SMUG MORENITA
by Gabriela Alemán
0

Central American Heros

Central American Heros

Isabel Vargas Lizano (April 17, 1919 - August 5, 2012, better known as Chavala Vargas, was born in San Joaquín de Flores, Costa Rica. As a teenager she moved to Mexico and became famous for her renditions of Mexican ranchers. Considering the politic…

Isabel Vargas Lizano (April 17, 1919 - August 5, 2012, better known as Chavala Vargas, was born in San Joaquín de Flores, Costa Rica. As a teenager she moved to Mexico and became famous for her renditions of Mexican ranchers. Considering the political landscape of her time and the femininity politics of Central American/Mexican communities, she truly was the epitome of an unapologetic QWOC. Even though she never tried to hide her identity, she came out as a lesbian at 81 years young. 

She remains one of the most celebrated women in Mexican/Chicanx culture. 

Costa Rica

Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores was an Honduran environmentalist activist, indigenous leader, co-founder & coordinator of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras and a #CentralAmericanHeros .

She spent her life working to defend the habitat and rights of the Lenca indigenous people, the largest in Honduras and the community she was born into.
She led a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the 🌎’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam at the Río Gualcarque. Her efforts not only conserved the area but she also won the Goldman Environmentalist Prize in 2015 for her efforts.

She was murdered March 2, 2016 and is one of many examples of the risks environmental activists face around the world, with Honduras currently holding the highest killings of environmental and land defenders per capita in the world. 
#SayHerName #BertaCáceres

Honduras

Arlen Siu was a Chinese Nicaraguan HERO who became one of the first female martyrs of the Sandinista revolution. In doing my research, I really couldn’t find too much on her story let alone photos so I took inspo from @jobonilla who is the embodiment of grace & smarts along with images of Salvadorean women during the 70’s. Only the best for Arlen.

Nicaragua

Francisca “Chica” Ramirez. Doña Chica was born in 1977 in La Fonseca, Nueva Guinea (a municipality in the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region of Nicaragua). She is a bad ass farmer & campesino rights activist. She has been organizing and leading grassroots mobilization’s/ protests against the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship since 2014.

Doña Chica founded the nonpartisan National Council for the Defense of the Land, Lake and Sovereignty (Consejo Nacional para la Defensa de la Tierra, Lago y Soberanía). Despite being offered bribes and threats to her and her family she doesn’t belong to a political party & isn’t backing down.

Like the incredible Berta Cáceres, the Honduran environment activist & like all of us, Doña Chica es la hijx de la tierra.

Nicaragua

Claribel Isabel Alegría Vides, (May 12, 1924 - Jan. 25, 2018) also known by her pseudonym Claribel Alegría was a Nicaraguan-Salvadoran poet,essayist, journalism & novelist!! She’s a fixture of contemporary Central American literature.

Born in Estelí, Nicaragua, she grew up in Santa Ana, El Salvador where her mother was from after her father was sent into exile for protesting human rights violations during the U.S. occupation of Nicaragua. In 1943 she moved to the U.S. & in 1948 graduated with a B.A. from @gwuniversity. She returned to Nicaragua in 1985 to aide in the reconstruction of 🇳🇮. She was in love with Nicaragua & left her 💛 in El Salvador. Took inspo from Cola Champagne to honor her Salvi roots & my early childhood memories.

Nicaragua & El Salvador