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One of Samantha Branshaw’s first memories from Santiago, Chile – where she studied abroad two years ago – was from the International Women’s Day parade her host mom took her to. 

“I had never seen such a colorful and exuberant celebration of women in my entire life,” said Branshaw, the president of Las Naranjas.

Las Naranjas, a Spanish language and culture club at Syracuse University, hosted its inaugural Día de la Mujer event Tuesday night to celebrate International Women’s Day. Branshaw helped organize the event, created to provide a rich history of the holiday and celebrate the importance of women in Latin America.

The event featured presentations from organizations such as La L.U.C.H.A and the Puerto Rican Student Association. Organization leaders gave presentations about notable Latinx activists and artists, as well as the issue of femicide in Latin America. Nearly 40 people attended the Zoom event.

Jackie Ritz, the organization’s education chair, said the holiday is important to her because it gives people an opportunity to recognize the fight for gender equality while also showing that there’s more that needs to be done to solve the issue.

“It is also incredibly important that we recognize this day as intersectional and acknowledge the different identities that different women have can contribute to additional layers of oppression,” she said.

The event also included prerecorded performances from the all-female groups Black Reign Step Team and Main Squeeze A Capella. 

Members of PRSA addressed the prevalence of gender-based violence in Puerto Rico and the women who have raised awareness for the issue. Each week, Puerto Rico experiences at least one femicide — or the killing of women and girls based on their gender —  and the rate of femicide has increased by 62% since 2019, according to the Observatory for Gender Equity.

Adriana Lobo, the philanthropy chair for PRSA, discussed the #NiUnaMenos and #NiUnaMás protests in Puerto Rico. The #NiUnaMenos movement, which means “Not One (Woman) Less,” highlights the high rates of violence against women in Latin America. 

In September 2020, activists demanded that the governor of Puerto Rico declare a state of emergency regarding the recent increase of gender-based violence toward women. A similar event happened years before, when the activist organization Colectiva Feminista en Construcción called for a state of emergency after domestic violence increased across the island following Hurricane Maria. 

While sensitive topics such as gender-based violence are difficult to talk about, they should not be ignored, Lobo said.

“We want to ensure our intent is not to continue the rhetoric that it’s a tough conversation to have but that it’s a conversation we need to have because it’s a necessity,” Lobo said.

Lourdes Morales and Catherine Piñón discussed the recent song “Canción Sin Miedo,” by singer-songwriter Vivir Quintana, which has united Latin American women in the fight against gender violence. The presentation featured a video of Quintana performing the song with a chorus of women singing behind her and giving a moment of silence for victims of femicide. 

The attendees also celebrated activists who created rifts in the fight for LGBTQ rights. Noeli Vasquez, an SU senior and the president of La L.U.C.H.A, gave a presentation about the life and achievements of Sylvia Rivera, a transgender activist. 

Rivera fought to include the “T” in the acronym LGBTQ and inspired the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, which centers around poverty and systemic racism relating to queer and transgender people, she said. 

“We still have a long way to go, but I’m sure she still would’ve loved to see the difference that her efforts and work made,” she said.  

Bennie Guzman, the communications manager at La Casita Cultural Center, spoke about activist groups formed by abuelas, or grandmothers, in light of their virtual exhibit “Abuelas: Ancestral Ways for Future Generations.” The exhibit features work of Latinx artists sharing family stories about grandmothers. 

Grandmothers and community elders are crucial for maintaining Hispanic culture in Anglo societies because they preserve family history and language for future generations, Guzman said. 

“Latina elders and grandmothers steer the next generation towards embracing their ancestry,” he said. “Grandmothers and community elders are key figures in warding off complete assimilation into Anglo society.”

Published on March 9, 2021 at 1:23 am

Contact Abby: akweiss@syr.edu | @abbyweiss_21