I have first-hand information on the results of collective expressions around the commemoration of Women’s Day, in four Mexican towns.
In the city of Puebla, in Mexico City and in the city of Monterrey, the organized marches were multitudinous, all exceeding the figures of previous marches for this reason; In the three cities the marches were crowned with acts of vandalism carried out by small groups. In the case of Monterrey, thirteen women and three men were attacked by police elements after making pints in the Government Palace and trying to set fire to a door of the building.
That same day in the magical town of Huauchinango, Puebla, I witnessed the parade of the Xochiquetzalli that honors indigenous women, and redefines the Nahua identity culture, which I will share later.
That day, March 8 in the evening, I arrived in the city of Puebla to stay at a hotel in the Historic Center. I was surprised by the amount of paint on the facades of houses built in the Viceroyalty with stone materials that were very difficult to restore. Throughout Reforma Street in this city, which is a World Heritage Site, I was able to observe the immense damage caused by some women who participated in the march armed with paints, brushes, and hammers. Upon arriving at the hotel, I found an atmosphere of disturbance among its employees, since the march had just passed next to it, which was filled with pints.
The next day I had lunch with a group of environmentalists from Puebla to discuss the restoration of the upper basin of the Balsas River. When I commented on the destruction of the march, the most senior woman in that group made a blunt comment: “If they did something to one of my daughters or granddaughters, they would be capable of damaging the cathedral itself!” Before listening to this lady that she has been a federal and local legislator; the exercise of the march and its visual result seemed a bit unreasonable to me, but listening to the angry voice of the person in question I had another reading of what had happened. More and more women are violated and disappeared. I remembered the last time I was in the city of Colima, where I witnessed the protest of hundreds of parents carrying photographs of their disappeared daughters.
I understood the anger that is generated in women knowing that there are an increasing number of cases of young women being sullied and killed. I must clarify that I can understand that they do damage to buildings that belong to institutions that do not offer them a rule of law, what I am not able to understand is why private properties are damaged; family homes, and small or large businesses.
The commemoration of Women’s Day is a date to make clear the disagreements of a substantial component of the human race, for this reason it is important.
But perhaps there are other ways to demonstrate to demand attention and respect like the one I observed in Huauchinango in a parade that has been taking place for many years to empower indigenous women and that ends in a contest to choose a young woman who is fluent in Nahuatl. and the Castilian. But the contest is not about beauty, rather whoever offers the best project with a social impact is chosen.
“As part of our traditions and a pillar of our peoples, historical and collective memory flourishes, because we are part of an identity that has resisted and has understood resilience,” he said. Mayrel Simon Hernandez16 years old, representative of Cuacuila and chosen by the jury as the queen of the Xochiquetzalli 2023.
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