Princess Jimenez Beltre (La Dekoloniala!) Participated in Domestic Systemic Pandemic with her Spoken word: 'Fatherland/ La Patria' -performed as a part of Rossana Mercado-Rojas performance 'Pater familias' which was streamed on the opening night.

'The Fatherland/ La Patria'

Minerva, Patria, and Maria Teresa Mirabal were pioneers of feminism in Latin America, and pro-democracy activist during the 50’s against the far-right, USA sponsored dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, who ruled the Dominican Republic for 30 years with great brutality.

Because of their revolutionary activities, they were put under constant surveillance, imprisoned and tortured by the Dominican dictatorship. On the 25th of November of 1960, Minerva, Patria, and Maria Teresa Mirabal, together with their friend Rufino de la Cruz, were tortured and brutally murdered by Dominican Military Intelligence agents, directly ordered by Trujillo himself, when they were driving back home from visiting their husbands who were political prisoners, who were constantly moved from prisons to prisons so it would be harder for the Mirabal sisters to visit their husbands.

Because of this horrible crime, every 25th of November is the International Day of the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Trujillo’s title was “the benefactor of the new fatherland”.

He killed the Mirabal sisters on the name of the fatherland. Because the fatherland must be protected no matter the cost, no matter the victims, no matter the bodies.

Who is the enemy of the fatherland? Whoever is an enemy of the patriarchy. The fatherland is not a tool of the patriarchy, he is the institutional personification of the patriarchy, whose merciless branches transform into different ways of institutional and systematic violence against women.

We are forced to love a fatherland who hates us.

We are forced to care for a fatherland who hurts us.

Fatherland. The father of the land. A father who will protect us as long as we are obedient, as long as our bodies are not ours, as long as our bodies are for the fatherland.

Fatherland.

A fatherland that we are forced to embrace, even though his arms are made of knives that hurt our bodies.

The body, la cuerpa.

La cuerpa is the last frontier of the fatherland. The borders don’t exist for us to protect ourselves. The fatherland creates the borders to hurt us and keep us out from our own agency.

La cuerpa, the last border the patriarchy crosses, the last border the patriarchy destroys.

La cuerpa, the body. A political playground for the fatherland.

Fatherland, patriarchy. Two sides of the same coin. Domestic, systematic violence against women branch out from the fatherland.

We are forced to be loyal to a fatherland who hurt us, who hate us, who kill us.

A fatherland that hurts us with his laws. A fatherland that hurt us with his values. A fatherland that hurt us with his norms. A fatherland that hurt us with his religions. A fatherland that hurt us with his armies. A fatherland that hurt us with his politicians. A fatherland that hurt us with his borders. A fatherland that hurt us with his eugenics. A fatherland that hurt us with his colonialism. A father that hurt us with his xenophobia.

A fatherland that hurt us with his transphobia.

Who is a woman? And the fatherland replies “it is a tool”.

Therefore, the fatherland is uncapable of providing justice.

Therefore, the fatherland is uncapable of stopping violence against women.

The Mirabal sisters are national heroes. Their offspring went to become important political figures in the Dominican Republic. Their faces are everywhere, including in our currency. We memorize their biographies in school and go on roadtrips to their house-museum in Salcedo, where they grew up.

But did they get justice? Even though Trujillo was assassinated in 1961, Mirabal sisters’ murderers spent only two years in prison.

Princess Jimenez Beltre (1987 Dominican Republic) educator, writer, spoken word performer, and podcaster. She has a bachelor’s degree in Special Education from Utah State University. Currently living in Sweden. She is one of the founders of La Dekoloniala!, an educational, artistic, and cultural organization whose main goal is to bring forward decolonial knowledge. 

Her articles have been published at Kultwatch, The Local Sweden, and Black Feminist Collective. She runs Mango Podcast (www.mangopodcast.com), an informational and opinion driven platform where different topics are discussed from an intersectional feminist and decolonial perspective, and where she has collaborated with activists and educators around the world in English and Spanish. 

Princess most recent performance and video works, such as “Decolonize Food” series participated in Eldmarknaden, for Mossutställningar, Jan, 2020, and for the digital exhibition “3,5% Our Voice, Our Gaze” June, 2020.

Followed by Spoken word-performance for “Min Kropp, Mitt Val / Mi Cuerpa, Mi Desición” exhibition at Detroit Stockholm 26/9 - 3/10 2020. Powerful and emotional spoken word performance on the consequences of the total ban of abortions in Dominican Republic.

Princess also participated in “An ephemeral space invasion/intervention”, La Gozadera: festivity, resilience and loudness by Milagros Bedoya and Rossana Mercado-Rojas for Rudgang, exhibition at Kungl. Konsthögskolan/Royal Institute of Art of Stockholm (2019, November 8-9). 

www.mangopodcast.com

www.ladekoloniala.org