8 marzo, día internacional de la mujer

As hopefully you all know, today is International Women´s day. Myself and one other student from the school, with our teachers in tow, skipped school to take part in a 2-hour women´s day march through the city this morning. There were about 500 people in attendance, at least 95% women. The majority of the attendance was school girls in uniform on a class outing, and women in traditional traje (dress), although there were lots of women in western clothing as well. I wore an arm band and sun visor that were being handed out, which said something close to "No a la feminización de la pobreza - pan y rosas para mujeres" (translation: No to the feminization of poverty - bread and roses for women." That´s from memory because my items are at home, but if I got anything wrong I´ll post it tomorrow. There were all sorts of signs in both Spanish and indigenous languages, on cardboard, paper, and fabrics. Some other signs read, translated, "woman: know your sexual rights" and "equal rights and equal opportunities for men and women." A handout and many of the signs related to the situation of women and children worldwide, not just in Guatemala. There was something very moving to realize that similar marches were occuring in Canada and presumably across the world, and that these women felt united with women around the world through violence and/or economic disadvantage. I´ve taken very few photos with people in them, but since there were press and many cameras recording the march, I felt good about taking a lot of photos. If I had them here I could recount more of the signs, but hopefully I´ll be able to get some posted here in the near future. This afternoon I went to a free show of The Vagina Monologues with a standing-room only crowd of a few hundred at the local Teatro Municipal, organized by an association of mujeres trejadores (women fabric workers). Again many school girls and women in traditional traje, although with significantly more ladinos and gringos at this event. Unfortunately, I could understand parts of the show but not enough to be able to understand much of what was going on. It was a lively crowd, with lots of murmuring, laughing, applause, or giggling from the kids at different parts.