The written word - Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza

My calla lilies bloom and burst with happiness...

Monday, March 10, 2008 - President Calderón introduced Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza at the Commemoration of International Women’s Day in Moreleos.

'I am delighted to be here with you today in this municipality, in Emiliano Zapata, which I love and which is so significant for me, and to celebrate International Women’s Day, which is celebrated on 8 March worldwide.

A women I admire for her tenacity, bravery, courage and poise and for coping with a terribly chauvinistic, unjust, misogynous environment and context is Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza, who ran for mayor of Santa María Quiegolani, who I am going to ask to address us. If you could, Eufrosina."

"My name is Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza. I am an indigenous woman who was born in the small municipality of Santa María Quiegolani. Very few people, perhaps only those of us who were born here, know that this village exists and how to get to this beautiful beacon set in the heart of the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca.

I am a woman and a professional which is Quiegolani is more of a crime than a privilege and almost a sin. A little while ago, when I put my case to the electoral authorities and the Congress of the state of Oaxaca, no-one believed my story, neither the male nor the female authorities.

Nowadays I support a different cause; I am asking for the right of indigenous women to exercise the active and passive vote in communities throughout Mexico. That is my dream, for no-one to steal our right to progress and participate in the development of our villages and communities.

My calla lilies bloom and burst with happiness as they did on 5 March when the President of the National Human Rights Commission acknowledged the right of indigenous women in Oaxaca to vote and be voted for, with no restrictions or exceptions; that was one of the happiest days of my life.

Today, women’s dignity and gender equity in indigenous communities sleep as soundly as a child in his mother's shawl.

As I have mentioned before, in my government, we do not want a country where women walk or are behind men, whether greater or small, but a Mexico where women walk side by side with men in equal circumstances and with equal opportunities.

For example, last year, precisely in March, we started the first Daycare center and now we have nearly 1,500 Daycare Centers that take care of over 115,000 children, which in turn benefit 105,000 working mothers, particularly single mothers.

I am also pleased that today we have signed the Regulations for the General Law of Women's Access to a Life Free of Violence, which complements my administration's legal framework for promoting and defending women's rights with the full weight of the law.

Achieving these objectives cannot be the sole responsibility of Federal Government Everyone: the three orders of government, civil society, families and the media have something to contribute to close the gap that unfairly separates men from women."

The full speech in Spanish

"Mi nombre es Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza. Soy una mujer indígena nacida en el pequeño municipio de Santa María Quiegolani. Muy poca gente, si acaso sólo quienes nacimos ahí, conocemos que existe ese pueblo y cómo se llega a este hermoso faro enclavado en el corazón de la Sierra Sur de Oaxaca."