In 13 Colors of the Honduran Resistance, feminist author and activist Melissa Cardoza tells 13 stories about women from the Honduran resistance in the aftermath of the June 28th, 2009 coup against President Manuel Zelaya. On that day, led by a U.S.-trained General, the Honduran military barged in to the president's house and took him in his pajamas into a helicopter, flying him first to a U.S. base in Honduras and then on to Costa Rica. It was the first coup of the 21st century in Central America. The military and Honduran oligarchy quickly imposed an interim government, undid most of the progressive reforms underway, and passed hundreds of concessions to corporate interests. To the surprise of the coup's backers, however, thousands of people around the country spontaneously came out into the streets. Their numbers and the depth of their vision and commitment kept growing during hundreds of days of consecutive protest, with fearless women at the forefront. Melissa calls those the times "when protests were poetry in the streets." 13 Colors of the Honduran Resistance is her most intimate and impactful work to date. It is a book about the multiple and intersectional identities of those who found each other in the streets through the resistance. It is a book about what they share, not just with each other but with all people who struggle for a more just world. Melissa weaves the stories of 13 women together in a way that leaves readers unfamiliar with the events surrounding the coup and resistance in Honduras convinced of their fundamental importance to liberation struggles everywhere.
This bilingual edition is the product of collaboration with translator Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle, who was introduced to the author by assassinated indigenous leader Berta Cáceres, to whom this edition is dedicated.
---- En 13 Colores de la Resistencia Hondureña, la luchadora feminista y autora Melissa Cardoza cuenta 13 historias de mujeres de la resistencia hondureña después del golpe de Estado del 28 de julio de 2009 en contra del Presidente Manuel Zelaya. Ese día, los militares hondureños allanaron la casa del Presidente y lo llevaron en pijamas a un helicóptero, pasando primero por una base militar de EE.UU. en Honduras y luego a Costa Rica. Dirigidos por el General Hondureño Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, entrenado en la Escuela de las Américas en EE.UU., llevaron a cabo el primer golpe de Estado del siglo veintiuno en Centroamérica. Los militares y la oligarquía hondureña rápidamente impusieron un gobierno interino, deshicieron la mayor parte de las reformas progresivas que habían empezado y aprobaron cientos de concesiones para las empresas privadas.
Pero los golpistas fueron sorprendidos cuando miles de personas en todo el país salieron espontáneamente a las calles. El número de gente, así como la profundidad de su visión y compromiso durante cientos de días de movilización consecutiva, continuaron creciendo con mujeres valientes siempre en las primeras filas.
Melissa describe esa etapa como los tiempos "cuando las manifestaciones eran poesía en las calles". 13 Colores de la Resistencia Hondureña es su obra más íntima e impactante hasta la fecha. Como sugiere el título, es un libro sobre las identidades plurales e interseccionales de quienes se encontraron en las calles por medio de la resistencia. Es un libro sobre lo que comparten, no solamente entre sí, sino con todos los pueblos que luchan por un mundo más justo. Melissa teje las historias de estas 13 mujeres juntas de tal forma que el lector o la lectora, sin conocimiento previo de los eventos del golpe de Estado y de la resistencia en Honduras, termina convencid@ de su importancia fundamental para las luchas de liberación en todas partes.
Esta edición bilingüe es producto de una colaboración con traductor Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle, quien conoció a la autora a través de la lideresa indígena asesinada Berta Cáceres, a quien esta edi
About the Author: Melissa Cardoza is a writer and feminist artist born in Honduras amidst the sexual rebelliousness of the 60's. She is of mixed Afro-descendent Garífuna and indigenous Lenca heritage, and describes herself as a "GaríLenca... in resistance to parties, husbands and states, a traveling and curious woman." Her mother died when she was very young and she grew up in a household of four men. She joined the feminist movement in her 20's while in college in Honduras in response to the killing of a young woman, a university student brutally murdered by two Honduran soldiers. She was attracted to the feminist movement for its rebelliousness, its creativity, its expressiveness, its independence. She left Honduras and lived in Mexico for two years where she joined a collective of other feminists and lesbians and wrote extensively. She came back, encountering a country in the throes of neoliberal economic reforms and burgeoning resistance against the wave of privatization and austerity that was sweeping not just Honduras but the rest of Latin America.
Though the feminist movement has always been her political home, she is also deeply immersed in the indigenous movement, largely because of her close friendship with Berta Cáceres, one of the principal leaders of the Lenca indigenous organization COPINH. In the aftermath of the coup d'état and through the process of resistance against it she has been impacted by the diversity of forces and peoples in the streets, where she has been both documentarian and participant. She describes the vocation of the writer as someone always "hunting stories in the reality around us." Her other work includes poetry, articles, short stories, essays and children's books. Previously, her mostly widely circulated publication was the children's book Tengo una tía que no es monjita, or "I have an aunt who is not a nun," published in Mexico with illustrator Margarita Sada. It is well known and widely praised for its artful, playful and powerful message of tolerance to children. 13 Colores de la Resistencia Hondureña, or 13 Colors of the Honduran Resistance, has brought her renewed attention throughout Latin America since its publication two years ago in Costa Rica and Honduras.
