SPEAKER_00: Just a note before we begin, this episode contains mentions of violence. Hey, y'all.I'm Erin Haines.I'm the editor-at-large for The 19th News, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics, and policy.I'm also the host of a brand-new weekly podcast from The 19th News and Wonder Media Network called The Amendment.Each week, we're bringing you a conversation about gender, politics, and the unfinished work of American democracy. Our very first episode features my dear friend and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Nicole Hannah-Jones.It's out now.So please go listen and follow the show.On top of all of this, I'm your guest host for this month of Womanica.
This Black History Month, we're talking about revolutionaries, the Black women who led struggles for liberation from violent governments, colonial rulers, and enslavers.These women had the courage to imagine radically different worlds, and they used their power to try and pull those worlds into view.Today, we're talking about an Afro-Peruvian organizer whose commitment to bettering women's lives and achieving tangible progress in her community drew the ire of guerrilla groups and a military dictatorship alike. but she held steadfast to her cause, even up to her untimely death, earning her the name Madre Caraje, Mother Courage.Let's talk about Maria Elena Moyano. Maria was born on November 23, 1958, in Lima, Peru.She and her siblings were mostly raised by her mother, Alondra.When Maria was still young, her family was forcibly moved to Villa El Salvador, a shanty town on the outskirts of Lima. Many of these towns had sprung up to accommodate rural migrants who'd moved towards the capital, often offering meager shelter and supplies.But by the 1990s, Villa El Salvador was 300,000 residents strong and an epicenter of grassroots, community-led organizing.
Maria fit into the village's new tradition well.She grew up organizing in local church groups, and later in the grassroots movements across shantytowns like hers.She pursued a sociology degree for two years before she ran out of money and dropped out.Besides, she was learning more about changing people's lives on the ground than she ever could in a classroom.A breach ran through Peruvian society. One so deep, people often spoke about two Perus.One Peru was white and rich.The other was indigenous, non-white, and impoverished.Maria saw this divide every day, and she saw the hand it dealt lower-class Black Peruvians like her own family. In 1983, Maria, by now married with two children, helped create a club for mothers like herself, marginalized from society, in need of a support system and basic services.
Maria also became the secretary of Villa El Salvador's Women's Federation.By 1986, she'd become its president.As the head of the Women's Federation, Maria organized community-driven functions for her village, public kitchens, health committees, income-generating projects, and education. Most unique was the vaso de leche, or a glass of milk program, which provided milk to people suffering from malnutrition.The program was so successful that the mayor of Lima asked Maria and the Women's Federation to expand into the city. These organizations were Villa El Salvador's form of self-governance.They elected leaders who knew their community's struggles and avenues for improvement.Leaders like Maria, who was elected deputy mayor of Villa El Salvador in 1989.Villa El Salvador's politics were revolutionary, but Peruvian politics were a minefield, and Maria soon found herself targeted by two violent enemies. At the time, Peru's President Fujimori was moving steadily towards dictatorship, implementing oppressive economic policies that left shantytowns like Maria's in turmoil.
In response, a Marxist-inspired guerrilla group had formed, the Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path.They said they stood for the poor, but their methods had grown increasingly violent. especially towards programs that aimed to help the poor with the government's cooperation.Programs like Maria's.On September 9, 1991, a bomb exploded at a distribution center for the Vaso de Leche program.The Senderos circulated pamphlets accusing Maria of planting the bomb.They said she'd worked with the government, misappropriated funds, and brought corruption to Villa El Salvador.The truth couldn't be clearer.Maria was the Senderos' next target. She could have left Peru.
Instead, Maria wrote a letter publicly disavowing the violent act.I could never destroy what I have built with my own hands, she wrote.She denounced police and state violence, and she condemned the Sendero, suggesting it had become a threat to the communities it claimed to protect.Over the next months, Maria continued to organize, even as she received more and more death threats. On February 14, 1992, the Sendero threatened to attack her community.Maria organized a march against violence instead.The next day, Maria went to a community fundraiser where the Sendero shot her to death in front of her family.They then dynamited her body.Maria was 33 years old. Maria's death, in the very town where she'd created so much positive change, created a public outcry.
Maria's fellow organizers spoke out against the Peruvian left for not offering her more support or protection as she took on the dangerous Sendero alone.Public opinion turned against the Sendero quickly.Over the next few years, President Fujimori consolidated his power, and the leader of the Sendero was captured. Maria's memory held strong over Peru.Roughly 300,000 people attended her burial.And later, she was given the Order of Merit by the Peruvian government.Amnesty International published a report on women's rights in her memory, and she was immortalized in films and books.In February of 1992, Maria knew her death was imminent.But it wasn't through a heroic death or a submission to the Sendero that she saw the path to revolution.In her own words,
Revolution is an affirmation of life, the belief in and struggle for a just and dignified society.I will continue to fight for peace with social justice.All month, we're talking about revolutionaries.For more information, you can find us on Facebook and Instagram at Womanica Podcast. Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan for having me as a guest host.Talk to you tomorrow.
