For Our Independence and Freedom!

Young Women Unite and Raise Our Voices

Latin America and the Caribbean is the region with the greatest inequalities in
terms of distribution of wealth. As young women, we represent the majority of
the total population, but our gender condemns us to greater inequality. Our
generation has progressed thanks to the struggles of other women that
restored our dignity and our autonomy. Nevertheless, our generation faces a
problem: globalization and advances in technology has not improved conditions
for women. Day after day we fight to better our situation and exercise our
rights.

TODAY
We continue fighting so that our families stop
relegating us because we are women, or demanding
us to do household chores or take on greater
responsibility than our male relatives.

We fight against assault, harassment and sex-

trafficking in our communities, towns and
cities; so that women who live on the border
do not become victims of femicides; so that
we do not become the victims of armed
conflicts.

We are mobilizing to access secular

education, so that we cannot be expelled if
we get pregnant. We fight for the right to
choose and be respected for that; for the
right to have a salary that is equal to our
male co-workers. We fight for a work
environment free of harassment. We fight
for the possibility of having a job in which we
are not treated as cheap labor just because we
are young and female, like in the border’s
factories.
We demand that our bodies are not seen as objects of consumption and that we
are not pressured to fit gender stereotypes. We fight against anorexia, bulimia,
depression, and discomfort with our bodies, diseases which starkly contrast with
the illnesses that afflict women in the poorest and most marginalized areas of
Latin America and the Caribbean, who have scarce food supplies.

We are looking for acknowledgement, not only as girls, mothers or daughters but
as YOUNG WOMEN; heterosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals, Caucasian,
African descendants, indigenous; from all our diverse backgrounds, from all of us
female citizens… all of US.

We generate actions to stop mass media from reproducing the stereotypes and
myths about us and all women.

We unite to be part of the reality we construct; for my voice and for our voices.

This March 8, we call on all people and governments that represent us to:

Build equitable and supportive relationships to help us break the sexist,

ageist, homophobic, racist and patriarchal power reproduced in the family,
in schools, by mass media and in all communities.

Recognize the diversity of the different young women that live in the
region of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Be acknowledged as strategic and political social actors, and not within a
conglomerate of alien women and girls.

Design and implement policies, actions and programs aimed to change the
inequality and social injustice in our world.

Establish agreements of respect and solidarity amongst all people, in
which we relate to each other in an equitable and nonviolent way.

Respect and uphold the exercise of women’s sexual and reproductive
autonomy.

Allocate resources to develop youth-friendly programs with information
about scientific progresses and distribute information about women’s
bodies and sexuality.

Because all of us are one, because our names are María, Sofía, Nilda, Yunuén,
Marianela, Silvia, Claudia, Mariana, Lucía, Verónica, Paola, Cecilia, Silvana, Elena,
Camila, Klara, Salomé, Lorena, and we live in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua,
Mexico, Paraguay, Perú, Uruguay, Venezuela…all in Latin America and the
Caribbean.
 Because autonomy is a right for all…

PEOPLE
Yunuén Flores (Mexico), Alondra Sevilla (Nicaragua), Marianela Sequeira (Nicaragua)
Nilda Ríos (El Salvador), Mirta Moragas (Paraguay ), María Goñi (Uruguay ), Klara Meyra
(Mexico), Paola Brenes (Costa Rica), Natalia Garay (El Salvador), Rutilia Jiatz
(Guatemala), Fernanda Hopenhaym ( México /Uruguay), Silvia Tamayo (Bolivia), Verónica
Vidal (Mexico/Uruguay), Claudia Benítez, Mareliz López, Patricia Monroy, Julieta
Escalante, Luisa Herse and Joel Ehecatl (Mexico), Roxana Marroquín and Paola Lorenzana
(El Salvador) and Karina Cisneros (Peru).

ORGANIZATIONS
Espolea, A.C. (Mexico), Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Francisco de Vitoria
(Mexico), Las Ramonas (Paraguay), Elige (Mexico) Plataforma Nacional de
Juventud, Proyecto 15.35 (México), Red Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Jóvenes
por los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos (REDLAC), Espacio Iberoamericano
de la Juventud (EIJ), Colectivo Crack, Mesa de Autonomía del Cuerpo de la
Concertación Feminista Prudencia Ayala, Red de Mujeres, Adolescentes y
Jóvenes (Nicaragua), Incide Joven (Guatemala), Balance (Mexico), Grupo
Asociación Interuniversitaria Ambiental (Mexico) and Asociación Civil
JueventuDes (Peru).