In this Issue of Voices of Mexico
Content

Our Voice

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WOMEN

Minimal History of Gender
Studies in Mexico
Graciela Martínez-Zalce

At this point in the twenty-first century, I think no doubt remains that feminist movements and gender studies have changed both society and acade-mia. We have become aware that both sexual and gender differences have an impact on our lives and on social, political, economic, and cultural relations and processes and that, in general, women have had to fight to gain their free-doms and that the LGBTTI “minorities” have had to fight to make their situation visible and win space and rights.

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The Diana Morán Workshop
An Exceptional Space for
Resistance and Sisterhood
Ana Rosa Domenella

Background
I begin these thoughts by attempting to create a histo-ry of a road travelled for almost four decades. In the wake of the discussions arising out of International Women’s Year, celebrated in Mexico in 1975, three colleagues from the Colegio de México’s Center for Literary Linguistic Studies Literature and Society Seminar, decid-ed to present a paper at the First Mexico-Central America Symposium on Women in 1977, organized by the colegio and the Ford Foundation.

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Mexican Feminisms Today
Marta Lamas

The great variety in the political landscape of Mexican feminism is noticeable at a glance. However, despite the country’s many feminisms and their different political positions, they all agree that the central axis of their protests is violence against women. In the 1970s and 1980s, feminicides were not known as they are now, nor were women’s daily lives threatened by the terror of being kidnapped or disappeared or by the tension of being on the receiving end of different kinds of violence, as they are now. It was in the beginning of the 1990s when one of the most painful and scandalous tragedies to affect our lives became public knowledge: the murders in Ciudad Juárez of poor women, many of them adolescents who worked in the maquila plants. These crimes have continued to replicate nationwide and have given rise to the criminal category of “feminicide” and the term “youthicide.”1 For Lucía Melgar, the term “feminicide” refers to all the murders of women for being women, which go unpunished and in which the state has a responsibility either through action or omission.

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Mothers Who Search Under Ground
Maite Azuela

If there are voices that give Mexico the sounds of a tireless struggle, a tone of persistence, and a rhythm of a solidarity-based collective, they are the voices of the mothers of the disappeared, both men and women. This is not an identity that any nation wants, because it reveals the entire society’s inability to contain the insecurity and violence that has affected most families. The pain anchored in uncertainty about the whereabouts of their daughters, sons, brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers cuts even deeper when confronted with institutional negligence.

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The Fight for Abortion in Mexico
Rebeca Ramos Duarte

“Starting now, it will not be possible
to try any woman for the issues considered
valid by this court without breaking the Court’s criteria
and violating the Constitution.
Starting now, a new road of freedom begins,
a road of clarity, dignity, and respect
for all pregnant persons, especially women.”
Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar
The year that is coming to a close has brought enormous strides forward in Mexico for the regulation of abortion. To understand these advances, first it must be said that in most of Mexico, as in a large number of Latin American countries, abortion is a crime. As a result, women and gestating individuals who interrupt a pregnancy, as well as those who assist them, are subject to being declared criminals and punished with sentences that, in the case of Mexico, range from fifteen days to six years in prison, plus fines, community service, or medical or psychological treatment when freed. I mention “most of Mexico” because in this country, each state or federal jurisdiction determines whether abortion is a crime and what sanctions will be applied to those found guilty of it.

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Whether Chance or Science,
Always Chasing Neurons
An Interview with Herminia Pasantes
Teresa Jiménez

Despite having begun her career in an era when being a woman scientist was almost impossible, Herminia Pasantes was able to take advantage of the opportunities and voids that presented themselves to be able to slip in among the men of science, using outstanding intelligence and an iron will, with a little help from chance —although she says that she owes it all to chance. She is one of the most highly renowned scientists in Mexico and abroad for her enormous contribution to the molecular study of the brain.

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