Horizons magazine is published by Presbyterian Women (PW) the national women’s organization of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Issue link: http://horizons.epubxp.com/i/623149
January/February 2016 15 to "destroy the seed" of the guerillas by raping and killing their wives, mothers and daughters. Even since the end of that war, women in Guatemala have been killed at alarming rates. Guatemala has the third highest rate of femicide, the murder of a person based on her gender, in the world. 5 On average, two women are murdered per day in Guatemala. 6 Femicide wasn't declared illegal until 2008. Confuse O Lord, confound their speech; for I see violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go around it on its walls, and iniquity and trouble are within it; ruin is in its midst; oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace. Our delegation sought to under- stand how the Guatemalan church is responding to sexual violence. CEDE- PCA, the organization Alicia and her mother are involved with, is a faith- based nonprofit that offers education and accompaniment for those who suffer from violence. They not only want to dismantle the machismo woven throughout their culture, they also seek to dismantle the violence internalized within women. How is it possible to deconstruct such a violent way of understanding yourself and the world? CEDEPCA's answer is a woman-centered theology, taught through a process that aims to empower people who are marginal- ized socially and politically and who may not have more than an elemen- tary school-level education. Through classes with titles like "It's Marvelous to be a Woman," women are taught to read scripture through the lens of their lived experiences. Read in this way, the Bible can be a source of liber- ation rather than a tool of oppression. Scripture has the potential to liberate us from cycles of violence, both cul- tural and internal. Our group listened to a panel of women who had participated in CEDEPCA's workshops. Courageous women spoke about how reading scripture from a woman's perspective has impacted their lives. Many cried as they shared their stories of abuse, how they can now articulate that what they've experienced is not what they've deserved. Dios no quiere las mujeres sufran ningun tipo de violencia—God doesn't want women to suffer any type of violence. Yes, if an enemy had abused me, I would have borne it. If a foe had set himself over me, I would have hidden myself from him. But you: one of my own, my companion, my friend, with whom I enjoyed sweet fellowship, walked in the crowd in the house of our God. Healing spaces are a critical piece of a healing journey. For many Guatemalan women, the church is the only space where they can gather safely and freely, where their hus- bands allow them to go unaccompa- nied without suspecting anything. Here, women connect, share their experiences and hopes, and realize they have value. Here, women create a network of support with other sur- vivors of violence. Here, in the church, women organize, birthing new visions of an equitable society. Women create many healing spaces outside of the church walls, as well. Our group visited Las Poderosas Teatro (The Powerful Ones), a the- atre collective made up entirely of women who have experienced sexual violence. The shows, which they write, direct, produce and perform, are biographical, pulling from the women's experiences of violence and survival. They seek to expose different Participants in the October 2015 travel study seminar to Guatemala; Emily with Clemenci, one of the women from the Mayan weaving cooperative, Corazon de Mujer Photos courtesy of Emily Wilkes