Today is International Women’s Day, El Día Internacional de la Mujer, and this year, more than others, I’ve been more aware and passionate about how women fight day in and day out to hold their families, jobs and worlds together. Living and working in a poor, machista area where women haven’t always had a voice, been allowed to study or work, has shown me how much more of an uphill battle this fight for equality or equidad de genero is. I would like to share one story which has stayed with me. I know the circumstances of this situation are not rare or unique around the world for women. Perhaps because I know this mother as someone with a calm, shy, warm, and even passive demeanor, she surprised me with her story. She fought, rebelled, and broke the oppressive cycle she was expected to follow being a Maya woman.

One warm Carrillo morning when the school was still quiet, our newly selected scholarship student came in with her mother to meet and talk about the Maya Youth Scholarship program. Our student’s mother is a ‘typical’ Maya mom: kind, soft-spoken, respectful, and of few words. This meeting is usually lasts just a few minutes and I thought this one would be the same. As I spoke about the program and explained what we expected of her daughter – an adolescent – and what they should expect from the school, they both sat their quietly, hands folded on their laps, listening and nodding. When I finished, the mother thanked me, held my hands in hers and said she wanted to let me know why this scholarship for her eldest daughter was such a special gift to her.

She told me she wanted her three daughters to have different lives than she did; to have the freedom to make their own choices, to study, to be strong and independent. Her story began with growing up in a small Maya community. She didn’t learn Spanish until she started going to school and she knew school would only go until the 6th grade because she was a girl. She knew that her parents were arranging her marriage and that she’d be married by the age of 13. When she turned 13, knowing her marriage was pending and, to her, her life would be ending, she ran away. She was young, had not been out of her community and was terrified. She had wanted to continue studying, she wanted to be a professional and wanted to marry someone she chose when she was ready. She told no one and went to an aunt’s home in Cancun - which might seem close to us, but to her it was a long journey to an unknown, large, and scary city. Her aunt took her in although she knew family relationships were going to get broken. Eventually she contacted her family to let them know that she was going to stay in Cancun until there was an agreement that the arranged marriage would be canceled. After years of struggle, with her aunt’s assistance, she was ‘free’.

Twenty years and three daughters later, she sat with me and said that she had fought every day of her life to give her daughters the support and opportunities they needed to allow them to be who they chose to be. She was one of the lucky ones able to marry a good man she chose and able to study more. All of this came with heartaches and broken family ties. She told me that by receiving the scholarship for her daughter who loved languages, she was able to continue studying her passion. This student learned more English in one year than I have ever seen. The next year she was accepted to the state university and passed the required English exam for her dream major of international languages. Her Na’atik scholarship was passed on to her sister and when we had another available scholarship, her youngest sister was able to come to class too. These days, when I run into the oldest daughter on her vacations from school, she casually talks to me about how she’s learning Italian and French and how she wants to travel to Europe. Her pride, self-confidence, strength and open-mindedness is thanks to her mom: an incredible woman who fought, worked, and struggled to give her daughters everything she could in a culture that opposed her every move.

Although there are millions of stories like this around the globe, things are changing. Seeing mothers and fathers bringing their daughters in to study with us – to give their daughters the tools to be educated and independent – brings me those bursts of hope that women do have a chance of breaking down barriers.

Here’s to Woman’s Day 2018. Here’s to all those women who are staying true to themselves. And here’s to the women who are being fierce in their fight to be heard, respected, and follow their dreams.

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