Long live Machismo!!!

I spent the past two days renewing my driver's license. It normally takes 10 minutes but thanks to the Minister of Transportation and her “Zero Tolerance” plan it took me three hours on Tuesday just to get the stupid form. But today things were different. I didn’t wanna spend three more hours yesterday standing on line just to submit my form and take my picture and get my new driver’s license. So, I left after getting the form and came back today. I have to explain you what the “Zero Tolerance” plan is so you can understand my nightmare.

After several accidents on the road (especially in the Andes), the minister of Transportation (now a woman, of course) got mad and with extremely powerful ovaries created the Zero Tolerance plan which requests all the interprovincial bus drivers to change their driver licenses (which means to take new tests) and for their buses to fulfill all the requirements the Ministry of Transportation asks. So, aaaaaaaall the bus drivers that drive outside Lima are getting new licenses. On Tuesday I was at a place full of bus drivers. To explain you the context: a girl –poor thing- came in with a miniskirt to get on the line to get the form and all the bus drivers who were on the other line started screaming at her. Yes, bus drivers are not much different from construction workers: a girl on a miniskirt’s nightmare!!!

Today, I got there, thinking that I will have to be on line for three more hours but… no!!!!! The security guard looked at me and took me out of the line (where I was with all the bus drivers) to another line formed only by women and old men (in Peru if you are older than 60, pregnant or disable you do not have to be on line anywhere and you deserve special treatment… but not women younger than 60!). My security guard was concerned for the ladies. Yes!!! I love machismo! So, it only took me an hour to get my driver’s license instead of three. And I was inside the room, not outside with all the men saying nasty things.

Sometimes being in a macho country has its benefits.

Shame on you Iberia!

In 1999, I traveled to Spain with Iberia. The staff treated me pretty badly, like if I didn't exist (just because I had a Peruvian passport). The mistreatment started when we went to the Spanish embassy to get our visas. But this is something we, Peruvians, are used to live: the racism from the Spanish embassy (to be honest, also other embassies) and Iberia.

Do not take me wrong, I have very good friends who are Spaniards and I like the country very much. I cannot deny my Spanish roots… But this time they crossed the line. The congresswomen Hilaria Supa and Maria Sumire (see the picture), elected by the department of Cuzco, were denied to get on a plane (yes, DENIED) and made fun of by the personnel of Iberia. They made fun of their Spanish, since Quechua is their mother tongue. “How can you be a congresswoman if you cannot speak well Spanish?” were told by the Iberia staff. Ironically, they were going to a Congress of indigenous congressmen and women in Madrid. Thank God we have now more options of airlines to go to Spain and the Congresswomen used a different company.

Needless to say that I am really angry. I am angry as a woman, as Peruvian, as a human rights activist. They were discriminated against because they do not wear “western” clothes, because Spanish is not their mother tongue, because they were women. This double discrimination because of their ethnicity and their gender is unacceptable. How dare them to do this to congresswomen?

The Peruvian Congress has put a formal complaint to the Spanish embassy and I am eager to see what the Human rights and feminists NGOs will do.

Shame on you Iberia!!!!!

November 25th: Day Against Violence Against Women

Today is the international day against violence against women and we commemorated it with the students from the State University where I teach. The commemoration started on Monday with the taking over of the women’s bathroom. My students wrote many phrases on pink pieces of paper that had to do with violence against women and posted them all over the girls' bathroom, and the reactions to the posts were very interesting: some girls took the pink pieces of paper with them, some wrote and share their own phrases. But a lot of people were talking about how the women’s bathroom at the social sciences building had been taking over by the feminist girls (and some complained that the men’s bathroom was left intact). I put a post at my other blog (in Spanish) with the question of what would you do if there was no violence against women... and the answers were very interesting. We had people being very optimistic, others being negative and others sharing their own stories.

Yesterday, we organized the screening of the HBO special on the Vagina Monologues. Unlike what we expected, the auditorium was 90% full with guys and girls, some by themselves, some in groups, some couples hugging each other. We first showed the video and then wanted to have a way of bringing all the women we knew who have been raped to the auditorium before sharing our emotions and what the people wrote at my blog. The way we did it was by asking the audience to light a candle if they knew a woman who has been raped. As you can see from the pictures, all the candles were lighted up. It was a silent moment and a very touchy one. With all the women symbolically brought there, we shared our comments about the video in a very informal way and people participated from their hearts. We did not want to make this an academic thing, with people presenting papers on violence and bla bla bla. We wanted this to be personal. Well, as you know, the personal is political, isn't it?

I hope this is the beginning of something good and bigger at this University (San Marcos).

"Sometimes , a hug is all what we need"

This is the phrase that started a campaign run by Juan Mann in Sidney. The interesting thing is that the free hugs campaign started in Sidney and, thanks to the internet, has travelled all over the world. Now you can find youtube videos of "free hugs" in many cities around the world (including NY, Krakow, Mexico City, etc). And Lima is not the exception.

To all my friends in NY and everywhere else in the world... free warm hugs (abrazos gratis) from Lima, Peru...

lots and lots of students

My classes on “feminisms” started this week and they have been a total success. I never imagined (nor the priests from the University where we are teaching) that we will have that number of people coming to the course (we have more than tripled the number of students they have in this type of courses). We have a variety of students: nuns, female feminists, male feminists, men, women, young, old, students, professors, from Lima, from the provinces, you name it!! I am very happy and hopeful that something productive will come out of this first course.

One of the interesting things is that we are teaching this course in a Catholic University actually run by priests (not like the Peruvian Catholic University that is not run by priests), since it is a Jesuit University; moreover, this University doesn’t have gender courses in its curricula nor a diploma on gender of any sort. So, they were kind of reluctant to the subject and to me when I first presented myself with my feminist background. But, after this turnout, they might consider thinking about including gender somewhere in their curricula (hopefully).

“A total success!” said the priest who hired me when I came for the first class “thanks for doing this.” My feminist hopes increased after this, especially after seeing the number and the type of students we got: asking questions, wanting to know more, etc.

I taught Butler yesterday (an author banned by the Archbishop) and the people got in a very interesting discussion. The nuns smiled. I expected the Saint Inquisition to come and get me… but it didn’t happen… I was safe!!! And Butler was a total success, just like the course.