Voices and images: Mayan Ixil women of Chajul
Chapter Four: Association of Maya Ixil Women (ADMI) – New Dawn
Reweaving our stories/histories: Some final reflections by the women of PhotoVoice
Because of my participation in PhotoVoice I am not like I was before. Before I could not speak in Spanish, I could not participate, I could not be in a circle of persons speaking with them. But I feel that now if I find myself in the middle of a group of men and women I can talk.
Some of the participants in PhotoVoice can’t read or write nor can they speak Spanish but they can take pictures and they are participating, they can complete a research investigation even though it is in Ixil. They aren’t afraid; they can talk to people before they take their pictures. For me this project is a success in terms of participation. The women of FotoVoz walk in the central market and throughout the community with their cameras. For me too there has been a change. Before the project I always saw men with their cameras and I wanted to touch the camera but I never had the opportunity to do so, but now I see that I too can take pictures.
The project PhotoVoice is very important for us because, as the name explains, PhotoVoice is both photographs and voice. The voice explains what a photo is and what it means. It’s a road, a guide that is giving us direction in the search for a solution to our needs as women. Because through the photographs that can be read in a book, one can see what women do, how they customarily do their work, what their needs are, and what their problems are. Through the photographs with which they have been working, the women themselves speak of their reality. Because telling a story alone is not the same as showing a photo, which is something certain, with it. The photo is there and it shows the reality.
We women or other people who have endured la violencia are remembering, through means of the PhotoVoice project, what we have seen or experienced and we are establishing a memory of it. This is very important because there are many young people who are growing up now who did not see this suffering and, because they didn’t live through it, they doubt that it happened. In contrast, people like us, who lived and suffered in our own flesh, remember it very well. And so, interviewing the people who suffered through it and who saw their family members die offers a sort of relief for them, because they recount what happened to another person. You think or feel that in sharing that person is asking, hoping, that this violence, this war, never again return.
This PhotoVoice project is our search for a way for the people from around the world to lend their support so that this violence and the massacres that took place never happen again. That is why this project is so very important for us.
The work we have done, well, I don’t think it is much, but for the people here, there is no other women’s group; there is no other association of women. There are other associations, but they consist of both men and women. This is the reason why the projects we have are such a major accomplishment: they are seeing that we women can work and can do the things that men do. This is why we women feel so good, we feel so encouraged and confident. We want to raise ourselves up together, to build a better future and support our children. This is the need that we see; this is the reality that we observe.