"THE STRUGGLE OF THE WOMEN OF LIMON:FROM SILENCE TO MOANING"

by Erlinda Quesada, Coordinator of the Commission for the Recognition and Promotion of Women,Diocese of Limon

When does silence become a moan? For many years the women of Limon have lived under preca-rious health conditions. In her own home or at school, her sons and daughters are sexually abused. She has to suffer the harassment of her superiors, for fear of losing her employment. She has no access to credit for not owning anything that could back her up. In the meantime her sons and daughters ask her for food, education and clothing. She has given the best of her life to a transnational company that considers her as discardable matter when her productive forces begin to wane. The women of Limon today keep a silence of mourning: because her right to organize in a labor union is denied her; because in so many homes her work is not valued; because she has been humiliated and her rights violated; because she cannot discover the world on her own. She is presented as an object of pleasure, a source of profit in the so called beauty pageants and an exhibition piece in commercial propaganda. She is seen as incapable of occupying executive positions and of taking decisions. In politics she is used to attract votes, receiving always the lowliest posts. She screams in silence to be allowed to be simply a woman. How is silence not to become a moan when her voice is suffocated by physical and psychological aggression, and when her load is grinding her ribs? This moan is becoming louder and louder, and many structures are beginning to creak with the need to silence the soft voice of women that fight for their rights. When the women demand respect and equal opportunities in all fields, the hope of a new society is born where there is true equality, where people are valued for being persons and not for the power they wield or their social status. It is for this transformation of mentality and structures that the Pastorate for the Recognition and Promotion of Women of the Diocese of Limon fights for. Not for power, but for the establishment of justice, to recover the dignity of the sons and daughters of God, created in His image. We find the continuation of the woman Veronica who washed the face of Christ, in the woman who works all day in a packing plant with her feet soaking and her hands stained, in the youth who is forced to stop studying in order to work, in the multitude of adolescent mothers who have to face the difficult task of being mothers and fathers at the same time. Let us unite our voices of hope and security, because if we fight for justice, we will always have a light that guides us and will not let us lose our way. These are the Good Tidings announced by the Samaritan woman to the mothers that lamented next to the Holy Sepulchre. Let us show solidarity so that together, like Miriam (who is mentioned in Exodus of the Holy Scriptures), we can advance singing and dancing so that justice is implanted.

"PRINCIPAL PROBLEMS OF WOMEN IN THE BANANA PLANTATIONS"

Extract from Foro Emaus (1997) "Bananas for the World and the Damage for Costa Rica?"

It is important to highlight the active role of women in banana production. The first problem that affects women is that of poverty. As is well known, generally around the world, women have less access to economic resources and to land. Costa Rica is no exception, and particularly in the banana regions, female poverty is aggravated for various reasons: Work is poorly paid, and for many women it is occasional, depending on the amount of the harvest. The work requires heavy time schedules, which must be combined with domestic work. There are salary differences between men and women on the banana plantations. Women tend to earn less for the same work, as was denounced in the III Conference of Banana Unions in 1995. In these regions there are no other employment alternatives that permit women to earn their own keep and that of their families. Another problem that affects women who work on the banana plantations is the difficulty they find in having their labor rights respected, such as maternity leave and blood tests to measure the amounts of pesticides in their blood. Especially women who wash the clothes of banana workers who spray these pesticides, suffer grave contamination. Women’s right to unionize is also disregarded. Those women who are able to organize, suffer union persecution, expressed in the assignment of heavier tasks or unexplained salary reductions that they must constantly appeal. In some banana plantations, se-xual abuse and harassment by fellow workers and foremen have been denounced. In similar fashion, some women have pro-blems in being assigned housing. Pesticide contamination is suffered by women in the region even in their own homes and without being workers on the plantations. This is due to two main causes: indiscriminate aerial spraying which contaminates the vegetable gardens some women plant in their houses for domestic use; relations with contaminated spouses or companions who work on the plantations. This has lead to conditions of sterility and congenital deformations of children born to them.

AGAINST SOCIAL AND WAGE DISCRIMINATION

In a recent conference on the social problems of the region of Limon, the following proposals were made: 1. There should be a clamor against social and wage discrimination, and in favor of equal opportunities. 2. The Unions should introduce mechanisms that facilitate a greater participation of women in activities. The creation of child care centers in the labor unions is a concrete initiative that moves forward in that direction, although we make it very clear that the fight for child care centers is not a fight that belongs only to women, since child care is a duty of both men and women. 3. It is necessary that each labor union, as well as the Unions Coordinator, seek resources for education and the training of women. This should be given priority. 4. We respectfully urge the labor unions, as well as the national and international Coordinations, to establish in their statutes or founding regulations, secretariats for the working woman. 5. That the perspectives of labor union participation in productive and organizational matters take women into consideration. 6. That labor unions, as well as national Coordinations, such as the Regional Coordinator, promote exchanges and stimulate debate and greater knowledge about the problems affecting women. 7. That issues regarding the problem of women be highlighted in all bulletins, newspapers, educational material and labor union publications, in general. 8. Urge fellow women to assume a more active role in the fight for the rights denied them, both in society, and in the labor union organizations.

"CHICO MENDES"

by David Maradiaga, from the Anthology "Let the Sun Shine".

I had to form a red lake beneath my bodyserve as a casefor a piece of metalthat left me breathlessBut lying thereI learned the truth of transformationsAs an insect I lodged a fertile pollen grainin many heartsAs a wild beastI sent my roar to the four windsso that menwould take heed and avoid their ruinAs an immense and millenarian reptileI sowed panicamong the hoards that destroy the forestI burrowed into the future economy of predatorsconverted into an implacable rodentI sank criminal embarkmentswith my fins as a fish enragedI was many thingsbefore becoming this gigantic treethat scatters acornsof the clear animal that will live the future.