Introduction

 Hello,

my name is Rachel Hanselmann. I am currently in my 4th year at UNM studying Spanish and Women & Gender Studies. I decided to take HIST 472 because of my degree. And also because I thought it would be super interesting. Latin America has always fascinated me–the food, the music, the dances, the culture. I always thought it was interesting how the culture changed so drastically from town to town, country to country. I shouldn’t be surprised…that’s how it is in the states–that’s how it goes. I lived in Peru for four months in 2017 and loved every minute of it. Something that concerned me, however, was the daily lives of the women around me. My host mom, Maritza, was always home before the rest of the family to prepare dinner. And if she wasn’t the one preparing dinner, it was another woman she had hired. But it was always Maritza in the kitchen. She was the one to serve everyone. She served each of us one by one while we waited sitting at the table. I offered to help but she always refused. In one of my Spanish classes in Peru I had teachers who treated me and my fellow American female classmates very differently from his female peers. He knew we were all “wild” and “free”. We went out to the clubs and went dancing. We flirted and danced with the boys and did really what we wanted. But when the male teachers spoke of our female teachers, they always described them in traditional respectable ways–mothers, wives, caregivers…etc. I remember one teacher I had was offended when I asked her if she had a family and children. She told me, I know you must think it is strange I am not married and that I don’t have a boyfriend. Everyone always does. But I am not like that. I do not want a boyfriend. I do not need a man. I was fascinated. She taught me a little bit about feminism in her country and I clung to her every word. Later, after I left Peru I went to Montana (I know a very drastic change but what can I say–I wanted to ski) I learned about something called The Quipu Project (El Proyecto Quipu). When I heard the name I was excited because I knew what a quipu was (a rope the Incas used to count/record resources). Then I learned that the Quipu Project was organized to give voice to the Indigenous men and women who were forcibly sterilized against their will during Fujimori’s presidency. My heart broke. I knew I needed to do something. So I changed my degree to have a second major in WMST so I can learn all I can and once I graduate I will go back. I don’t have an exact plan but I know I will go back and put everything I’ve learned to use.