The Angels

On March 7, Guatemalan women living in a shelter called ‘Safe Home’ came out against their government (that ran their shelter) that the women living there were being mistreated, abused, raped, and starved. In addition to these already horrible conditions, there were 750 women living in a building that is only suitable for 500 people. After speaking out, the women ran away from the ‘safe home’ but were soon captured and brought back by their government.

The next day, 39 Guatemalan women were burned to death. The government claimed that the women were protesting because they did not want to return and as a result the women set the mattresses on fire and refused to leave the building, killing themselves. However, there is also much speculation that the setting of the mattresses on fire and locking the women in the building was a form of punishment from the Guatemalan government to punish the girls for speaking out and running away.
A few days after these events, my LOVE group and I were walking through Guatemala City where we approached a protest. This protest was outside where the leader of Guatemala lives and there was a huge mass of people. Although everything was in Spanish and I do not understand Spanish, there was so many nonverbal events taking place where I could feel the intensity of the protest. There were drums pounding and vibrating in your chest. There were women dressed as Lady Liberty with a blindfold to show that justice is blind. There was an angel to symbolize the 39 women that were killed that are now referred to as ’The Angels’. And both of these were looking down onto a girl sleeping peacefully on a mattress. At this moment, I truly realized the impact these events with the 39 women had on a country of people. All flags were half-mast to mourn the souls of the lives that were lost. The only flag that was not half-mast was the flag on top of the building in which their leader lives - another way showing that the government does not have much sympathy for the events taking place.

One moment of this protest that truly stuck out to me was when a mother of one of the women that was killed was on a podium talking about how the government is responsible for these 39 deaths. She even stated that there was gasoline poured by the government that initially started the fire and then locked the girls in from the outside. Although this was all translated to me, I could still hear the hurt and unbearable emotions in the mother’s voice as she stood in front of a crowd and talked about her daughter’s untimely death.

This protest opened by eyes to many issues that women face in other countries. When I first started taking Psychology of Women, I was mainly thinking of issues of abortion, cat calling, rape, unequal pay, and gender stereotypes. However, by sitting in this protest, I realized that women in other countries, particularly developing countries, face a whole other level of inequality. Particularly in Guatemala, women do no have rights in any way. Seeing this social injustice towards women in another country made me realize that women have more to fight for than I had originally noticed. No one deserves to be mistreated by their own government that is supposed to be helping and caring for them. No women should ever be used for the sexual pleasure of another individual. No women should ever be mistreated, starved, raped, beaten, etc. Standing with the Guatemalan people in this protest really touched my heart and made my passion for women’s equality all around the world much, much stronger.

I believe it is easy to overlook the issues another country faces while our own country has so many issues of their own, however, this experience has made me realize, as horrible as it sounds, that I would much rather live in New York and get cat called (as I have many times before) than live somewhere else and live in a constant state of fear because God made me a female (and God doesn’t make mistakes or create individuals unequal).