Oaxaca: To the Sound of the Drums

With the sound of the drums, to the rhythm of the slogans, on bikes, on motorbikes, or on foot, the women of Oaxaca organized this March 8 to go out onto the streets and yell WE ARE NOT AFRAID!

Using as our route the different spaces where our presence is such a great threat that a fear production strategy for submission and obedience is necessary; spaces where we are threatened physically and verbally, with the intention of keeping us away. That is why we have decided to occupy those spaces, to go out and shake up Oaxaca. Where they don’t want us, we will be there.

In Tule, where only six months ago two compañera survivors were raped by the driver of a Foreign Taxi (taxis that travel longer distances) and his accomplice. For them, we lit a fire. “Foreign taxi of Tule, burned by the feminists demanding safe transportation”; a headline that was able to frame the message being sent to all those that observed the taxi, made of cardboard, that burned while we shouted: This is what will happen to everyone that continues to rape us, NO AGGRESSION WITHOUT A RESPONSE.

To be a woman is not something simple, they kill us, they rape us, they harass us, they limit us, they make us disappear, they fuck us over…for disobeying the fucking patriarchal regime, they want us submissive!

Conos de Cinco Señores (a recreation center in Oaxaca): a provisional stop to replenish energy after traveling so many kilometers, together, leaving our mark on the road, our bicycles in front of us, motorcycles on one side and the other, where necessary and an encirclement of cars. Background music to liven up and make the journey more pleasant, because we do not suffer in vain, on the contrary, we offer each drop of sweat to the fight with a smile.

A little detour, as we were close by, to that facility where the number of rapists is comparable to the number of cockroaches (except one is hunted, and the other is protected): The Benito Juárez Autonomous University of Oaxaca (UABJO).

We went in to shout and demand justice given the recent reports against Dr. Arturo RuízLópez, university professor and rapist. We arrived and stayed until the walls of the Institute of Sociological Research (place where the rapist teaches classes and advises thesis projects) were impregnated with our rage and we restated the demands of the woman that we have made ours: RAPISTS OUT OF UABJO, ARTURO RUÍZ LÓPEZ OUT. And may their accomplices, all of those that defend him, know that the fire of our justice spreads easily.

That’s how it went, we again spoke out with the same intensity as we did in Tule, be it a taxi driver or professor:

We’re fed up, including with being fed up. We’re no longer afraid and this means that we are ready, like never before, to defend our territory-bodies, every time it is necessary, to construct paths to freedom! To the femicidal males, we will burn them!

We continued, without bicycles but with even more energy. The drum crew at the front and a wall of compañeras behind.

The Park of Harassment/Love was the final stop of the day where we gathered and enjoyed ourselves together, to occupy spaces where they want us beaten down, and that is why we say “no more”. In the face of macho attacks, Feminist Self-Defense; whether at a park or in the home, in school, or in a taxi, if you touch one of us WE WILL ALL RESPOND.

[…] from the feminist movements, we decided to stop the world, remember that when we women stop, the whole world stops; shout that our rage is profound and legitimate; that history will be written in another way, with other fists!

These actions, just like these words, are for everyone, with love.

FOR THOSE THAT ARE HERE AND FOR THOSE THAT AREN’T.

---