By Ramiro Sebastián Fúnez
In the video below, Eloisa García and Lea Moncada of the Gloria Quintanilla Women’s Cooperative discuss proletarian feminism in Nicaragua. Formed in 2008, the Cooperative is run by and for Nicaraguan peasant women. Their primary crop is coffee, but they also grow plantains, beans, vegetables, and other staple foods.
“We are respected on the national, municipal, and community level,” says Eloisa, a 55-year-old coffee farmer. “We have empowered ourselves as women.”
Eloisa and Lea work closely with the Rural Workers’ Association (ATC in Spanish) and the Sandinista Revolution. They also regularly collaborate with La Vía Campesina, a global movement of international peasants.
The women of the Cooperative have fought for and won land titles, their own homes, access to education, improved roads, and, most recently, a community water well.
“My community works to protect our Mother Earth, which provides for us daily,” says Lea. “This is our Pachamama.”
In this video, you hear directly from Eloisa and Lea, who discuss the impact of the Sandinista Revolution on women workers in rural Nicaragua. They also talk about the importance of protecting the environment from ecological devastation produced by capitalism.
Nicaragua Against Empire is a documentary that highlights Nicaraguan resistance to Western imperialism. It is recorded and produced by Ramiro Sebastián Fúnez.
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Featured image by Ramiro Sebastián Fúnez/YouTube
