Honduras - Curla

“We came here, because we need land. We have many children and we have to give them food. We need land to work. That’s why we are here and suffer whatever we have to suffer.“ Pedrina Santiago gives us this clue on her situation. She is 54 years old, mother of 15 children and president of “Superación”, a group of women peasants. On June 10, 2001, Pedrina and other women from northern Honduras occupied some fallow lands of an outpost belonging to the University of Honduras. The women then applied for the transfer of lands with the respective states authorities.

Pedrina describes how the women took this decision out of desperation and powerlessness, when they were unable to feed their children and send them to school. “Therefore we turned to Mother Earth, to cultivate her and harvest from her our food so that our children won’t starve. And therefore we will stay here, no matter which challenges we will have to face.”

The women of her group are like her: Single mothers most of them, poor, without having received much training in their lives – but with an enormous responsibility for raising and educating their children. And with an iron determination to defend their piece of land, which they feel is theirs. So far they have rejected all attempts to evict them. But they need allies to continue doing so – until the state finally applies the agrarian reform law and secures the land for them to feed their families.

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