R_P_A_S
6th July 2007, 20:40
I have to admit. the whole time I was waiting for the article to start bashing leftist movements for the treatment of woman or for "taking advantage" of the poor people of Guatemala for "the benefit of their cause" but the article never went in that direction.
Spreading the word on her homeland
By YVETTE CABRERA
Register Columnist
There’s a memory that flickers steadily in Lucia Muñoz’s mind, despite the years that have passed, despite the distance from her homeland of Guatemala.
In her mind, she can see everything clearly: Guatemala was in the midst of a brutal civil war, and in the late 1970s, when Muñoz was in junior high, the bus that she rode to and from school would be halted almost every other day by the military.
Barking orders, military and police officers would file down the bus aisle checking the students’ school uniforms and asking what Guatemala City zone they lived in. Those like Muñoz, who came from the privileged side of town, were told to get off the bus.
What she didn’t know back then was that the students who remained on the bus were either recruited into the military or simply disappeared. Even her best friend vanished overnight one day, leaving Muñoz desperate for answers.
“I knew that something was happening, but nobody would tell me what,” says Muñoz. “My gut kept telling me ‘Don’t forget, don’t forget.’”
Today, it’s clear that Muñoz has not only kept that memory alive, she’s made it her present. When I meet her at her house in Costa Mesa, it’s obvious that Muñoz is more than just your average weekend-warrior activist.
Though once a successful business owner, Muñoz has set everything aside to focus on raising awareness about the ongoing killings of hundreds of Guatemalan women and girls. Two years ago she founded a nonprofit called Mujeres Iniciando en las Americas, or MIA – Women Initiating in the Americas – to do just that.
She’s rented out two of her bedrooms to cover her mortgage and works part-time from home as an event coordinator. The job covers her utilities and gas for her car, and also gives her the flexibility to focus on MIA as its executive director.
“I’m dirt-poor, but I’m very happy,” says Muñoz, a mother of two grown children. “I decided the second half of my life is going to be for my sisters in Guatemala.”
It was her successful Los Angeles business importing food products from Guatemala that stirred the memories of her past when she began traveling to Guatemala on business in the 1980s. She saw how as a result of the ongoing civil war, women were being raped, tortured and brutally killed.
Then after the 1996 peace accords ending the 36-year civil war, she was able to visit the base camp of a guerrilla army on the outskirts of the Guatemalan capital. High in the mountains, in February 1997 she spent 12 hours talking to young women who had joined the guerrilla insurgency because one or both of their parents had been killed by government forces.
“Going through those memories is what makes me stronger, keeps me focused,” says Muñoz. “When you’re here in the United States it’s so easy to detach: Out of sight, out of mind. You’re back in the comfort of your house – your dishwasher and TiVo. And these women are against all odds surviving.”
As she made her way down the mountain, she vowed to help, but didn’t know how. In 2001 she helped found the Guatemala Peace and Development Network in Orange County because she was concerned that the Guatemalan peace accords weren’t being honored. It was as the group’s women’s affairs coordinator that she learned how women are being killed with impunity.
Amnesty International reports that since 2001 more than 2,500 women and girls have been killed in Guatemala, many of them brutally subjected to sexual violence, mutilation and dismemberment. Last July, an Amnesty report criticized the Guatemalan government for failing to properly investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice.
What is alarming is the disproportionately high rate at which women are killed and the brutality that is used, says Marty Jordan, co-director of nonprofit Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA in Washington, D.C. His group estimates that 3,200 women have been killed since 2000.
“There’s this whole society that considers gender-based violence, whether it’s killing or sexual harassment – as no big deal,” says Jordan. “Brutal violence was used against women during the civil war and then ended up creating a generation of Guatemalans who are apathetic to violence against women.”
He described Muñoz’s work as extremely important for its grass-roots level efforts to pressure the U.S. government to speak out against the killings. U.S. Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis, D-El Monte, authored a House Resolution condemning the killings, and her office credited Muñoz for being instrumental in getting the word out to the public.
The resolution, approved in May, urges Guatemala to recognize domestic violence as a crime and to provide adequate resources to investigate the killings. It’s a positive step, says Muñoz, but considers her work far from done.
She travels throughout the country speaking, secures grants for Guatemalan radio ads condemning violence against women, and raises money for women’s rights groups in Guatemala.
“In Guatemala’s case,” says Muñoz. “You just breathe and you’re a woman – that’s enough to get you killed.”
Spreading the word on her homeland
By YVETTE CABRERA
Register Columnist
There’s a memory that flickers steadily in Lucia Muñoz’s mind, despite the years that have passed, despite the distance from her homeland of Guatemala.
In her mind, she can see everything clearly: Guatemala was in the midst of a brutal civil war, and in the late 1970s, when Muñoz was in junior high, the bus that she rode to and from school would be halted almost every other day by the military.
Barking orders, military and police officers would file down the bus aisle checking the students’ school uniforms and asking what Guatemala City zone they lived in. Those like Muñoz, who came from the privileged side of town, were told to get off the bus.
What she didn’t know back then was that the students who remained on the bus were either recruited into the military or simply disappeared. Even her best friend vanished overnight one day, leaving Muñoz desperate for answers.
“I knew that something was happening, but nobody would tell me what,” says Muñoz. “My gut kept telling me ‘Don’t forget, don’t forget.’”
Today, it’s clear that Muñoz has not only kept that memory alive, she’s made it her present. When I meet her at her house in Costa Mesa, it’s obvious that Muñoz is more than just your average weekend-warrior activist.
Though once a successful business owner, Muñoz has set everything aside to focus on raising awareness about the ongoing killings of hundreds of Guatemalan women and girls. Two years ago she founded a nonprofit called Mujeres Iniciando en las Americas, or MIA – Women Initiating in the Americas – to do just that.
She’s rented out two of her bedrooms to cover her mortgage and works part-time from home as an event coordinator. The job covers her utilities and gas for her car, and also gives her the flexibility to focus on MIA as its executive director.
“I’m dirt-poor, but I’m very happy,” says Muñoz, a mother of two grown children. “I decided the second half of my life is going to be for my sisters in Guatemala.”
It was her successful Los Angeles business importing food products from Guatemala that stirred the memories of her past when she began traveling to Guatemala on business in the 1980s. She saw how as a result of the ongoing civil war, women were being raped, tortured and brutally killed.
Then after the 1996 peace accords ending the 36-year civil war, she was able to visit the base camp of a guerrilla army on the outskirts of the Guatemalan capital. High in the mountains, in February 1997 she spent 12 hours talking to young women who had joined the guerrilla insurgency because one or both of their parents had been killed by government forces.
“Going through those memories is what makes me stronger, keeps me focused,” says Muñoz. “When you’re here in the United States it’s so easy to detach: Out of sight, out of mind. You’re back in the comfort of your house – your dishwasher and TiVo. And these women are against all odds surviving.”
As she made her way down the mountain, she vowed to help, but didn’t know how. In 2001 she helped found the Guatemala Peace and Development Network in Orange County because she was concerned that the Guatemalan peace accords weren’t being honored. It was as the group’s women’s affairs coordinator that she learned how women are being killed with impunity.
Amnesty International reports that since 2001 more than 2,500 women and girls have been killed in Guatemala, many of them brutally subjected to sexual violence, mutilation and dismemberment. Last July, an Amnesty report criticized the Guatemalan government for failing to properly investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice.
What is alarming is the disproportionately high rate at which women are killed and the brutality that is used, says Marty Jordan, co-director of nonprofit Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA in Washington, D.C. His group estimates that 3,200 women have been killed since 2000.
“There’s this whole society that considers gender-based violence, whether it’s killing or sexual harassment – as no big deal,” says Jordan. “Brutal violence was used against women during the civil war and then ended up creating a generation of Guatemalans who are apathetic to violence against women.”
He described Muñoz’s work as extremely important for its grass-roots level efforts to pressure the U.S. government to speak out against the killings. U.S. Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis, D-El Monte, authored a House Resolution condemning the killings, and her office credited Muñoz for being instrumental in getting the word out to the public.
The resolution, approved in May, urges Guatemala to recognize domestic violence as a crime and to provide adequate resources to investigate the killings. It’s a positive step, says Muñoz, but considers her work far from done.
She travels throughout the country speaking, secures grants for Guatemalan radio ads condemning violence against women, and raises money for women’s rights groups in Guatemala.
“In Guatemala’s case,” says Muñoz. “You just breathe and you’re a woman – that’s enough to get you killed.”