WUNRN
Mexico: No Indigenous Woman Yet in Mexican Congress
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Apr 30 (IPS) - No indigenous woman has ever held a seat in the
Mexican Congress. But two of them, one belonging to the conservative ruling
party and the other representing the leftwing opposition, are trying to change
that in the July legislative elections.
However, their chances are proportional to the little to no support they have
received from their own parties, the poverty and discrimination faced by native
women in Mexico, and the sexism they often face within their own communities.
According to official figures, 34.5 percent of indigenous women in Mexico are
illiterate, compared to 19.6 percent of indigenous men – and only eight percent
of the general population.
In addition, of every 10 people in Mexico who speak only an indigenous
language, and not Spanish, six are women.
Mexico is the Latin American country with the largest indigenous population in
absolute numbers, which is variously estimated to make up between 12 and 30
percent of the country’s 104 million people (the smaller, official, estimate is
based on the number of people who speak an indigenous language). The
overwhelming majority of the Mexican population is of mixed indigenous and
Spanish ancestry.
Traditional native practices persisting in some remote rural parts of Mexico,
especially in the impoverished southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, include
the selling of young indigenous girls into marriage, or the throwing of women
into unofficial community jails merely for trying to take part in all-male
traditional local assemblies held according to local "usage and customs."
"Our lives are marked by suffering and obstacles; there are communities
where people still believe that if a woman gets involved in politics, an
earthquake will happen, and some families believe girls should not study, that
schooling is for boys and men," Rogelia González, a Zapoteca Indian woman,
told IPS.
González will run for a legislative seat for Oaxaca, a state where a majority
of the population is indigenous.
"In many indigenous communities, women are subjected to ageold ‘machismo’
and sexism, which must be protested without fear," commented González, who
said she was "very fortunate to be a candidate, although I have little
chances of winning."
A study by the National Women’s Institute, a government body, based on a 2003
household survey found that 75 percent of indigenous women respondents thought
that a good wife should obey her partner, while 84 percent believed that the
husband was responsible for household expenses.
One-third of the native women interviewed said a husband had the right to hit
his wife if she did not fulfill her obligations; 42.6 percent said they had
been beaten as girls; and 46.6 percent said that if children misbehave, parents
have the right to hit them.
Opening doors – then slamming them shut
The leadership of the governing National Action Party (PAN) and the leftwing
Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) gave the impression in February of
encouraging changes to fight the historical marginalisation of indigenous women
when they registered the two women as precandidates for the Jul. 5 elections,
when Mexicans will elect 500 members of the lower house of Congress, six state
governors, 565 mayors and 434 state legislators.
But in April, the situation took a radical turn.
"They removed me from the list of candidates, but I know I still have a
chance, so I hope the PAN will think it over. Otherwise I will take measures
that I don’t want to take," Cecilia López, a member of the Tzeltal
community from Chiapas, where at least one-third of the population is indigenous,
told IPS.
Despite the extreme poverty into which she was born, the 34-year-old López
managed to earn a university degree in psychology, and is now coordinator of
government social projects in rural areas of Chiapas.
She registered as a precandidate for the lower house of Congress representing
the PAN, after community assemblies in the region decided that she should
represent her people in the federal legislature.
"The wife of the president herself (Margarita Zavala de Calderón) told me
that she supported me, that she was my ‘comadre’ (roughly, crony or friend),
and my brothers and sisters in the highlands of Chiapas decided that I should
participate," she said.
But in mid-April, the PAN leadership eliminated López from the list of
candidates and replaced her with a non-indigenous businessman who has not even
worked in the area he claims to represent.
López is trying to get the ruling party to reverse that decision and put her
back on the list. But that would have to happen before May 2, the deadline for
registering candidates. "I still have a chance," she said,
nonetheless.
González is facing a different situation, albeit one that has had similar
results.
The 48-year-old bilingual teacher who is active in the PRD aspires to a seat
representing her home state of Oaxaca, where 418 of the 570 municipalities are
governed by traditional usage and customs.
After encouraging her to run, the party leadership put González’s name in the
11th spot on a list of 15 candidates - tantamount to excluding her altogether.
"I know it’s true that no more than the first five people on a list, or
seven or eight in the case of an extremely broad victory, are ever
elected," she remarked to IPS.
"Indigenous women have never made it to parliament, and the July elections
do not look like they will be an exception," said González, who has been a
leftist activist since the 1980s. "I believe this is because the decisions
about the candidacies are always made by men, because the opinion of a governor
carries more weight, and because we face discrimination as indigenous
people."
Discrimination on two fronts
González and López described their difficult childhoods, in communities where
tradition holds that women do not need to study and should marry at a very
young age.
Both women said that such beliefs have gradually given way in some areas thanks
to the work of government bodies, civil society, and both male and female
indigenous leaders.
López is from Oxchuc, a rural municipality where 40,000 people are scattered in
10 villages. The great majority are Tzeltal families who depend on small-scale
farming for a living. According to the census, some 285,000 people belong to
her ethnic group.
Oxchuc is near the area of influence of the Zapatista National Liberation Army
(EZLN), a barely-armed indigenous guerrilla group that briefly rose up in arms
in January 1994 demanding true democracy and respect for indigenous rights.
After just two weeks of skirmishes with government forces, the EZLN agreed to
peace talks and an armed truce. Today the Zapatistas are a marginal actor on
the Mexican political scene.
González, meanwhile, is from Juchitán de Zaragoza, one of the largest towns in
the state of Oaxaca, with a population of 90,000, located near the Pacific
ocean. Trade is one of the main economic activities in that area.
González, who divides her time between political activism, her job as assistant
director of a bilingual preschool, and her activities as the head of a network
of women’s centres that provide assistance to victims of domestic violence,
belongs to the Zapoteca community, which has a total of 452,000 members.
"Because of machismo, we men have not respected women at all. But changes
are happening, like these two candidates to the Chamber of Deputies, and that’s
good," Valdemar Morales, a civil engineer belonging to the Tzeltal
community who backs López’s candidacy in the PAN, told IPS.
In March, Eufrosina Cruz, a member of the Zapoteca community, presented a new
civil society association in the Mexican capital to fight what she called the
"abuses and customs" that govern many indigenous communities,
especially in Oaxaca.
Although under Mexican law, traditional uses and customs are only valid as long
as they do not contravene rights granted by the constitution, that is not
always the case.
Cruz, who is 29, was blocked from running for mayor of her village two years
ago because of the uses and customs of her community, according to which women
cannot stand for office. She took action to fight the decision, drawing
national attention to the issue, which brought her death threats but also
prompted Oaxaca state legislators to pass more specific laws to combat
discrimination against women.
In the current debate for the July elections, practically no one has referred
to the fact that indigenous women stand a very small chance of winning a seat
in the lower house of Congress.
Indeed, no one seems to be surprised by, or even aware of, the fact that they
have never been elected to the legislature.
"Gradually, both legislation and society in general have made room for
women’s rights and for their insertion in national life," Martha Díaz,
secretary of the Chamber of Deputies indigenous affairs committee, remarked to
IPS.
"It is necessarily an ongoing process, and in some cases, like the case of
indigenous women, it is quite slow and not very visible," she admitted.
Díaz, who represents the PAN, said she was confident that soon native women
would be represented in the legislature. From her point of view, what are needed
are policies giving native women and girls an opportunity for education, and
greater efforts by the state in indigenous communities.
Indigenous women need their own quota
To promote gender equity, the current election laws require parties to reserve
at least 40 percent of the spots on candidate lists for women. But the quotas
say nothing about indigenous or black women, or members of sexual minorities.
"The law has not been effective, because sometimes the parties
cheat," by naming women only as alternates on the lists of candidates, for
example, Emilienne De León, director of Semillas, a local NGO that promotes
leadership by indigenous women, told IPS.
De León believes it is necessary to adopt laws that force political parties to
reserve a portion of candidacies for indigenous and black women, and members of
sexual minorities. "This kind of law is necessary to foment equity and
representativeness," she argued.
In the Chamber of Deputies, where seats are renewed every three years, women
have held 24 percent of seats in the last six years. In the Senate, whose
members are elected every six years, the proportion is 21 percent. But none of
the women legislators are indigenous.
There are a few isolated cases of indigenous women mayors and members of state
legislatures.
It is not easy for indigenous men to gain access to elected posts either, and
very few have in fact made it to the national Congress. But native women face
hurdles to political participation both within and outside of their communities.
================================================================
To contact the list administrator, or to leave the list, send an email to:
wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.