Latin America is, without doubt, one of the most unequal regions in the world. Many of its countries have alarming numbers of wealth concentration and unequal access to education, health and basic services; disparities that affect specifically to rural and peasant communities.
Because of it, many of the stories of the Latin American people are focused on the daily struggle to have better living conditions and to call attention to the many issues that the countries have. One of these stories is the story of Elvia Alvarado, a campesina and a social organizer in Honduras who collects her personal and collective experiences in Don’t be afraid, gringo, a book about her life, her eternal fight, and her motivations to seek better conditions for all…show more content… Although poor Hondurans share common issues that affect their lives, it is valuable that Elvia tells her testimony also as a woman, making visible the way in which gendered violence affects specifically women in the country, and limit their already limited opportunities to develop and to seek for a better life. In her testimony, she is able to discuss issues as teen pregnancy, gender stereotypes and gender roles that affect the opportunities of women in her community.
With this in mind, she addresses the women’s role in a strong relation to their male counterparts and the e is able to tell how women are mostly restricted to serve men and dedicate their lives to their families and homes. However, she also makes visible the double shift and the added responsibilities that women face in these environments since they need to provide for their families economically, on top of their work at…show more content… To her, is not about appropriation, but rather about recovery, and even though sometimes the organizers face brutal violence and repression, she argues that in a corrupted system, the formal processes are not enough to make the peasants’ rights valid.
Her struggle, however, has not been easy. She has been threatened, tortured, kidnapped and imprisoned multiple times, along with some other community organizers. She has been silenced and censored from some spaces for speak about the situation and the needs of the poor peasant communities in her country; and she has been targeted as a communist by the Honduran authorities.
There is a common misconception of social organizers and community leaders as communists in many Latin American countries, and in the story of Elvia, we see no difference. The instant association that many governments do with communism was strongly supported by the United States during the Cold War era, and that was reflected in the type of funding that the countries received from this country. In an honest critique to the international aid that Honduras received, Elvia questioned the assertiveness of this help, as it did not contribute to reduce inequalities and improve the lives of the
