13 Colors of the Honduran Resistance

Melissa Cardoza, an afro-indigenous feminist leader from Honduras, is coming to Houston on May 22, together with Honduran singer-songwriter Karla Lara, as part of a tour of the U.S. promoting the new bilingual Spanish-English edition of Melissa’s book, 13 colores de la resistencia hondureña / 13 Colors of the Honduran Resistance.

The book tells the stories of several women who were involved in the massive movement of resistance that arose after the coup d’état that took place in Honduras in 2009. The coup unleashed conditions of greatly increased corruption and impunity. The violence and harms stemming from this have not diminished to this day.

Alicia Garza of the Black Lives Matter Network comments:

<<13 Colors of the Honduran Resistance by Melissa Cardoza is a must read for anyone who wants to learn about the many contours of Honduran feminists fighting for self-determination and dignity. These stories of bravery, of struggle and pain, and ultimately of a resilience rooted in a love for freedom will grip your heart. Cardoza is brilliant in storytelling, and ensures that, in memory of our sister Berta Cáceres, feminisms are three dimensional and span multiple experiences—trans, Black, elderly, and more. The lessons contained in these stories offer important reflections for all revolutionaries.>>

The book’s English translator, Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle writes:

<<Melissa calls those the times “when protests were poetry in the streets.” Few people could better turn that poetry in the streets into prose on the page than she. A fearless journalist in the most dangerous country in the world for a reporter, a lesbian in a land where LGBT people regularly turn up as cadavers in the streets, an activist in a place where the faces of the disappeared line countless walls, an afro-indigenous woman in a region where racism continues to take a deadly toll, Melissa is a writer who knows the meaning of resistance.>>

At the event, Melissa Cardoza and Karla Lara will perform stories from the book using a mixed-media format of storytelling, acting and song. That will be followed by discussion about the situation in Honduras, Berta Cáceres, her legacy and #JusticeforBerta campaign, and transnational movement-connections.

Both were close friends of the late Berta Cáceres, who was assassinated a year ago, and led COPINH (http://copinhenglish.blogspot.com/), a resistance movement of the indigenous Lenca people of western Honduras that has stopped dams, mines, and other destructive “projects of death” as Berta called them.

Related links:

Tour info: http://ggjalliance.org/book-tour-2017-13-colors-honduran-resistance

A poetic and musical presentation by Melissa Cardoza (in Spanish):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruEmqjnZhKE

Please come and invite your friends to join in this unique experience!