8 de Marzo

Femicide: ”the killing of a woman or girl, in particular by a man and on account of her gender.” This is the definition the Oxford dictionary gives when you search for femicide. I know this topic might sound terrifying at first,  but it is a very real issue many women live in fear of. Femicides are a global hate crime but are prone to be problems in societies where machismo is present. ”The rates of femicide differ depending on the specific country, but of the countries with the top 25 highest femicide rates, 50% are in Latin America.” In Mexico city, the city I lived in for 13 years, femicides are one of the most prevalent crimes. On my Facebook feed every other day something would pop up. Articles saying, have you seen Fernanda? girl goes missing in Tlalpan yesterday at 8:16pm, 7 year old girl Fatima killed in femicide. It starts to become overwhelming when one is exposed to these anxiety provoking posts. Naturally, the women of Mexico quickly got fed up with living in fear. 

In resistance to the outrageous number of femicides, women exposed to this societal violence came together to form a resistance. On the 8th of March every year, women from all over Latin America and the world take to the streets in protest. One of the main events of this march is the performance of the song “un violador en tu camino” which directly translates to: a violator in your path. The female Chilean group Las Tesis created the song and dance for un violador en tu camino. All over the world videos of women singing this chant went viral and the song slowly became a feminist anthem. 

During the march, women scream at the top of their lungs chants specially designed for the march. Some of my favorite chants and their translations being “Señor, Señora, no sea indiferente se matan las mujeres en la cara de la gente.” Mister, miss, don’t be indifferent, women are killed in the faces of people. “Verga violadora, a la licuadora''. Violator dick, to the blender. “Alerta, alerta, alerta que camina la lucha feminista por america latina, y tiemblen y tiemblen los machistas que ámerica latina será toda feminist.” alert, alert, alert that the fight for feminist latin america is walking, they tremble they tremble the machistas, because all of latin america will become feminist. 

I have attended the 8 de Marzo marches or 8th of March marches in the past, and this is what you can expect to see at these gatherings. The official colors of the march are green and purple. Green represents the right to abortion and purple signifies equality between men and women. In Mexico City, the march starts at the Monumento de la revolución where women from all walks of life gather, indigenous women, skaters, disabled, old, young, black, white you name it. From monumento de la revolucion the women start their path to the zocalo where the women will spend the rest of the day. Once at the zocalo,  the protesters take their time to write the names of femicide victims on the floor, graffiti feminist symbols, and knock down barricades around the city. The day is usually concluded with a bonfire around the flagpole of the zocalo. 

What I love most about these protests is that it is a day just for us. It is a day for us to mourn the sisters, mothers, and daughters we have lost. As women, we all share the experience of being taken advantage of and not being believed and taken seriously. In what can feel like such a scary, isolating experience, 8 de Marzo makes you see how many of us there really are. Attending the march makes me feel empowered and cared for by a community of women that I don’t even know. This topic is one that I am passionate about and will continue to practice and educate myself on. 

Works Cited 

“Femicide.” 5 July, 2023. Wikipedia, Wikipedia®, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femicide#:~:text=The%20rates%20of%20femicide%20differ,one%20African%20country%2C%20South%20Africa. Accessed 10 July, 2023.