Chantal Phillips
Chantal Phillips

Sistren is part of a group that is continually battling language barriers. The Caribbean Association for Feminist Research (CAFRA) produces a newsletter in four languages: French, English, Spanish and Dutch. The two members of Sistren who conducted the workshop, Joan and Hilary, are used to struggling with Spanish and English. Many of the participants, however, were unacquainted with slow translation, whispering among Portuguese, Spanish and English speakers, as well as long pauses while we all searched for words to express ourselves in a foreign language. The experience can be frustrating. We all understood each other on a basic level but trying to verbalize our experience of complex issues left a lot to be desired.

At the congress I witnessed a larger dialogue happening between women which was more inclusive than discussions on race I have been part of in Canada.

The workshop itself dealt with the topic of difference and culture/race/gender/class barriers. It was a topic we all had faced during the congress, if not in our day to day lives. The congress included an incredible diversity of women, almost beyond my ability to describe: from Communist trade union Lesbians who sold bikinis from Brazil to help cover the expense of their trip, to grandmothers from Catholic church groups organized to protest the disappearance of civilians in the ditty war in Argentina, to Nicaraguan Health Care Educators who brought an effigy of their new President, Violetta Chamorra, to roast at the opening ceremony. The descriptions would take me pages to complete; suffice it to say the crowd was full of all types of women, from teenagers to octenagenarians, four thousand in all. This made a very appropriate background for the exploration of difference, and specifically, of racism that the Sistren collective members proposed.

The analysis of racism in feminist groups all over Latin America is not a new concept. Nevertheless there have been relatively few gains made for women who feel doubly or triply discriminated against due to their skin colour, language, or cultural affiliation. At this congress there were many Black Brazilians who wished to organize a network of Black women in the region. Their meetings were inevitably attended by not only women who identified as 'Black women', but also Hispanic, North American, and European women who wanted to show solidarity, gather ideas to take to women back home, or express concern about divisions among latinsas (women of Latin America) on the basis of color. This meant that there was no space for Black women only to meet and discuss ideas without the input of every woman who wanted to participate.

I was quite confused by all this cross-talk on the issue of race. I have come to respect the right of women of colour to speak for themselves and to create their own exclusive space within feminist groups or during conferences. At the congress, however, I realized that no one else was playing with this same set of rules established by "feminist" practice to overcome our racist history. Every meeting, no matter what it was called, was open to any woman, and I witnessed a larger dialogue happening between women which was more inclusive than discussions on race I have been part of in Canada. This was part of the central theme of the Sistren workshop. We were all invited to give our perception on the issue of racism and its connections to class and gender, as they appear to each of us.

Hilary led the workshop and gave a brief explanation of her own perspective of race/class/ gender in Sistren. As a light-skinned woman she has more status than darker Jamaicans who have physical features associated with African heritage, like full lips and broad noses. She also had worked her way up in the organization to be a well-paid and well-respected member. This led to the uncomfortable position of at times, her being privileged in comparison to the women she had chosen to work with, and in Sistren's theatre projects with urban and rural poor. Her status and perceived power was sometimes a barrier in her work, despite the fact that she would not have had much of the status she currently enjoys without the help of a group like Sistren that promotes working women. By virtue of its own organization, Sistren takes women from their underprivileged background and gives them opportunities they may not have otherwise have had. Alienation is often part of this process of empowerment.



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