468 UNIT 4 MESOAMERICAN CULTURAL FEATURES
women’s movement has made. This assertion is confirmed by reports of threats and
attacks suffered by many individuals working for women’s rights in Guatemala as
well as in Chiapas, Mexico.Social Movements and Armed Conflicts
In the early 1960s, participating in campesino(peasant) organizations and in the
Catholic church laid the foundation for women’s growing awareness of the struc-
tural roots of their poverty and subordination to men. As a result of changes instituted
through the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) and the Conference
of Latin American Bishops in 1968, the Catholic church became active throughout
Mesoamerica in raising poor people’s awareness of the roots of their oppression
(Kovic 2005).
Throughout the region the social justice projects of the Catholic church have
been known by various names, including Liberation Theology, “the popular church,”
“the church of the poor,” and “The Word of God.” Although the Church’s option for
the poor was more concerned with class oppression than gender oppression, women
began to transform gender norms by participating in increasing numbers in work-
shops and reflection groups in their local communities. For example, in Chiapas,
Mexico, under the auspices of the Diocesan Coordination of Women (CODIMUJ),
thousands of women participate in local women’s groups in which they critique un-
equal gender relation and develop their leadership and other skills. In these groups
women also explore how their subordination as women is related to the structural
forces of racism and the neoliberal economic policies of their nation (Kovic 2003).
The focus on women’s empowerment in these groups contrasts to the more lim-
ited focus on emotional, spiritual, and material support of women’s groups in Protes-
tant church communities, in which a strong critique of male dominance has seldom
developed (see Box 12.5).
When armed struggles erupted in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, many
women eagerly joined the rebel forces (see Chapter 8). Among them were poor peas-
ant women, including indigenous women in Guatemala; urban working-class women;
and middle-class, educated mestizo women. Many women joined the insurgency as
a result of appalling actions perpetrated against their families and communities by
the military. Being victims of rape, their villages razed to the ground, their close rel-
atives kidnapped and murdered, women felt compelled to protect themselves and
their families from the army and avenge the deaths of their loved ones.
Women “joined the struggle” in a variety of ways: Some went to the front as com-
batants; others produced propaganda material, occupied local radio stations to gain
support for the insurgency, and wrote communiqués for newspapers. In the moun-
tains and villages, women acted as doctors and nurses, and they fed, clothed, and
sheltered combatants. Women also acted as messengers, provided infrastructural
support, allowed the insurgents to convene in their homes, and transported explo-
sives and guns (Kampwirth 2002).
Women had to overcome major obstacles in order to become active in the in-
surgency. They needed first to establish child care arrangements that would enable