2A. Gender & Sexuality within Afrolatinidad
11:15am-12:45pm
Afro-Latin@ women and queers are especially subject to demeaning stereotypes and discrimination. Racism, sexism, homophobia and cultural prejudice conspire to make them prey to all manner of physical and emotional violence. How do language, social conventions and ideas about femininity and masculinity contribute to our vulnerability? How do we challenge these conventions in the field of public health and in work with the incarcerated population? What educational and cultural strategies can we develop to guide efforts in these areas?
Afro-Latin@ women and queers are especially subject to demeaning stereotypes and discrimination. Racism, sexism, homophobia and cultural prejudice conspire to make them prey to all manner of physical and emotional violence. How do language, social conventions and ideas about femininity and masculinity contribute to our vulnerability? How do we challenge these conventions in the field of public health and in work with the incarcerated population? What educational and cultural strategies can we develop to guide efforts in these areas?
Presenters
Bertha Arzu Cacho is co-founder and executive director of Enlace de Mujeres Negras de Honduras (ENMUNEH), a community-based non-governmental organization in Bahia de Tela, established in 1994 to address the exclusion of Indigenous and African-descendant women from the national Honduran women's rights movement. A Black feminist organization, its mission is to organize, educate, empower, and advocate for Garifuna women by challenging racist gender and sexuality stereotypes. A licensed nurse, Arzu Cacho has worked in her community for over thirty years, linking her professional and activist concerns to tackle the practical sexual health issues affecting them, specifically targeting HIV/AIDS. She is a member of the Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas, Afrocaribeñas y de la Diáspora.
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Javier Cardona is a performing artist and educator originally from Puerto Rico. His artistic work has been presented throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States. Experienced in the use of the arts as an aesthetic form and as a dialogical medium for human reflection and social action, he is currently the Arts & Education Director for Rehabilitation Through the Arts, a non-governmental arts-in-education initiative inside New York State prisons. Additionally, he is a teaching-artist with The New Victory Theater's Education Department, a member of the Board of Directors of the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance, iLAND, and a faculty member of the NYU Educational Theatre Program.
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Leticia Peguero is deputy director of the Robert Wood Johnson Local Funding Partnerships. For the past 15 years she her philanthropic interests have been issues of social equity for women, adolescents, and LGBTQ populations with a focus on reproductive justice, gender based violence and the arts. When not working in grant making Leticia splits her professional time in the arts and serves as the Managing Director of Areytos Performance Works – a dance theatre company dedicated to using the stage and the body to tell untold stories of the Afro-Caribbean. A graduate of the National Urban Fellows, she holds a B.A from Fordham University and a MA in public administration from Baruch College.
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Charles Rice-González, born in Puerto Rico and reared in the Bonx, is a writer, long-time community and LGBT activist, and Executive Director of BAAD!, the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. He received a BA in Communications from Adelphi University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. His debut novel, Chulito, was released in October 2011. He is co-editor, with Charlie Vásquez, of the anthology From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction, released in August 2011. He is an award-winning playwright and sefes on the boards of the Bronx Council on the Arts and the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures.
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Moderator
Zenaida Mendez has an extensive career in public service and community activism. She earned recognition for her activism nationally and internationally on issues affecting women and the Latino community. She organized a summit on women of color and their allies and developed the campaign to end the femicide of the women of Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico, designing a political training program to engage Latinas. She is the founder of the National Dominican Women’s Caucus and is currently Director of External Affairs for the Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN), public access television.
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