at protecting the rights of the minority should be enacted so that anyone violating these rights is to be dealt with punishment. The minorities themselves have also a role to play in ending prejudice and discrimination against them. In order for them to fight for these rights and be part of this movement it came with many violent actions.
In our society today, women have acquired more rights than in years. Now we have the capacity to do so many things that they could not do before, things they had to fight for, such as voting, working outside the home, making family decisions and much more. However, we still continue to see violence, discrimination and marginalization against women, specifically because it is embedded in our society and until we change our social practices. As a society what we must do is educate ourselves and our people, showcase awareness on these social issues, not just talking about it but continuously fighting for it and never giving up. We have to understand we have our human rights and we have the power to take action, there are various approaches in which we can do this we just have to make sure we take the right ones that will not end the lives of many civilians.
In the end, this course had helped me develop a deeper meaning in the importance and effects violence had and this has within gender and our society. I really did enjoy this course, although it as challenging and intensive I think it did a great job in focusing in the issues Latinx people face and the reality of life with no transparency.
