Mexico

Here's what we've been reading on this lovely Wednesday morning.

• With only 38 days left to go and a little more than $20,000 left to raise, this Kickstarter campaign to fund a feature-length documentary called Gaming in Color about queer and LGBTQ presence in gaming needs your support! [Kickstarter]
• Unsure of how to raise your child in a feminst way?  Here's a 21-step how-to guide for starters.  [Natural Parents Network]
• Woo!  A popular slur was deemed homophobic and thus hate speech in a Mexican supreme court this week during a case of moral damage/defamation.  Read up on its implications at Racialicious. [Racialicious]
• I don't know about you, but I definitely rewatch Clueless at least once per year.  Here's a celebration of the Amy Heckerling film and all things way existential.  [Bitch Flicks]
• In light of the recent injustice against Henry Enuta, this is article is in defense of him and of intersex individuals around the world. [Crunk Feminist Collective]
• With all this talk about climate change, poor people of color are being left out of the conversation even though the affects of global warming disproportionately change their lives.  [Colorlines]
• This past Sunday was Easter.  It was also the birthday of César Chávez.  So when Google honored Chávez on his birthday instead of Easter, religious conservatives flipped out despite his own religiousness.  [Racialicious]
• Any progress is good, no matter how "small."  Here are just a few ways Saudi Arabia is on its way towards women's rights. [Ms. Magazine]

To tabloid readers they are bodies and blood. Stories of scandal. The irresistible macabre. But the voices of art and activism group Ni Una Más want us to know that the ninety one women killed recently in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico are daughters, mothers, sisters, schoolmates, friends. And they have names, though they no longer have their lives.

Women in Mexico face an appalling rate of violence and murder—official studies show 67 percent of Mexican women personally suffer some sort of violence in their life and murder rates of women have climbed for the past four years. That's just the official numbers, the actual rates are likely higher. 

Today, on International Women's Day, the Chiapas academic and perfomance research center Centro Hemisférico adds a message of life to a campaign to end death, inviting the community to the steps of the Church of Guadalupe to remember and honor the women they love—past and present—with poetry, flowers, and photos. For the last 11 months, the arts-based Ni Una Más campaign has taken to the streets of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas to reclaim public spaces and demand an end to violence against women. 

Comandante Ramona was an influential member of the Zapatista Army or Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) in Chiapas, Mexico. Dubbed "The Petite Warrior," she led the Zapatistas' initial uprising against the Mexican government, leading to to the Zapatista rebellion and the revolution of indigenous women’s rights throughout Mexico.