Stop violence against indigenous women|Oaxaca MEX

Little by little, the women began arriving at the space. Some thought we would start doing theater right away. To begin, we introduced ourselves by sharing our experiences as caregivers and what each of us knew about theater. Our colleague Donají guided the conversation toward recent stories that still carried pain. Some women spoke about people they had cared for over many years, while others remembered those who had cared for them. And whenever one woman spoke, another would come closer with a word of encouragement. Grandmothers appeared again and again in our stories.

We spoke a great deal about our grandmothers. Many of us shared what it has meant, as daughters, to become caregivers to strong women, to matriarchs who had spent so much of their lives giving us the strength to keep fighting. A sense of closeness flowed through everything we shared, and one of the participants felt moved to say, “I never had sisters, but all of you are my sisters.”

Women from different generations were talking about painful memories, yet sooner or later the balance would shift, bringing joy back into our collective voices. Talking about care opened up questions about who provides care and how we learn to do it. We discussed the idea that men have fewer tools for caregiving. One of the women, however, shared the experience of her husband and sons caring for an older man. And although the group saw this story as something exceptional, it helped us notice how strongly gender expectations continue to shape the way we think about caregiving responsibilities.

Then came the theater exercises. Many of the participants stepped into them with ease, so much so that one of the women in the group began imagining that they could create a play and take it to different neighborhoods to share it with others.

Throughout the sessions, we collected phrases and small fragments that emerged from our conversations, and together we used them to create a final performance. Four women took it to the stage, representing all of our voices. Theater became a way of giving back to the group what had emerged from listening to one another. Looking at each other, we asked ourselves “who cares for those of us who care for others?”

There are many women caring for and supporting others, yet we still need more spaces where we can talk about what caregiving means and meet other women who are living through similar experiences. During our closing conversation, we talked about how difficult it can be to sustain community processes like this over time.

Thank you for making a space like this possible, where through theater we can untangle the knots in our hearts, together.