In Latin America and the Caribbean, narratives and discourses linked to fundamentalism and right-wing and far-right ideology are becoming stronger. In this context, feminist movements are facing them and working tirelessly to counteract them, communicating from possibility of just and inclusive worlds. 

To learn more about their methods, sources of inspiration and practices, we at UAF interviewed three collectives and networks: Espacio Tolomocho, Afrocolectiva and Futuros Indígenas. Each construct, from a diversity of territories, bodies and identities, narratives that oppose patriarchal and capitalist discourses that affect them such as racism, colonialism, machismo, extractivism and ableism, among others. 

These initiatives are just one example of the many that exist in the region, but they have features in common. For example, the protagonists shared that the inspiration for their creations comes from reality, in which people with disabilities are not the protagonists in the stories that are read, seen or heard; in which indigenous people are objectified as part of official discourses; or the rage runs through Black people when they face racism. 

Ana Bueriberi, cofounder and Communication Director of Afrocollective, told us that her inspiration comes from what her friends tell her, the poems she reads or even songs by Bad Bunny that she hears. But also, she takes into account the resistances that came before them, like grandmothers, mothers, and ancestors, “when it comes to at least structuring these counternarratives”.

The process of creating communication content by the collective is based on horizontality and cooperation; an idea emerges and is discussed with other members. Listening, reflection and strategic thinking are put into practice. Although sometimes the immediacy of social networks impose their speed, Afrocollective encourages all members to have space to suggest, dissent, and change proposals, even if they are not directly involved in the production of the content, but from a collective perspective, “and in this way organize ourselves to live feminism, anti-racism and all this activism far beyond the discursive,” assures Bueriberi.

For Ayito Cabrera, a transmasculine person with a disability and director of Espacio Tolomocho, located in Argentina, even his existence in recognizing himself as part of the “tranfem-disabled” movement is a form of counternarrative, a form of resistance against TERFism, ableism and the patriarchy. 

Cabrera considers that counternarratives they produce emerge from the necessities of their communities and it is for them that they create their tools through art and the creation of other manuals; for example, the “Guide to accessibility, disability and neurodivergence”.

After their creation, the next step was to make them as accessible as possible for other people with disabilities, like making it in braille, for which it was adjusted and transformed. This process led the organization to link up and collaborate with other networks and organizations, which also generated work opportunities for other people with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community.  

However, Espacio Tolomocho not only develops communication products, but also, through artistic expression, seeks  “to show our mark and our ways of seeing the world and of building it”, says Ayito. In addition, they offer workshops for the community, to create fanzines, on theater, among other topics. This work aims, on the one hand, to be useful to the population, and on the other, of promoting reflection and to question the hegemonic narratives about the community through a process of inclusive and intersecitional creation. 

Rosa Marina Flores, member of Futuros Indígenas, shares that the inspiration for the network comes from a recognition among different peoples of their spirituality, connection with nature, but also from the violences they have lived, “among people who are living and experiencing different things in territories that seem very far away […] when we start talking about all these things, we realize how these wounds are there: of colonialism, capitalism, persecution, and racism against our own existence and how we have to heal together.”

Their narratives are also born out of example, by those who resist in territories, from the path that other people have previously opened, such as ancestors and other comrades, and are built through collective conversations. For example, the network holds monthly assemblies 

in which issues arise to be resolved and are processed in internal commissions that manage the functioning of the network, including communication.

“Is there any issue that needs to be addressed? Well, we get together, and talk. Is there any project we want to pursue? Well the same, those who are interested go about building, go about advancing in that conversation and through the conversations we are creating, well we also in some cases produce communication materials,” explains Flores. 

These three examples of inspiration and the crafting of counternarratives are just a sample of many others in the region that seek to be a breath of hope and creativity for others to also create and strengthen their own counter-hegemonic narratives. Because to meet the advance of the violent forces of capitalism and patriarchy in Latin America and the Caribbean there are feminist movements that communicate while sustaining life.