General Sites Concerning Women and/or Feminism in Argentina:
http://www.ecuanex.apc.org/alai/quito.txt
Declaration of the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on
Gender Communication
www.lanic.utexas.edu/project/labor95/selby.html
This is a paper about Wage Discrimination by Sex and its Correlates
Argentina and Mexico, written by a professor at the University of Texas.
www.salonmagazine.com/news/news970124.html
This is an article by an American magazine on eating disorders in
Argentina.
www.seattletimes.com/extra/browse/html97/hill_101797.html
This article sums up a speech that Hilary Clinton gave in Buenos
Aires.
http://www.planetout.com/pno/popcornq/db/getfilm.html?2021
A summary of
Scenes from a Queer Planet (1992, Peru, India, Russia, Argentina)
http://home.sol.no/~jane/rosario.html
Proposal advocating for the acknowledgement and guarantee of the
right to be different in Rosario, Argentina.
http://www.interpride.org/igc98/cesa98.htm
Info about gay events in
S. America…tells about glbt march in Buenos Aires organized by Comunidad
Homosexual Argentina
http://www.sensualbaires.com/gay/cha/index.html
(Spanish)
Tells about the
Comunidad Homosexual Argentina. It's objectives/interests are to preserve
gay culture by creating an archive of gay history and books in the
creation of La Biblioteca Gay Lésbica Travesti Transexual in 1994.
Additionally, they work for civil and legal rights for gays. They worked
for the inclusion of a clause about no discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation in the constitution of the City of Buenos Aires.
from the Lesbian Herstory Log at
http://www-lib.usc.edu/~retter/log.html:
ARGENTINA: Wed. May 16. -- Demonstration at the Chilean Embassy.
Activists
from Buenos Aires chained themselves at the Chilean embassy to protest the
arbitrary arrests of 50 gays committed by the Chilean police. The
following organizations were involved in the demonstration: Act Up,
Asociacion Travestis Argentinas, Biblioteca Gay Lesbica, Comunidad
Homosexual Argentina, Convocatoria lesbiana, Escrita en el Cuerpo, Gays
por los Derechos Civiles, Iglesia de la Comunidad Metropolitana and
Lesbianas a la Vista. Activists denounced the facts through the media, and
they also had the chance to meet with a high rank officer at the embassy,
to whom a petition was submitted, asking for the derogation of Art.365
that criminalize sodomy under the Chilean Penal Code- and the ending of
Human Rights violations against homosexuals.
http://abacus.oxy.edu/QRD/world/americas/argentina
General list of
articles all about gay and lesbian life and events in Argentina.
http://abacus.oxy.edu/qrd/world/americas/argentina/lesbian.presence.at.womens.conference
Info on the state of lesbian life in Argentina. Key issues were
workplace discrimination, economic situation, adoption/motherhood,
violence against lesbians.
http://abacus.oxy.edu/qrd/world/americas/argentina/argentine.lesbian.space
Argentinean Lesbians Now Have Their Own Space. Projects and activities
include attention to the psychological needs of lesbians (lesbian feminist
therapy), groups for reflection and study, workshops in artistic
expression (plastic arts, music, writing, theater, mime, etc.), a library,
foreign language classes, a movie discussion circle, and live
performances.
http://abacus.oxy.edu/qrd/world/americas/argentina/lesbian.mothers.group
Formation of lesbian mothers group…interested in exchanging ideas and
information with other groups of Lesbians, Lesbian Mothers and feminist
women.
http://abacus.oxy.edu/qrd/world/americas/argentina/visibility.debate-10.17.95
Lists many different lesbian and gay groups as well as representatives
and their views…VISIBILITY DEBATE…tells of the existence of such groups as
Comunidad Homosexual Argentina - Argentinean Homosexual Community,
Biblioteca Gay-Lesbica / Gay-Lesbian Library, Gays por los Derechos
Civiles - Gays for Civil Rights, Escrita en el cuerpo/Lesbianas a la vista
- Written on the Body/Lesbians on Sight, Convocatoria Lesbiana - Lesbian
Call. Homophobia, police repression
discussed as issues, as well as visibility. So these are issues, even
though none of the pages I found discussed them.
http://abacus.oxy.edu/qrd/world/americas/argentina/new.lesbian.group.in.buenos.aires
Good because it shows what each new group is focusing on, thus what they
perceive to be a problem that needs work
1) ESCRITA EN EL CUERPO - Archivo y Biblioteca/ Lesbica Written on the
Body - Lesbian Archives and Library
"This is a space that is starting to be built on women's texts and
voices. We collect newspaper and magazines clippings, personal diaries,
letters, photographs, audio and videotapes, original articles, books, etc.
about lesbians' personal and political lives."
2) GRUPO DE INTEGRACION LESBICA (Lesbian Integration Group) "We meet
weekly to discuss any issue that might be relevant to the lesbian
existence and we also work politically for our rights as women and
lesbians."
3) LESBIANAS A LA VISTA (Lesbians on sight) -"Our current priorities are
the development of lesbians' creative power and the deepening of our
visibility." Once again, helpful info, telling what groups are focusing
on, but on an American site. None of these groups have their own sites.
1. All of these sites are American sites. So while lesbian movements
are
going on, at least in the capital and the issues are many and varied, none
of them have accessibility to the Web, or don't consider it a priority.
2. Patterns of women's activities in the lesbian arena are to bring
about
awareness in the general public of lesbian existence in Argentina as well
as learn to appreciate themselves, through the establishment of lesbian
library/archives and discussion and therapy groups to help individuals
learn to embrace/be comfortable with their lifestyle.
3. The major lesbian organizations are based in Buenos Aires. One site
has an email
address,
which was Archivo y Biblioteca Lesbica (Written on the Body -
Lesbian Archives and Library) which was at ales@wamani.apc.org. This
organization was supplying the majority of the information that I found to
the
Queer Resources Directory.
4. Popular strategies used by the various groups include workshops and
discussions groups and going to conferences.
5. I would not have found any of this information without the Queer
Resources Directory located at http://abacus.oxy.edu/qrd which is an
amazing storage of information about anything having to do with glbt
concerns. The Lesbian Herstory Log was pretty neat too, located at
http://www-lib.usc.edu/~retter/log.html.
About the search process:
1. No lists were found that dealt with Argentinean women's concerns
2. The most successful search technique was simply looking up
"Argentina"
and "women" or "lesbian" on Infoseek and taking it from there.
3. There was a good amount of information on lesbian life and concerns
in
Argentina on American run web sites. Argentinean web sites about lesbian
life were non-existent.
Final Analysis:
Argentinean women are organizing collectively about lesbian concerns. There are three or four groups devoted to making lesbians visible and helping each other, most of which are located in the capital. Additionally, they are being included in Feminist/Women's Conferences which are being held around the country. They see their struggles as fighting police brutality, workplace concerns such as hiring and firing practices, as well as creating a support network by having archives devoted to appreciating lesbian contributions and culture and having discussion groups to help each other and workshops to help themselves. These finding affect our understandings of feminism because a good deal of what these groups are doing is helping each other appreciate themselves, through workshops, conferences and the creation of archives and libraries. Feminism for them is learning to appreciate themselves as lesbians and accepting that as okay.
ehall@mail.smith.edu