So when we speak of Mexico's powerful indigenous women, we must acknowledge the legacy of the mothers of the disappeared who reclaimed the plazas of Mexico and broke the silence after the 1968 student massacre at Tlatelolco. They engaged in what we call the naming ceremony, because they named the abuser and the abuse. And their marches and hunger strikes became public prayers to bring back the disappeared and became a precursor to today's democracy movement. And after all these years, the Mexican government's files of '68 finally have been opened. Brazilian educator Paulo Freire said we must name our world to break oppression.
Abusers always rely on their victims' silence.
So part of contesting space means creating counter narratives of what is happening to us as people narratives quite different from what television portrays. Ojibwe leader Winona LaDuke observed it's easy to romanticize the Zapatista ski mask and revolution when most families would rather be growing corn and raising their children. We should honor those who are already creating a new world, particularly the women.