On Latin American and Caribbean Black Women’s Day, Lupa do Bem highlights stories of resistance and leadership from women building justice and equity throughout Latin America
A Black woman is the protagonist of “Um defeito de cor” (A Defect of Color), Ana Maria Gonçalves’s main work, inspired by Luíza Mahín, an emblematic figure in the struggle for the abolition of slavery in Brazil. A Black woman like her character, Gonçalves reached the highest place in national literature last June: becoming an immortal of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
First person of her gender and race to reach this position in the ABL’s 128-year history, Gonçalves is another to achieve an unprecedented feat. Like Mábel Lara and Glória Maria hosting the most important TV newscasts in their countries. Like Flávia Oliveira commenting on economics. Like Francia Márquez in the vice-presidency of a country.
They are exceptions in a region where Black women face many forms of oppression: structural racism, gender inequality, systemic violence, and social exclusion. To overcome these challenges, organizations led by women have emerged that, through resistance and hope, build paths toward dignity, justice, and equity.
On this Latin American and Caribbean Black Women’s Day, Lupa do Bem brings the stories of some of these women in different Latin American countries. Through them, spaces of care, education, advocacy, leadership, and collective power-building are created, in countries where they are the majority, like Brazil and Colombia, and in small communities, like those in Peru and Mexico.
Asociación de Mujeres Afrocolombianas – Amafro – Colombia
The organisation was founded in 1996 by three friends from Pacific black communities who wanted to celebrate their ancestral practices while living in Cali, Colombia’s third most populous city and the region’s main town. The reaffirmation of black identity is the main objective of their work.
Activities include music, hairdressing, clothing workshops, seminars, and entrepreneurial and culinary fairs. The intention is to promote black businesses and traditions in Cauca, Chocó, Nariño, and Valle del Cauca, departments where the majority of the nearly 4 million black people in the country live, according to the National Statistics Directorate (DANE).
Her work shed more light on ancestral communities, one of the most affected by the Colombian armed conflict, and from whose midst emerged one of the greatest references of recent years: Francia Márquez, Colombia’s vice president and currently the most powerful black woman in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Mujeres Sociopolíticas Mamá Tingó – Dominican Republic
The Caribbean country’s association supports Black women by recovering their identity with activities such as teaching them to braid hair, sew clothes, and embroider, reconnecting with their bodies and spirituality. They also offer daycare and recreational activities for their children and host artistic events.
The people they serve come largely from poor neighbourhoods and bateyes, the settlements created around the sugar mills of the Caribbean island nations, occupied by black people initially enslaved and then under precarious labour contracts.
The group still stands out for its defense of the rights of Black Dominican women and immigrants from neighboring Haiti, who suffer discrimination from the government of the country with which it shares Hispaniola Island.
Its name is a reference to Florinda Soriano Muñoz, the Mamá Tingó, a peasant leader assassinated in 1974 after fighting against the dispossession of land from her neighbours and responsible for securing properties for more than 300 families.
Centro de Desarrollo de la Mujer Negra Peruana (CEDEMUNEP) – Peru
With 23 years of experience, CEDEMUNEP has been a pillar in the defence of Afro-Peruvian women’s rights. Its work focuses on eradicating the racial discrimination and poverty that historically affect this population, which represented 3.6% of all Peruvians in 2017, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI). Through community empowerment, leadership training, and political advocacy, they have promoted the participation of Black women in decision-making and the construction of public policies with an ethnic-racial and gender focus. Their work is deployed in communities on the Peruvian coast, addressing key issues such as ethnic education, the defence of rights, integral development, and the fight against structural racism.
Mujeres Afromexicanas en Movimiento (MUAFRO) – México
MUAFRO was born in 2015 from the meeting of black women in a feminist training space. Since then, it has consolidated itself as an organisation deeply committed to making visible the inequalities faced by Afro-Mexican women in Guerrero and Oaxaca, two southern states that have the most representative Afro communities in the country and are among the poorest at the federal level, according to INEGI (National Institute of Statistics and Geography).
In the absence of substantial progress towards fulfilling international commitments, MUAFRO has developed a collective agenda to transform its reality. They demand public policies that guarantee equal access to resources, health, justice, and political participation. Their struggle challenges racial and gender stereotypes in a country where only 2% of the population declares itself Afro, and proposes a Mexico where being a black woman is not synonymous with exclusion, but with strength, dignity, and power.
Mulheres Inspiradoras Project strengthens ethnic and feminist education in Brasília – DF (Brazil)
The Projeto Mulheres Inspiradoras (Inspiring Women Project) began in 2014 at a public school in Ceilândia, a peripheral urban area located in the Federal District, the administrative region where Brasília – the capital of Brazil – is located. Based on the reading of works written by women, mostly black, the project works on education from an ethnic and feminist perspective.
“Patriarchal culture tells women they must be sexually desirable to be validated and points to motherhood and marriage as the only paths to their development and fulfillment. I wanted to show girls that there are other places for them to occupy,” says Gina Vieira, teacher and creator of the Mulheres Inspiradoras Project.
In over 10 years of operation, the project has expanded its reach to other schools in Brasília and become a public policy. It also operates in schools in Mato Grosso do Sul and Mozambique, on the African continent.
Professor Gina has given several lectures on the theme. She recently attended the LED Festival, an initiative of Rede Globo, Brazil’s largest television network, and the Roberto Marinho Foundation, held in Rio de Janeiro.
The project received several national and international awards, such as the International Human Rights Award, the Ibero-American Award, the Brazilian Teachers Award and the Building Gender Equality Award.
Learn more about Professor Gina’s work on Instagram.
Mother Hilda Jitolu Black Women’s Institute preserves memory in Salvador – Bahia (Brazil)
Mother Hilda Jitolu is an important figure in the Brazilian Black movement. Born in 1923, she is the daughter of Black Brazilians born during the country’s period of slavery. She moved to the Curuzu neighborhood of Salvador, Bahia, as a child, where she remained until her death.
There, she founded the Acé Jitolu terreiro, a sacred space where Afro-Brazilian religions such as Candomblé and Umbanda are practiced, and began a significant cultural outreach. Bahia’s first Afro bloco, Ilê Aiyê, for example, emerged from the terreiro in 1974.
It was created to celebrate and promote African heritage, Black pride, and resistance through music, dance, and visual aesthetics during Carnival. Ilê Aiyê became an innovative cultural and political movement, giving visibility and a voice to Afro-Brazilian identity in a space that historically excluded it.
The Institute that bears her name was founded by her granddaughter, journalist Valéria Lima, in 2022. Its goal is to preserve the memory of Black women and promote income generation.
The institute has already released Mãe Hilda’s biography, which is being distributed throughout Brazil, and will soon feature the music and history of the group Ilê Aiyê.
Among the courses offered by the institute are the creation of axé garments, used in African-based religions, and the craft of barafanda, a traditional embroidery. “This way, women can access income through these professional qualifications,” explains the Institute’s founder..
For more information about the institute, follow them on Instagram.
