Why July 25 is Black Woman's Day in the Caribbean and Latin America

I really wish we celebrated this day in the US...

In a normal year, I look forward to the July 25 weekend. It's always the weekend in which Black Women in Rio de Janeiro march along Copacabana beach to celebrate the Black Women's Day in the Caribbean and Latin America. I have attended the last three marches. I've even made Youtube videos on them. There won't be a march along Copacabana this year, but I can at least explain the origins of this day. 

I created this video at the 2018 Black Women’s March in Rio de Janeiro.

In Brazil, the July 25 goes by the name Black Women's Day and National Tereza de Benguela Day. Tereza de Benguela was an 18th-century Quilombo leader who has come to symbolize the fight and resistance of black people in Brazil.

The roots of this day go back to 1992. 

Black women from more than 30 countries gathered in Santo Domingos, Dominican Republic, for the 1st Meeting of Black Women in Latin America and the Caribbean in 1992 (July 19 to July 25). One of its principal organizers was Ochy Curiel, an Afro-Dominican feminist academic. The women at this meeting established July 25 as the Day of Black Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. The objective of the July 25 celebration is to expand and strengthen black women's organizations, build strategies that tackle racism, sexism, discrimination, prejudice, and other racial and social inequalities. It is a day to expand partnerships, give visibility to the struggle, actions, promotion, appreciation, and debate on the identity of Brazilian black women. Since then, civil society and government have been working to consolidate and give visibility to this date, taking into account the condition of gender and racial/ethnic oppression in which these women live, which is explicit in many everyday situations.

A group of black women from the United Negro Movement attended the conference. According to Valdecir Nascimento, Executive Coordinator of ODARA–Instituto da Mulher Negra, the women mobilized against the 500th anniversary of the Americas' discovery. 

Us black women from Latin America and the region, we met in the Dominican Republic to protest because we do not agree that America had been discovered. It was already existing, and it was a target for European colonialization. So we marched, and we debated, and we thought of political strategies to fight racism, sexism, and all forms of oppression."

Then, in 2014, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff sanctioned a law that named July 25 as Black Women's Day and National Tereza de Benguela Day. According to oral history, Tereza lived in the 18th century, in the Vale do Guaporé region, in Mato Grosso. She was from African royalty, and she was enslaved in Brazil, but she managed to escape with her companion, José Piolho. After his death, she became the leader of Quilombo Quariterê, which harbored more than 100 people until it was destroyed in 1770.

This is the commonly accepted image of Tereza de Benguela, a quilombo leader.

Don’t forget to check out the Latinidades festival this weekend!

I wrote about it here!

https://coisadepreto.substack.com/p/brazils-latinidades-festival-celebrates