I used to find the Dominican observance of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women ironic. A day that was first created to commemorate the assassination of the Mirabal Sisters by the hand of Trujillo —and less directly— the machista system that predated them, was marked by my teenaged cynicism. In my opinion, at the time, the day existed to fool people into thinking governments and politicians cared about women. The high femicide and child marriage statistics in the country were not lost on me. Having to face constant casual misogyny, from the time I was a little girl from both men and women, was a driving force in my cynicism, as well. I thought: “How could we properly memorialize the Mirabal sisters when even women are responsible for perpetuating the instrument of their deaths?”
I came to realize that the answer to the question I had spent years asking myself was not as simple as I had thought. Getting rid of casual and internalized misogyny is a mammoth task. In an ideal world, we’d be able to unlearn sexism as easily as we forget song lyrics or what we had for dinner a month ago, but as we all know, it isn’t that simple. Despite the fact, feminism is practiced in varying degrees throughout the country and the diaspora, many Dominican feminists, don’t identify with the term until later in their lives. In large part because of the negative connotations surrounding the word feminist and feminist values that make the process of unlearning a lot harder.
Like many others of us, Esther Hernández-Medina, a professor of sociology at Pomona College in California, is a proud Dominican activist who still has to make the conscious and continuous effort to ignore her indoctrinated beliefs. Despite her 28 years of calling herself a feminist!
“It’s an ongoing process. There are many elements to it. One element that has been very, very important for me is learning from other feminists,” she said.
In her life as a feminist activist, Professor Hernández-Medina has been fortunate enough to call many renowned Dominican feminists her mentors, and eventually, her friends. Her acknowledgment of the importance of feminist peers leads her to co-found Tertulia Feminista, Magaly Pineda, with her colleague, Yildalina Tatem Brache. The group initially started as a debate space, but it has evolved into a place where young Dominican feminists of all types air their grievances and learn from each other.
“There’s this huge need for safe spaces for debate and learning. Spaces where no one is going to tell you, ‘Oh, that’s not very feminist of you!’ It’s not about that. It’s about learning.” Professor Hernández-Medina added.
Learning to examine ourselves and how we inadvertently contribute to the patriarchy before we judge others and their feminism (or lack of feminism) is a valuable exercise. Yes, there is still plenty of egalitarian labor that needs to be done ALL around the world, but the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women isn’t about that. It’s about honoring the hard work of Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa, as well as the hard work of their feminist activist successors.
My all-or-nothing feminism missed the point of the day entirely. Back then, I wanted to dismantle the oppressive systems in place in one fell swoop. I was too young to realize that eliminating a system —and the effects of a system— that has existed for centuries will take a while. While I do what I can to make that happen, though, I’ll start by honoring Las Hermanas Mirabal and all of the other women who have senselessly lost their lives to gender-based violence on November 25.
Photo: Cherry Bombe
Un saludo’ to fellow food nerds! My heart nearly skipped a beat when I saw a fellow Dominicana, Pastry Chef Paola Velez, on the cover of Cherry Bombe — a magazine celebrating women in food & beverage. Paola is a co-founder of @bakersagainstracism, which united bakers around the world and raised almost $2 million for Black Lives Matter causes. The pace of change in the food industry has been painfully slow, but it is encouraging to see Black women getting the recognition they deserve. For one of them to be a compatriota, that’s magical.
