The Plight Of Women In El Salvador
Anabella Morabito
03/21/2015
During our spring break, two weeks ago, I had the privilege of going to El Salvador as part of a delegation to participate in a “reverse mission”. Part of our work in El Salvador revolved around being keepers of narratives, to listen, to validate, affirm and respect the life stories of different people. Among the people we met were myriads of women, who still now, as I process the experience, leave me breathless. Heroines, silent and pushed aside. Wo/men who resist, persist, and secretly subvert structures of oppression. Wo/men who during the civil war were raped, or witnessed the torture of their sisters and mothers, and who today still, somehow, embody Hope and Resurrection. In the face of this, I thought of Mary. And now in my reading I think of the wo/men in El Salvador. What is the connection? In the piece, “Mariology, Gender Ideology, and the Discipleship of Equals”, Schussler-Fiorenza looks to reclaim the historical Mary in an attempt to subvert Malestream Mariology and the ways in which this oppressive interpretation of a liberating symbol is detrimental to wo/men, to sexuality and the ways in which it spreads ideals of submission and sustain structural oppression of wo/men. In Latin America the concept of Mariology has been one that has worked against wo/men in their search for liberation. But in thinking of the wo/men in El Salvador it is evident why I recalled the historical Mary, because these wo/men embody that hope and trust in God even in the face of dominion and false ideas od Mary. Because these wo/men are sought by structures to represent ideal association of a woman should be, but they do not consent. They do not consent to any of the false images, they only consent to the God of justice and liberation, they are participating and striving for a discipleship of equals. In reading this piece I wonder how this reclaiming of Mary can be something which the Church slowly walks toward? How can local expression of
03/21/2015
During our spring break, two weeks ago, I had the privilege of going to El Salvador as part of a delegation to participate in a “reverse mission”. Part of our work in El Salvador revolved around being keepers of narratives, to listen, to validate, affirm and respect the life stories of different people. Among the people we met were myriads of women, who still now, as I process the experience, leave me breathless. Heroines, silent and pushed aside. Wo/men who resist, persist, and secretly subvert structures of oppression. Wo/men who during the civil war were raped, or witnessed the torture of their sisters and mothers, and who today still, somehow, embody Hope and Resurrection. In the face of this, I thought of Mary. And now in my reading I think of the wo/men in El Salvador. What is the connection? In the piece, “Mariology, Gender Ideology, and the Discipleship of Equals”, Schussler-Fiorenza looks to reclaim the historical Mary in an attempt to subvert Malestream Mariology and the ways in which this oppressive interpretation of a liberating symbol is detrimental to wo/men, to sexuality and the ways in which it spreads ideals of submission and sustain structural oppression of wo/men. In Latin America the concept of Mariology has been one that has worked against wo/men in their search for liberation. But in thinking of the wo/men in El Salvador it is evident why I recalled the historical Mary, because these wo/men embody that hope and trust in God even in the face of dominion and false ideas od Mary. Because these wo/men are sought by structures to represent ideal association of a woman should be, but they do not consent. They do not consent to any of the false images, they only consent to the God of justice and liberation, they are participating and striving for a discipleship of equals. In reading this piece I wonder how this reclaiming of Mary can be something which the Church slowly walks toward? How can local expression of