IGLI Institute 2024, Mexico City
“Because the option that remains is to fight for our rights.”
IGLI Mexico City brought together 17 activists from 11 Latin American countries: Panama, Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, Mexico, El Salvador, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Paraguay. Two IGLI alums, Isabella Picón (Venezuela) and Carolina Barrero (Cuba) were core parts of the organizing team. Additionally, facilitators joined from the U.S. (Marie Berry, Alice Taylor, and Sié Fellow Carly Paul from DU, Julia Zulver (Marie Sklodowska-Cure Research Fellow at Oxford), and Rutgers professor Janice Gallagher) and India (Sié Center research assistant Avantika Singh), to deepen and amplify their work for justice and human rights. They discussed the pervasiveness of violence around the world, patriarchal systems that layer on top of repressive regimes to erode personal safety, and threats that have altered their work. They also spoke about the creative and powerful ways that individuals can fight back, lift communities up, and forge a more free world.
Institute Programming
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Mind
The institute incorporates the latest academic literature on movement-building and civil resistance to help bridge the gap between scholarship and activism. The Mexico Institute also included learning sessions on Holistic Feminist Security, sharing about activist contexts and tactics, and narrative storytelling.
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Body
A central part of IGLI’s approach is the belief in tending to the body throughout the Institute and a life of activism. Participants engaged in body mapping exercises, activities centered around relaxation and mindfulness such as Qi Gong, and had opportunities for rest and play throughout the Institute.
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Heart
The institute seeks to create communities of solidarity for activists on the front lines. We use circles to share personal histories, create trust, reflect, share joy and loss, and be in connection. The institute always opens with a visioning the future exercise to connect with the future we are fighting for.
Atala Chavez, Mexico - Proyecto Te Escucho
“The trajectory of my companions, despite being in infertile lands, had managed not only to be a seed, but to flourish and begin to create forests. In our territories we have been told that it would be difficult to change things, but these formidable women have managed to make the impossible possible. Yes, there is a lot missing and the gap left by this system -capitalist, patriarchal, colonial, white, heteronormative, extractivist, racist - is enormous, and we are fighting against multi-headed, powerful, and tyrannical monsters. That is why what each one [of us] does adds up and is of great value, and the struggle is a life process for one and for thousands. Taking care of [us] is revolutionary!”
Estefania Cubillos Nova, Panama - Disability Rights Activist
“The initial question [What brings you joy], which seems simple to answer led me to think… that valuing rest and promoting joy whenever we can is the only thing we have left as a response to the injustices and the arduous task that [fighting them] entails.”
Anna Flavia, Peru - Movimiento Trans Femenino Del Peru
“IGLI was an interruption in what we know as women in the struggle - through care, our differences, and the necessary articulation to create a chain of feminist union.”
