Translator: Ilse S. Úziel Reviewer: Sebastian Betti
(Zapotec) Good morning everyone, thanks for being here today,
for sharing your morning at this beautiful space.
Good morning everyone, thanks for being here today,
for sharing your morning at this beautiful space.
I am a daughter of an indigenous woman, and an indigenous man,
to whom life and circumstances denied the opportunity to attend school.
My parents cannot read or write.
My mother had 10 children.
My elder sister was given for marriage at age 12,
by age 13 she was a mom already.
At 31 my sister Claudia had 9 children.
But I cannot hold my parents accountable,
because at that time they thought they were doing the right thing.
I come from a community called Quegolani
one of the 570 municipalities of my state.
I am indigenous, my mother tongue is Zapotec.
I had to take over this language I am now using
in order to learn my rights and obligations.
That is why I had to escape from that environment,
with deep pain and sorrow, that day, more than 25 years ago,
my heart ripped in two: one part remained there in the mountain
7 hours away from my state, home to my background,
my essence, my roots, my tongue, my outfit;
the other part is still with me,
To understand why my eyes could not grasp
or why I did not like what I was seeing.
Why my mother was the first to wake up
and the last to go to sleep?
Why I had to wake up with her?
I had to learn to make tortilla, bring firewood with the donkey,
because that was what women were supposed to do.
I did not want that, by the way, when I left my homeland,
there was no light, no highway; I used to sleep on the ground.
Had I known that sleeping in a bed was cool,
I would have chosen that.
But to understand that,
I first had to take over what I thought of as the tool
to transform much of what hurt us:
Education.
I had to wrest for education because life did not grant it to me.
I had to work in the morning
and in the afternoon I studied high school.
I am a public accountant.
Time went by and I returned to my land.
My mom stilled woke up at 3 am,
to make tortilla, lime corrodes because from a previous day
you have to prepare the nixtamal
with limewater, then place three tortillas on the hotplate
because if we fail to do this, it is said we are not women.
But I don't blame this environment.
It is the circumstance that must be hold responsible,
the poverty and marginalization.
Not poverty and marginalization from [stomach], but from [head].
When a mind is not nurtured, is afraid of questioning,
afraid to demand but most important,
is afraid to decide what it wants.
When a mind is educated, you discover freedom;
you discover your rights and obligations,
but never denying your roots, I am proud of being indigenous,
of speaking my tongue and go to my homeland to celebrate.
But that does not make me less,
neither it means that my community
or that 16 millions of Mexicans that live in this country,
indigenous, cannot access health or education.
But I understood something, nobody was going change that
if I didn't give the first step.
This means breaking cultural paradigms
that the society imposes upon us.
Suddenly saying indigenous makes people think of a walking museum
and we are not walking museums,
we have opinions and we can decide for ourselves.
When I finished my major, I had to fight for that too
by working, selling whatever I could on the streets,
yet, I don't regret because that is how I found freedom.
I was a community instructor, then I wanted to become a doctor,
but I had no means so I became an accountant
that is how I know that 1 + 1 makes 2: rights and obligations.
Every time I went back to my community I couldn't understand
why women were always empty handed.
The answer was "you are a woman,
first get a husband and you might get something."
But at school I was taught
that one article of my country Constitution
said that we are all equal,
but that was not a reality there.
Customary law blocked that right.
I will say it again: I do not hold these men and women responsible,
most of them don't even know what Human Rights are,
not even what an obligation is.
When I understood that, I started going to the community playground
to play,
I became the crazy woman.
Attending mass, I was crazy.
But I took that responsibility because nobody would do it for me.
I made it for me,
then for my family, for my community,
for my state, to become visible for this country.
I am capable of deciding what I want.
Afterwards, I wanted to become president of my village.
But customary law hindered my right.
But that was not the worst.
Government institutions response was the worst.
That is was the community customary law,
the autonomy of the community
was a common right,
and there was no law that could protect me.
21st century, 2007.
It wasn't about the answers I was given in my town,
but the answers I was given by the government,
that was what hurt me the most.
Not because I wanted to be a President,
but because that was the entrance door to visibility of our own community,
we voted already for political parties,
because we had credentials.
But the aim of this was becoming visible
because our families only knew customary law.
I didn't stand still, I denounced and thanks to that,
I made my way into politics.
As questioned as it is, I took that responsibility.
Nowadays, politicians are all judged the same,
but no.
I believe that politics
needs to help citizens
to start changing what they don't like.
It's a less painful path to change what hurts us.
That is why I started my way in politics, to change the answer
I was given in the past,
Where was this answer? I had to change my state Constitution,
so that women should never hear again "No",
it's not for me, in the end I am already an accountant.
It is for all those invisible women.
All those women who are not even asked if they want to have 10 kids.
Having 10, 5 or 4 kids is not bad, as long as it is our own decision.
This was the way I found
so that women in my town can exercise their rights.
Today in my village, women can vote.
Today in my village, three women are part of the town council.
Out of the 570 municipalities of my state,
417 are still under customary law.
Out of the 68 existing ethnic groups of the country, 16 are in my state.
Nobody should tell us that due to our culture
we cannot access development or we cannot give our opinion
regarding how we want to change our stories and situations.
Politics should be a tool to help us say:
"This is Mexico, this is our color, our flavor."
I gained this with education.
Through education I've found freedom.
Today freedom is for me the most sacred.
Thanks to that I became a federal deputy and said:
"Not just for my state but also for those 16 million Mexican women
that live in this country, so that nobody denies their rights."
In 2014, I succeeded in achieving an amendment of the Constitution,
so that nobody should hear again the answers I was once given.
Not only that, also in 2014, UN adopted that amendment
so that any place with an indigenous population,
heads of state are obliged
to change practices that threaten
the development of our indigenous communities.
Everybody speaks of democracy,
I think of democracy as a dove,
with a female and a male wing,
without each of them we cannot reach democracy,
especially if we are indigenous.
Today, I'm grateful for the presence of the most important person,
my son, the reason why
I won't back up,
I will continue striving, because an amendment is not enough,
it now needs to be enforced.
It cannot remain just as an amendment
it must become a reality
that in the 417 municipalities,
at least 5 or 20 women can be heads of a municipality.
Then again, voting is not the main aspect,
what is important is becoming visible in Mexico.
(Zapotec) I now understand freedom
as the fog that flows
by the hillsides of my village.
Thank you so much.
I now understand freedom as the fog
that flows by the hillside of my village.
Thank you.
(Applause)