By Paola Palacios Ríos

This August, UAF-LAC went to Brasilia to acuerpar (embody) and accompany the National Steering Committee of the Black Women’s March for Reparations and Well-Being, a political moment of enormous historical significance. It was not a casual visit: it was a conscious gesture of direct accompaniment, a deep commitment to walking collectively, from a caring, loving and co-created gathering that seeks to strengthen the Protection, Holistic Safety, and Collective Care, which we call AcuerpaUAF.

Collaborative and feminist methodologies guided us during that gathering, because we know that March is not a symbolic act, but rather a demonstration with deep roots in collective power in motion. It is a living memory and also a future reclaimed. That gathering enriched us deeply: it allowed us to converse, listen, feel, and reaffirm that the Black Women’s March is not only a protest, but a structural cry against all forms of violence that seek to deny the lives of black women.

In 2015, the march emerged as a powerful political response to revindicate the life, dignity, and autonomy of black women. That year, more than 100,000 black women from all parts of Brazil occupied the streets of Brasilia to find against racism, violence and social and gender inequality. Since then, this movement has consolidated as a resounding political response, as an act of collective dignity under the slogan “against racism, violence and for well-being.”

In this context, the presence of UAF-LAC carries a political and strategic dimension. Our initiative AcuerpaUAF, together with the awarding of Rapid Response Grants and our Regional Grants, was activated to sustain this mobilization that will once again fill the streets of Brasilia, not only in terms of reflection and analysis, but also in material and economic terms. This march, we know, will once again be historic. Accompanying, for the Fund, does not just mean attending: it means collectively and carefully weaving a space where black women can come together, think together, strengthen their strategies and assert their leadership based on the experience, memory, and the ancestry that sustains them.  

During our stay, we shared with leaders who come from all corners of Brazil: women from the Amazon, from the Northeast, the Midwest, from the coasts in the South; rural, urban, quilombolas, trans, young, and older women. These women, organized in grassroots networks, are the ones who keep alive a tradition of resistance and struggle for racial, social, and gender justice.

The Black Women’s March for Reparations and Well-Being embodies a concrete political horizon: it’s not just about denouncing an injustice, but about constructing a new model of society. Its chant, “if one enters, we all enter,” is much more than a slogan; it’s a radical declaration of intersectional solidarity and collective power. They not only demand more just public policies; they call for profound transformations: full recognition, dignified income, health without discrimination, safety without violence, and real political representation.

In this historical moment, making this march sustainable requires more than just political will: it demands resources. Resources that guarantee the participation of thousands of women who travel from faraway territories; resources to sustain the logistics, care, communication, and strategies that make it possible for this movement to continue growing. The mobilization of financial resources is a political act that contributes to this movement’s ability to progress with strength and autonomy.

For UAC-LAC, accompanying this march reaffirms the power of alliances with black and feminist social movements. It affirms that our commitment is not momentary or circumstantial, but rather structural. We believe in the strength of regional solidarity that crosses borders and in the construction of collective strategies that sustain territorial struggles.

What we renewed in Brasilia is the political and affective commitment: to walk together with the Black women’s movement and to strengthen an alliance that transcends borders and has the capacity to transform the region. We are convinced that this historical call will mark a before and an after, not just in Brazil, but in all of Latin America and beyond. We will continue to weave networks of solidarity, sharing knowledge and building strategies to dismantle structures of domination and together create new possible worlds: freer, more dignified and more just.