Mahé Elipe

MUJERES DE LA TIERRA

The Covid-19 pandemic has put into perspective that domestic life is a risky scenario for thousands of Mexican women. Five sisters behind the Mujeres de la Tierra (Women of the Land) collective have experienced this violence in their homes and know that if a woman does not have economic autonomy, she will be more limited in separating from her abuser. They cultivate ways of living without violence and with greater freedom for themselves and other women. This is the seed that germinated in the creation of this collective located in Milpa Alta, a rural area of Mexico City. How to create these new ways of being? Fighting with resistance to emancipate themselves, they have reappropriated their lives from their own territory, based on the “sisterhood community”. They sow their own corn with which they prepare typical Mexican products in their small workshop that they have built stone by stone. They distribute tamales, tlacoyos and gorditas via social networks, thanks to which they can gain economic independence. Facing the macho violence that exists in their environment, they make their milpa, their hill, their land grow: “They wanted to uproot us, but our roots are well planted”.