“They can cut all the flowers, but they cannot stop the spring” (Pablo Neruda)
This 8M will be different all over the planet, also for the peoples of Spain and the Canary Islands. A virus, coronavirus, in the form of a pandemic, got into our lives and has been giving us hardly any respite for almost a year.
To combat it, the most powerful States together with the pharmaceutical industries have not spared human and economic resources, research and science at the service of humanity, working tirelessly, without rest, to achieve in record time a series of successful vaccines that already, even if incipiently, allow us to see the light and the beginning of the end of this nightmare that has generated so much anxiety and suffering.
Along with this one, another older and darker virus, in permanent mutation, is present and trying to become stronger.
A virus that also spreads in the form of a pandemic, and that, although in recent years we believed it was somewhat weakened -in retreat we thought- in this period together with the coronavirus has sprouted with more force, feeding back on what seems to be an excellent breeding ground.
For this old virus -called machismo- we have not yet found a vaccine, nor have the States or industries shown too much interest in it, the convenience of a priority investment for its eradication has never been considered urgent.
Perhaps it is because of its selective nature, we think, because although it harms and puts all of humanity at risk, it only attacks one half of the population virulently, becoming lethal only for women.
The other half seems to have reached a certain herd immunity, they, the men, although they become infected are not in danger of death, therefore the vaccine has not been considered necessary.
This virus grows, multiplies and expands with enormous ease of mutation, for centuries it has traveled the planet adapting to different territories, peoples and cultures, from north to south, from east to west, it moves comfortably with its slight variants.
Its most propitious habitat occurs in places where, in a dominant way, the symbiosis of two systems, capitalism and patriarchy, appears, it is in those spaces where it finds the best nutrients and reaches its maximum development, although the consequences are not always seen in the place where the focus lies, its virulence is so strong that it is capable of devastating populations and territories thousands of km away.
Its consequences are devastating, many women throughout history tried to protect themselves with religious beliefs, hiding behind veils, staying crouched in houses, but this, far from being a remedy, has made them even more vulnerable, and their lives are thus even more exposed and run more danger.
Faced with this situation, and while many women -and allied men- continue to investigate and work in the search for a definitive vaccine, we have been advancing in empowerment treatments that, although not definitive for all humanity, help to minimize the virus considerably, block it, combat the symptoms and prevent 'the bug' from becoming stronger or continuing to grow.
In these days, when we were preparing for the commemoration of March 8, several outbreaks of the machismo pandemic have spread throughout the country, with so many outbreaks that make us wonder if we are facing a new wave.
Just in case and in prevention, we will use all the antidotes that we have been discovering throughout history, a set of knowledge and resources, called feminisms, based on experience and selected with patience by wise women, from all eras and places, in order to be used in difficult times like this, in which it is time to look at the 'bug' head-on and oppose its threats in different areas with forcefulness.
Faced with the racism and xenophobia that condemns our racialized and precarious sisters, Canary feminisms without borders.
Faced with the variables that under different excuses want us divided, isolated, submissive and locked up, extra doses of sorority, will have us free and rebellious, more united than ever in the streets, in the squares and in the networks.
And, warning to navigators, against the toxic virus that tries to silence, paralyze and criminalize us, that intends to steal our right to claim our day.
Not one step back! We are resistance and resilience, beware, we know how to take care of and take care of ourselves, we use masks but we will not let muzzles be imposed on us, for every demonstration that they prohibit us, we will take the streets dyeing them violet and we will make every day March 8.
María Del Río Sánchez
President of the Parliamentary Group Sí Podemos Canarias
