La Mundialización en Costa Rica: Testimonios of Women Activists for Education

• In Event: Women in Leadership Across the Continents: Equitable Education Systems for All

Abstract

Purpose. One of the driving forces for women activists in Costa Rica is their commitment to education in many contexts because the country faces ongoing challenges with its indigenous people and with its continual stream of refugees (UNDP, 2018). Both groups face varying degrees of discrimination and deprivations due to chronic xenophobia only exacerbated by the global pandemic (Batasin, 2020; Jillson, 2020). La mundialización roughly translates as global citizenship, and in Spanish means far more than international economic progress. It embraces notions of collective engagement to better the lives of all. This investigation provides insight into the ways that women leaders in Costa Rica educate and engage the nation in overcoming fear of the other and in working towards support of those most in need.

Theoretical framework. This investigated is framed through the lens of feminismo Latina or Latina feminism (Ortega, 2015). An evolving field that strives to be inclusive of many Latina voices, it seeks to “disrupt and, at the same time, enrich traditional philosophical understandings of knowledge, selfhood, liberation, and transformation” (Ortega, 2016, p. 313). This bifurcation of disruption and celebration on its face may seem to work at cross purposes, but instead it recognizes the roots of indigenous thinking, how colonialism affected it and Latina feminism’s attempts at decoloniality (Veronelli, 2016), and how it is evolving to be a more informed reification of feminism grounded in Latin thinking (Ortega, 2016).

Methods. This qualitative investigation used the testimonio as the means by which I framed the women activists’ stories (Delgado Bernal et al., 2012). Testimonio is intended to address several themes simultaneously: method, practice, and activism. The testimonio invites individuals to tell their stories in their voices rather than have others aggregate data that sublimates their perspectives. Its overall purpose is to address inequities in order to achieve a just society.

Data sources and evidence. Interviewing 15 women and men qualified to comment on women activists, I constructed the women’s narratives. Featured in this paper are three of the women: Nubia, who was a refugee from Nicaragua and who works to educate and support refugees and indigenous persons about their rights under Costa Rican law; Doña Edith, a Salvadoran refugee who is a community leader educating through “project tourism”; and Natalia, a self-described Lesbian feminist-artist-activist, who educates through her visual art.

Results. The women’s testimonios are written in first person with my editing for continuity of the story. I then provide an aggregated analysis of themes and discussion. An abbreviated analysis is as follows: El pueblo crucificado, or the crucified community, expresses women activists’ commitment to advancing precepts of liberation theology (Burke, 2004). The strongest theme was the common commitment to fundamental human rights via activism that ensures basic needs for all people. Working at and in the margins of society, the women disclose sub-themes of dignity, inspiration, solidarity, and the struggle.

Scholarly Significance. These Costa Rican women’s testimonios add to a small body of empirical research that addresses the role of women in leadership in Costa Rica and their impact on global citizenship through educational activism.

Author

• Elizabeth C. Reilly, California State University - Channel Islands