What does Afro Peruvian Women’s Day represent for the community?

BY SHARÚN GONZALES ON AUGUST 31, 2021

As Peru declares National Afro Peruvian Women Day, activist Anai Medrano, artist Nadia Calmet and activist Miluska Elguera tell us what this means for Afroperuanas. Photo courtesy of Anai Medrano, Nadia Calmet (Enzo Amado Photography) and Miluska Elguera.

On Oct 1, 2020, law 31049 was approved by the Peruvian government, declaring July 25th as the National Afro Peruvian Women’s Day. The new date opens questions regarding the invisible violence affecting them and the diversity of experiences within this group. This year marks the first time Peru commemorates the date. A group of Afro Peruvian women living in the United States and Peru, share their perspectives with ¡Presente! Media.

“Can you imagine if there was a Black Women’s Day in the United States?,” I asked Patricia Quiroz, an Afro-Peruvian woman living in Maryland. It’s been almost 30 years since she left Peru to work in an international organization. “It would be something strange because Black women are more visible here than in Peru.”

According to the Afroperuanas report, 54.5% of Afro Peruvian women report being discriminated against and verbally assaulted. Quiroz remembers, from her days in Peru, the heavy weight of discrimination and inequalities which are, sadly, part of the Black experience.

“The invisibilization of Black people in Peru is too much. Any effort is usually insufficient for tackling that. I can see why we need a specific day over there,” said Quiroz. 

Amidst the pandemic, the law was celebrated mostly by Afro Peruvian social organizations and academics. However, Miluska Elguera, an academic and activist who self-identifies as Afro Peruvian, did not know about the new date. Even though she lives in Peru and follows politics, she was surprised when I mentioned it. “I knew about the International Afrodescendant Women’s Day, but not about this one,” she confessed. In fact, the date for the national commemoration was picked due to the international day. 

In 1992, the “Día Internacional de la Mujer Afrolatina, Afrocaribeña y de la Diáspora'' was created by the Afrolatinamerican and Caribbean Women's Network (Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas y Caribeñas). Progressively, it gained recognition across the Latin American region and Peru was no exception. That is why many Peruvian Black women’s organizations already use July 25 as a day to celebrate Afro Peruvian women. The recent law only made it official.

Dates like these have a lot of potential in Peru. The discourse on mestizaje —the racial and cultural mixing of African, Indigenous and Hispanic peoples, permeates society and invisibilizes all the non-white and non-mestizo experiences. In the case of ethnically and racially diverse women, an official date can in fact reclaim our existence, our fights, contributions, and aspirations. Having people wonder why there is a national day for us can be useful to gain visibility. However, there are two risks I would like to highlight.

Afro Peruvian women are diverse. We face different individual experiences —informed by our own, and the structures that surround us. Quiroz, for instance, is aware of her accent and foreignness as part of her identity in the U.S. An experience shared by Afro Peruvian artist  Nadia Calmet, who found her path in Los Angeles through the organizing and artistic education communities.

Although, both Quiroz and Calmet share the immigrant experience -and know what it is like to be a black immigrant in the U.S., what they consider the more salient parts of their paths differs from each other. This can seem obvious, but minority women are quickly boxed as a monolith. That is why society must be careful of —without a critical perspective, driving the National Afro Peruvian women’s day in the same direction.

That is partly why Miluska Elguera confesses “I am not amused.” For her, there are more important matters —like territorial rights, among other issues, that are being overlooked. “I fear this date may become part of the same. We still need to visibilize the experiences of people in poverty or community leaders”, Elguera pointed out. The risk here is to stay content with the date and its symbolic meaning. 

That concern is shared by activist and member of the Barrer Project Anai Medrano. Although she recognizes “the importance of the work behind achieving something like this,” Medrano  considers Afro Peruvian National Day a premio consuelo (consolation prize) for her community. 

Medrano is part of a group of women who, on July 25, 2020, launched the Barrer Project in celebration of  the International Afrodescendants Women’s Day. The initiative was inspired by the work of Victoria Santa Cruz, best known for her poem “Me Gritaron Negra (They Called me Black).” And it has become a virtual safe space for Black women to rethink oppression and share their experiences. 

Despite her reservations, Medrano hopes this date can serve to bring awareness to important Afro-Peruvian women, like Santa Cruz herself, whose legacy as an Afro Peruvian thinker and artist still impacts millions of people, but  is yet to be taken seriously enough. 

This hopeful outlook is shared by Nadia Calmet who wished the new date can be understood as a way to honor our ancestors.  “We have got a day to celebrate our grandmothers and great grandmothers' souls,” said Calmet. “They died with the dream of one day being recognized as part of Peruvian history. Now, it can help little girls understand their existence as something positive,” she added. 

The paradox is evident. How much can a mere date help change historical inequalities? Is this what we need? Or, maybe, this is an attempt to silence other important claims? These doubts are rooted in the scarce governmental efforts for alleviating unequal access to rights. 

But Public policy and other government actions is what all my interviewees expect from the creation of the National Afro-Peruvian Women’s Day. As it unfolds, we will continue to ask for more.