Non formal presentation of the book storytelling, chatting and singing

November 24, 2007.

“It s said hat thing that are about to be born cannot be explained; they simply have to be told in stories or song.” (Author of the book)

“This book is a homage to our ancestors, the one who walked this path before us, the ones who opened this path for us, a path that might have seemed. easier to tread, but oftentimes seems harder today in some ways.... This is a tribute to them and all the butterflies that remain unknown along the path.”

Those were the opening words of Afro Costa Rican Epsy Campbell Baar of the Red de Mujeres Afro descendientes en Costa Rica when she spoke at the panel about the book by Maria Suarez Toro on Saturday November 24, 2007.

The activity took place at the auditorium of the Long Distance University of Costa Rica (UNED) in Sabanilla de Montes de Oca where more than 85 people assisted to participate in the presentation of the book Women, Metamorphosis of the Butterfly Effect as part of the activities of commemoration of International Day towards the Elimination of Violence Against Women the net day.

Epsy added that “…the true store of Rosa Parks needs to be told with her truth, and that is what Maria does in her book when she presents the “Imaginary Setter by Rosa Parks.” Her story has been told from the perspective of a woman who was tired of working the day she refused to leave her bus seat to a white man in the segregationist South in the Unites Status in the decade of the fifties. She was an activist in a movement and she knew what she was doing. The butterfly effect was not b chance and neither was her intentionality.”

Participants included Vilma Penha of UNED, Montserrat Sagot of the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) and Constanza Rangel, Co-coordinator of Wings of the Butterfly, a project that is presently coordinating a theater presentation based on the book that will showcase a sample at the Women Inc. Festival in The Netherlands on December 1st.

Upon comenting the Imaginary Letter by Lucy, anthropologist, Monserrat Sagot said that the author “… dismantles the old andocentric theory of the man-hunter promoted and popularized by Washburn and Debor in the decade of the sixties. It states that the search for meat by men is what led us to bipedalism, locomotion and tools. It placed omen in the periphery under the assumption that they did not hunt, but stayed in the caves.” She also affirmed that in the letter, Maria presents though Lucy, other interpretations that recognize the centrality of the mother-child relationship in evolution of species and in human culture. “That is herstory, hardly acknowledged and told. It is based in new anthropological, ethnographic and paleonthological evidence presented originally by Sally Slokum among g others in the sciences.”

Constanza Rangel made an analogy between the writing of the book and women’s struggles to end violence against women in her experience as professional colleague of Maria in the Ph.D. program where the book first appeared. “Her process in writing it was the same as the one that the movement of any woman suffering violence has to face in order to be successful in ending violence. First she hurt, and then she felt alone, the she questioned, and then she searched, found, decided, named, felt and constructed. This is the process that is in her text and is how women get out of violence whether it comes form men or women. For violence to happen people have to ignore and erase dignity of “the other”. The book presents struggles in women’s experiences to overcome that. Maria followed the same process: she hurt, then she felt alone, then she questioned, then she searched, she found, she decided, she named, felt, and then constructed.”

The history of the 25th of November as International Day towards the Elimination of Violence towards Women written by Rocío Chávez, Coordinator of the Gender Commission of UNED was read by Vivian Chavarría, as the activity was part of the commemorations of the Day. She highlighted that the day comes form the anniversary of the Mirabal Sisters in the Dominican Republic during the Trujillo Dictatorship who imprisoned them and later killed them because they refuse to do sexual favor to the dictator and also opposed his regime.

During the second part of the activity the Trio Metamorfas comprised of Guadalupe Urbina, Gladys Chiny, Larissa Coto, accompanied by Leo Jiménez as pianist presented six songs that form part of the theatre production Wings of he Butterfly based on the book presented that day. One out of repertoire song appeared in the presentation that day, “Yo Soy la Mala” a machista song that was sung by Soledad Bravo in the seventies referring to the dichotomical and despective way in which women are treated as the evil and bad ones in conflict. Maybe Metamorfas included the piece to remind us that violence towards women can also happen though music and art, be it by men or women. Wings of the Buttefly seeks just the opposite: highlight the role of art in activating movement building towards social transformation.

The activity was sponsored by women’s organizations and networks at the regional and local levels, such as: Agenda Política de Mujeres, Costa Rica; Asociación Conservacionista YISKI; Servicios Integrales para la Mujer - SI Mujer, Nicaragua; Centro de Derechos de Mujeres, CDM, Honduras; Centro de la Mujer Peruana "Flora Tristán" Lima – Perú; Centro de Estudios y Acción Social Panameño –CEASPA Panamá; Colectivo Cons/pirando, Chile; Comité de Mujeres Rurales de León, Nicaragua; Comisión Latinoamericana de Derechos de las Mujeres (CLADEM), Puerto Rico; Colectivo de Investigación, Desarrollo y Educación entre Mujeres A.C. México; Fondo de Desarrollo Para La Mujer, Nicaragua; Isis Chile; LIMPAL, Costa Rica; Just Associates mundial, Washington D.C.; Movimiento autónomo de Mujeres (MAM) Nicaragua; Mujeres por una Economía del Regalo, Italia; Mujeres al Oeste, de Morón, República Argentina; Programa de Mujeres en Tecnologías APC, Argentina; Radio Internacional Feminista (FIRE); Red de Salud de Mujeres de América Latina y El Caribe (RSMLAC),Chile; Red Nacional de Mujeres Radialistas de México; Red Pro Derechos de Educación y Salud A.C. México; Red Dominicana de Periodistas con Perspectiva de Género, República Dominicana; Red de Salud de las Mujeres Latinoamericanas y del Caribe (RSMLAC); Sinergia No j, Guatemala.

Also sponsoring the activity were some of Costa Rica’s autonomous institutions like the Gender Commission of UNED, The Center for Gender Research of the University of Costa Rica and the Gender Equity Office of the Technological Institute of Costa Rica The governmental Women’s National Institute also sponsored the activity and supported it with funds.