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'Women of Yucatan' are a force to be emulated

The first female mayor of her Mexican city was overcome with shyness before becoming a forceful public speaker.

The farmer creating a community garden had to fight rumors she was planning a house of prostitution.

The first woman theater director faced stereotypes about women in theater being immoral, crazy, lesbian.

Those are just three of the people profiled in “Women of Yucatan: Thirty Who Dare to Change Their World,” (McFarland & Co.) by George Ann Huck and Jann Freed of Central College in Pella. Others fought to bring electricity or water to their village, stood up for the rights of Guatemalan refugees, lobbied for contraception, and started a school for children with Down syndrome. One challenged the view that people in wheelchairs shouldn’t go out, much less compete in sports.

It’s a book that speaks to the commonality of women’s experiences globally — and is a good gift for a woman you care about on International Women’s Day (Monday).

While younger readers may be shocked at patriarchal traditions that endure in Yucatan, older ones will have “Aha” moments about similar struggles American women faced, or still do.

As Ana Rosa Payan, Merida’s first female mayor, says, “When we attempt to bring forward women’s issues, they say, ‘Oh no, not the woman thing again!... As we move forward, we take up spaces they had before.’” Physician Sandra Peniche observed of government programs for women, “We can all participate behind men, or for men, but we can’t participate on our own.”

Blanca Estrada, a state legislator who founded the Yucatan Federation of Urban Dwellers, summarized what motivates women in her area to get active: "They are the ones who have to solve the daily problems of life... to walk distances to fetch water... to figure out how to get their children to schools, which of course are not close.... It is the women who notice, creating a consciousness, and making them very decisive."

The stories are both simple and profound, as women speak of their internal struggles along the way to challenging the church, business or government.

Iowa has had a long-standing relationship with Yucatan, which is one of eight sister states, and where Central College has a program. Freed, a professor of management and Central alumnus, has been going there to study, and later teach, since 1975. Her interest in the women was first inspired by visual images of clothing and culture. With help from a Humanities Iowa grant, she put together a photo exhibit. Huck's 35 years of context and contacts directing and teaching in Central's program guided the book. It was aided by an Iowa Arts Council grant.

The two looked for women who started with little money or influence but helped to transform their various fields. Many didn't even have a phone or running water. Huck, since retired in Yucatan, wrote and Freed photographed.

Asked what she saw as the main difference between women's activism there and here, Freed said selflessness. "You really felt a lack of ego. They all had a cause and they were committed to it."

She said American women are less limited by social norms. That, of course, is thanks to the women's movement here. Many Yucatecan women still must challenge husbands or fathers for the right to get an education, work or be active for causes.

"The more we interviewed these women, the more I realized they're single," said Freed. "Some got so active, their marriages couldn't survive it. "

While Yucatan's women could learn from our ways of connecting, particularly electronically, Freed says, "What we can learn from them is to keep the cause front and center and keep our egos out of the way."

Ultimately, the book shows the world is smaller than we think - and full of trailblazers.