Notes on a Time of Rebellion: Ten Years of Renewed Feminisms in Uruguay

TRANSLATED FROM SPANISH BY VALENTINA SARMIENTO CRUZ, MARÍA VIGNAU LORIA, AND FELIPE GUERRA ARJONA

For this first trilingual issue of the magazine, we were interested in translating into English and French, the terminology of the feminist struggle in Latin America, and more specifically in Uruguay. In this text, Victoria Furtado describes the last ten years of the movement, its methods, its ambitions, its victories, but also the way language and allegories (in particular with regards to water) deploy a poetic and powerful imaginary of liberation.

All struggles have their calendar. The feminists’ struggle recaptures milestones that we use as an excuse to meet, establish issues on the agenda, and take to the streets. In addition to the historical dates, our calendar is nourished by what we create together. This November marks an important anniversary for contemporary feminisms in Uruguay: it has been ten years since the “Primer Encuentro de Feminismos de Uruguay” (First Meeting of Feminisms of Uruguay) and the first Feminist Alert, two actions that inaugurated our present cycle of struggles.

The Primer Encuentro de Feminismos consolidated organizational processes that had been taking place underground and led to a series of actions that made possible the re-emergence of the movement. On the one hand, there was a gathering of diverse people and collectives: organizations that emerged in the 1980s; collectives of more recent creation made up by young activists; feminists who did not participate in any organization; women from different social and political organizations (parties, unions, cooperatives); sex-gender dissidences – what in other countries might be known as the queer movement – that have resisted the heteronormative system; among others. On the other hand, the Encuentro also enabled political agreements that would mark the struggle from that moment on. The main one: take the streets back.