They buried us but they didn't know we were seeds
Essay – Cirenia E. Esquivel
The amount of women killed in Latin America is alarming. Through social media, women in Mexico has been able to organize protests, and promote the March 9 strike, where women stayed home from work, to show the consequences of a day without women.
Photo: Camila Medina / Instagram: @_holga_
On March 8 we cried together in one voice, we empathize with the absence and the pain that mothers, sisters and daughters experienced yesterday, tomorrow and today. We hugged and embraced each other’s struggles and fights. We let the ocean that is inside of every one of us flow out, taking all the main streets of the world’s cities and towns to put our fists up for social equity and against injustice.
March 8 has now become a day not of celebration but of fight for justice.
Femicides in Latin America
The amount of women killed in Latin America is alarming, 14 of the 25 countries with the highest rates of murders because of gender violence are in this region of the world, with Mexico and Brazil being the two countries with the highest number of gender-related murders registered per year. El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Bolivia have the highest rate per 100.000 inhabitants. A study published by the United Nations in 2018 reveals that 137 women are killed every day by a member of their family and two out of three killings are committed by their sentimental partners or a family member.
As a Latin American woman, one cannot help but be mad, sad and full of rage reading all these numbers and knowing that just in the time it will take me to write this article, thousands of women in Mexico, my home country, are being harassed or raped. And by the end of each day at least 10 are killed (and to think that I am only focusing on one Latin American country here makes me sick).
#IngridEscamilla
On February 2, Nicol, a transgender woman from Chiapas Mexico, died after being in a coma for 17 days after being hit on the head by a person that the authorities have yet to investigate and apprehend. On February 24, Alexa (AKA Alicia and Neulisa), a transgender woman from Puerto Rico, was found killed after a group of people shared her pictures on social media attacking her because of being in the women’s restroom of a fast food establishment.
On February 9 2020, a Sunday, Ingrid Escamilla Vargas was killed by her sentimental partner after an argument in Mexico City. Days after the crime, pictures of her mutilated body circulated not only social media but every cover page of tabloids in Mexico. The reason? Police officers investigating the crime took pictures and videos with their phones and exchanged the photos with acquaintances and media. As a response to this incredibly unethical action, thousands of women started to share pictures of Ingrid’s smiling face, or beautiful landscapes and art, with the hashtag #IngridEscamilla on social media, so that the horrible pictures of her killing would disappear from the “searches” and dignify Ingrid’s life and memory.
On February 11 2020, a little 7-year-old girl was abducted on the street and found killed three days after in Mexico City, the specifics of her (and Ingrid’s) killing are irrelevant to mention here, but so far this year there have been hundreds of similar cases only in Mexico. Yet these two cases were the most shared on social media this year, filling it with articles, videos, pictures, art and words of indignity written or recited by women.
Protests against the violence
August and November 2019 was the first time women in Mexico City went out to protest for equity and justice in a non-pacifist way (anymore), against the violence on women in Mexico, painting and destroying city monuments, subway stations, police and government buildings as a response to the rape of a young woman committed by four police officers. Hundreds of women were arrested and hurt during the two protests, and this year they plan to do the same.
When the first two protests happened, the amount of people, newspapers and magazines on social media platforms that were writing and spreading words of hate and lies against the women protesting – and the amount of women writing these statements against other women – was absurd.
How to stay safe as a female protester
After experiencing the arrest and violence against the women protesting by the end of the first two protest, individual women and collectives started using social media to help keep the integrity and safety of protesters and organize themselves better for future protests, posting and sharing tips, information and slogans for other women to follow, stay informed and chant.
Such posts include specific instructions on how to keep your safety as a female protester:
Tell someone you know that you will be attending the protest
Cover your face (women post tutorials on how to cover your face with a t-shirt to keep your identity safe)
Write with permanent marker on your forearm your name and the phone number of an emergency contact
Charge your phone and have your charger with you
Share your location with a contact you trust or send an SMS with your status followed by the exact time you are writing it (for example “I’m ok 14.30”)
Bring water and pink glitter (pink glitter became a symbol of women movements in Mexico after a woman threw it on a government worker’s face during an interview)
Do not be scared of defending yourself and others
Ask for help if necessary
Other posts include words of support and calls for other women to reach out to them (specific individuals) in case they need medication, don’t want to be alone in the protest or need help. Other posts are videos of women explaining why it is necessary for the population in Latin America to understand the hate behind these gender-related crimes.
The morbid posts of femicides on social media platforms by newspapers and magazines made women come together through these same platforms to change the path that media was giving to the movement (or ignoring it), and to give it the perspective of the flesh and bones that are experiencing the violence. Many women that were once hating on the protesters became a part of it. An advice shared by all genders in Facebook statuses, was to google your name, in case you are a woman, or the name of a woman you love, followed by the word “hallada” (“found” in English). The results are articles of women that have been found killed in different states of Mexico and countries in South America.
Social media has become a big non-place for the silenced voices to rise and the privileged ones to direct the focus to where the real conflict is, our system. It is important to mention that most of the crimes against environmental activist, indigenous and transgender women in Latin America do not even hit social media or tabloids at all.
A day without women
Thanks to the use of social media as a tool to organize this specific social movement, the Feminist Collective Brujas del Mar (Sea Witches) from Veracruz Mexico, known as the first ones to promote the March 9 strike, were able to reach women from all over the country, and not only other women but get international attention. Under hashtags #El9NadieSeMueve and #undiasinmujeres all type of women in Mexico were able to call and invite other women to not work on Monday March 9, as a way to demonstrate the economical and social adversities Mexico would face if all women in the country disappeared.
All sectors, according to animalpolitico.com, were affected, at least 21 000 schools closed, and 55% of the branches from the two most important banks in Mexico closed down. According to RT, the financial sector calculated that the country lost between 1.628 to 2.058 million dollars during the March 9 strike.
As an alternative, women created events on Facebook inviting their loved ones and contacts (even if they hadn’t met each other personally) to share a safe space together on that day, and enjoy each other's company and share experiences, without going out and have an economic footprint on a country and a system that is ignoring their pain.
In the middle of the corona crisis, we can confirm now that the world has reached its peak when it comes to violence, lack of empathy and pollution. We are now about to face one of the biggest economic crisis ever, which means we need to start coming up with solutions as a collective. We need to understand that what matters is having your sister, your mom or your friend coming back home to eat dinner with you, no matter where in the world you are.
Social media has played its part as a tool to put together a community (and a substantial action in favor of women’s rights). It is bitter that we still have to protest social inequality and injustice, but doing it by organizing ourselves, by spreading the love for our communities and the courage that is behind all of these screams and cries for justice gives me hope.
“Mujer: Recuerda que eres el sueño de libertad de tus ancestras”