Global Women's Voices: Share Personal Stories

Gloria, El Salvador

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I come from a family that was engaged in promoting democratic values. I learnt those values very early and in a very hard way. During the war in El Salvador I worked to help poor, rural women victims of all sorts of violence.

In 1990, at the end of the war, our organization, Las Dignas, was founded by many women who like me participated in the urban and rural guerilla of El Salvador. Visionary women who want to transform not only their own lives but also the lives of other women and men along feminist ideals.

Every day we women, young, middle aged, mothers, sisters, daughters, grand mothers, from the city, from the village, some even suffering from conflict of identity, lawyers and psychologists assist women who suffer from sexual and domestic violence. We are the economists of political debt, the accountants that check the unfulfilled promises made by the State to women, the receptionists of children’s stories, the sentinels of change, the promoters of dreams, but above all we are citizens.

Everyday we are confronted with testimonies of women and children victims of sexual abuse, rape, unwanted pregnancies, lives destroyed by violence and unjust laws. Abortion, even in case of rape, is illegal in El Salvador. One more proof that our society is insensitive and complacent. Our country’s judicial system has no credibility, policemen are crooks, judges are frauds.

Fighting to redress these problems is my personal challenge and the challenge that Las Dignas has taken on. We want to build a society were women have equal rights and not are not treated like inferior citizens.

Gloria Guzman
Activist
www.lasdignas.org.sv

updated: 7/2/2004