{"id":67599,"date":"2021-10-06T11:03:45","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T14:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=67599"},"modified":"2021-10-11T11:15:20","modified_gmt":"2021-10-11T14:15:20","slug":"from-building-quilombos-to-democracy-voices-of-afro-latin-and-caribbean-women-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=67599","title":{"rendered":"From Building Quilombos to Democracy: Voices of Afro-Latin and Caribbean Women [PODCAST]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

This article is the latest contribution to our year-long reporting project, \u201c<\/i>Rooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas<\/i><\/a>: Deconstructing Social Narratives About Racism in Rio de Janeiro.\u201d Follow our\u00a0<\/i>Rooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas series here<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Historically, to resist<\/em>, build<\/em> and progress<\/em> are verbs that black women have carried within them, whether they’re aware of it or not. Whether through life\u2019s daily demands<\/a> or political activism<\/a>, from the fight against slavery in quilombos<\/em> to our current so-called democracies, black women do politics in the streets and in political arenas all over Brazil, Latin America<\/a> and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

These lenses are the starting point for the Portuguese-language podcast \u201cFrom Building Quilombos to Democracy: Voices of Afro-Latin and Caribbean Women<\/a>\u201d in building a mosaic of voices made up of different generations of black women born between 1950 and 1990, aiming to explain not only the origins of the the Day of Black Latin American and Caribbean Women<\/a>, July 25, but how black women create strategies to struggle and resist the invisibility and silencing of their voices by patriarchal and racist systems.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>More than a moment for tributes, the date\u2014that since 2014 in Brazil also marks the National Day of Tereza de Benguela and of Black Women<\/a>\u2014is a symbol of political mobilization of Afro-descendant women in diaspora in Latin American and Caribbean democracies. July 25 has its origin<\/a> in the First Meeting of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Caribbean Women<\/a>, which took place in the Dominican Republic in 1992 bringing together 350 black women from 72 countries.<\/p>\n

The practical efforts of black women in Brazil\u2014in large community-integrated actions<\/a> in support of their families in peripheries and favelas, in survival strategies, or in political and feminist activism<\/a>\u2014build Brazilian democracy every day. Their bodies build Brazilian society, even if they are dehumanized in their day-to-day lives.<\/p>\n

Black women are those who suffer the most violence, those with the highest death rates<\/a> Still, they have hope and produce knowledge. Most of all, they demand access to full rights as citizens and to democracy.<\/p>\n

Who Are the Voices Featured in the Podcast?<\/h3>\n

Queen Tereza, as Tereza de Benguela<\/a> is known, led the Quariter\u00ea Quilombo<\/a>, a community of those who fled enslavement in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. She represents so many black women made invisible by official history. An ancestral voice that marks memory and this specific day, Tereza de Benguela’s path has been gaining notoriety. A symbol of resistance, she lived in the 18th century in the region of Vale do Guapor\u00e9. Hailing from an African dynasty, Tereza de Benguela was enslaved and brought to Brazil where she was able to run away with her partner, Jos\u00e9 Piolho. After his death, she became the leader of the Quariter\u00ea Quilombo<\/em>, which housed over 100 people, 73 Afro-Brazilian and 30 indigenous. The quilombo<\/em> resisted from the decade of 1730 until the end of the century. Tereza de Benguela is still a reference for the women of the municipality of Vila Bela\u2014where there is currently an intergenerational women’s group called Heiresses of the Quariter\u00ea Collective<\/a>\u2014but also for Afro-Brazilian women nationwide.<\/p>\n

Journalist and Black Movement<\/a> activist Daniela Gomes<\/a> was born in 1982. Born and raised in the periphery of S\u00e3o Paulo<\/a>, she is assistant professor of African Studies at San Diego State University<\/a>. With a doctorate in African and African Diaspora Studies from the University of Texas<\/a>, she researches the transformative power of <\/span><\/span>hip-hop as a tool for the empowerment of black youth in S\u00e3o Paulo. In <\/span>2016, Gomes delivered The Power of Hip-Hop<\/a><\/em> at TEDx S\u00e3o Paulo, where she was able to speak about her activism and relationship with the hip-hop movement. In 2019, she gave a talk entitled The Impact of Bolsonaro in Brazil<\/a> <\/em>for PBS’s Blackademics<\/a><\/em> program, on North American public television.<\/span><\/p>\n