How I claimed the rights life had denied me | Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza | TEDxCuauhtémoc

Eufrosina had to face customary law of her town and decided to take responsibility to make herself visible. She entered politics to change those things that hurt. In her talk she explains her powerful reasons.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

(Zapotec) Good morning everyone,
thanks for being here today,

for sharing your morning
at this beautiful space.

Good morning everyone,
thanks for being here today,

for sharing your morning
at this beautiful space.

I am a daughter of an indigenous woman,
and an indigenous man,

to whom life and circumstances denied
the opportunity to attend school.

My parents cannot read or write.

My mother had 10 children.

My elder sister was given
for marriage at age 12,

by age 13 she was a mom already.

At 31 my sister Claudia had 9 children.

But I cannot hold my parents accountable,

because at that time they thought
they were doing the right thing.

I come from a community called Quegolani

one of the 570 municipalities of my state.

I am indigenous,
my mother tongue is Zapotec.

I had to take over
this language I am now using

in order to learn my rights
and obligations.

That is why I had to escape
from that environment,

with deep pain and sorrow,
that day, more than 25 years ago,

my heart ripped in two: one part
remained there in the mountain

7 hours away from my state,
home to my background,

my essence, my roots,
my tongue, my outfit;

the other part is still with me,

To understand why my eyes could not grasp

or why I did not like what I was seeing.

Why my mother was the first to wake up

and the last to go to sleep?

Why I had to wake up with her?

I had to learn to make tortilla,
bring firewood with the donkey,

because that was what women
were supposed to do.

I did not want that, by the way,
when I left my homeland,

there was no light, no highway;
I used to sleep on the ground.

Had I known that sleeping
in a bed was cool,

I would have chosen that.

But to understand that,

I first had to take over
what I thought of as the tool

to transform much of what hurt us:

Education.

I had to wrest for education
because life did not grant it to me.

I had to work in the morning

and in the afternoon
I studied high school.

I am a public accountant.

Time went by and I returned to my land.

My mom stilled woke up at 3 am,

to make tortilla, lime corrodes
because from a previous day

you have to prepare the nixtamal

with limewater, then place
three tortillas on the hotplate

because if we fail to do this,
it is said we are not women.

But I don't blame this environment.

It is the circumstance
that must be hold responsible,

the poverty and marginalization.

Not poverty and marginalization
from [stomach], but from [head].

When a mind is not nurtured,
is afraid of questioning,

afraid to demand but most important,

is afraid to decide what it wants.

When a mind is educated,
you discover freedom;

you discover your rights and obligations,

but never denying your roots,
I am proud of being indigenous,

of speaking my tongue
and go to my homeland to celebrate.

But that does not make me less,

neither it means that my community

or that 16 millions of Mexicans
that live in this country,

indigenous, cannot access
health or education.

But I understood something,
nobody was going change that

if I didn't give the first step.

This means breaking cultural paradigms

that the society imposes upon us.

Suddenly saying indigenous makes
people think of a walking museum

and we are not walking museums,

we have opinions and
we can decide for ourselves.

When I finished my major,
I had to fight for that too

by working, selling
whatever I could on the streets,

yet, I don't regret because
that is how I found freedom.

I was a community instructor,
then I wanted to become a doctor,

but I had no means
so I became an accountant

that is how I know that 1 + 1
makes 2: rights and obligations.

Every time I went back to my community
I couldn't understand

why women were always empty handed.

The answer was "you are a woman,

first get a husband
and you might get something."

But at school I was taught

that one article of my country Constitution

said that we are all equal,

but that was not a reality there.

Customary law blocked that right.

I will say it again: I do not hold
these men and women responsible,

most of them don't even know
what Human Rights are,

not even what an obligation is.

When I understood that, I started going
to the community playground

to play,

I became the crazy woman.

Attending mass, I was crazy.

But I took that responsibility because
nobody would do it for me.

I made it for me,

then for my family, for my community,

for my state, to become
visible for this country.

I am capable of deciding what I want.

Afterwards, I wanted to become
president of my village.

But customary law hindered my right.

But that was not the worst.

Government institutions
response was the worst.

That is was the community customary law,

the autonomy of the community

was a common right,

and there was no law
that could protect me.

21st century, 2007.

It wasn't about the answers
I was given in my town,

but the answers I was given
by the government,

that was what hurt me the most.

Not because I wanted to be a President,

but because that was the entrance door
to visibility of our own community,

we voted already for political parties,

because we had credentials.

But the aim of this was becoming visible

because our families
only knew customary law.

I didn't stand still,
I denounced and thanks to that,

I made my way into politics.

As questioned as it is,
I took that responsibility.

Nowadays, politicians
are all judged the same,

but no.

I believe that politics

needs to help citizens

to start changing what they don't like.

It's a less painful path
to change what hurts us.

That is why I started my way in politics,
to change the answer

I was given in the past,

Where was this answer?
I had to change my state Constitution,

so that women should
never hear again "No",

it's not for me, in the end
I am already an accountant.

It is for all those invisible women.

All those women who are not even asked
if they want to have 10 kids.

Having 10, 5 or 4 kids is not bad,
as long as it is our own decision.

This was the way I found

so that women in my town
can exercise their rights.

Today in my village, women can vote.

Today in my village, three women
are part of the town council.

Out of the 570 municipalities of my state,

417 are still under customary law.

Out of the 68 existing ethnic groups
of the country, 16 are in my state.

Nobody should tell us
that due to our culture

we cannot access development
or we cannot give our opinion

regarding how we want to change
our stories and situations.

Politics should be a tool to help us say:

"This is Mexico, this is
our color, our flavor."

I gained this with education.

Through education I've found freedom.

Today freedom is for me the most sacred.

Thanks to that I became
a federal deputy and said:

"Not just for my state but also
for those 16 million Mexican women

that live in this country,
so that nobody denies their rights."

In 2014, I succeeded in achieving
an amendment of the Constitution,

so that nobody should hear again
the answers I was once given.

Not only that, also in 2014,
UN adopted that amendment

so that any place
with an indigenous population,

heads of state are obliged

to change practices that threaten

the development
of our indigenous communities.

Everybody speaks of democracy,

I think of democracy as a dove,

with a female and a male wing,

without each of them
we cannot reach democracy,

especially if we are indigenous.

Today, I'm grateful for the presence
of the most important person,

my son, the reason why

I won't back up,

I will continue striving, because
an amendment is not enough,

it now needs to be enforced.

It cannot remain just as an amendment

it must become a reality

that in the 417 municipalities,

at least 5 or 20 women
can be heads of a municipality.

Then again, voting is not the main aspect,

what is important is
becoming visible in Mexico.

(Zapotec) I now understand freedom

as the fog that flows

by the hillsides of my village.

Thank you so much.

I now understand freedom as the fog

that flows by the hillside of my village.

Thank you.

(Applause)