“Transform All the Fear into Resistance”: Lessons on Healing from Guatemala
“How can we hold hope in these hard moments?”
This was a question that José, a speaker from Fundación Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas/ the Bartolomé de las Casas Center and Foundation, asked at our Solidarity Encounter last November.
José continued: “Conditions are very hard… At the same time, we find hope… to fill ourselves with strength and transform all the fear into resistance to strengthen collective work…”
In this moment, it can be challenging to maintain a discipline of hope. And yet, it is so necessary for our collective work.
Hear more in the video below about how our grantee allies Buena Semilla (Good Seed) and Fundación Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas are working to advance healing and wellbeing in their communities.
Buena Semilla is a grassroots collective based in Guatemala that supports marginalized Indigenous and non-Indigenous women and their communities in their quest to reclaim their voice, wellbeing, self-authority and self-determination. With support from Grassroots International, Buena Semilla has expanded its Women’s Circles, which provide mental, physical, and social health support to over 200 Indigenous women, indirectly benefiting more than 2,000 family members and their communities.
Fundación Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas was created in El Salvador to help heal communities affected by conflict. Grants from Grassroots International have supported Nuku Yolb’e, a dialogue and exchange among survivors from two different towns: Chalatenango, El Salvador, and Quiché, Guatemala. The project links the two communities, both with pasts of military dictatorships and grave structural injustices, in conversation to explore and redefine collective memory. CBC creates the space for an exchange of experience and wisdom in a community radio format.
These two organizations, together with others, are supported by an evolving initiative around healing and wellbeing at Grassroots International. In 2019, Grassroots International added the Martín-Baró Initiative for Wellbeing and Human Rights as one of its special initiatives to advance a shared vision for healing and wellbeing in places harmed by U.S. policies. The initiative was named after Ignacio Martín-Baró, a social psychologist, scholar, activist, and Jesuit priest who was renowned for his cutting-edge work around liberation psychology.
Presently, Grassroots International is re-envisioning the Martín-Baró Initiative as the Martín-Baró Giving Circle for Healing and Wellbeing, inviting new members to carry forward Martín-Baró’s legacy. His life and death continue to shape our understanding of the intersections of healing and social justice—alongside the necessity of supporting and protecting human rights defenders in the face of ongoing attacks. This Giving Circle represents Grassroots International’s broader commitment to supporting healing as a form of political resistance and self-determination.
For more information about the history of this work, check out these two blog posts: Solidarity Then and Now: 35th Anniversary of the UCA Massacre and Women Narrate Their Stories of Healing and Resistance.
If you would like to learn more about the Martín-Baró Giving Circle for Healing and Wellbeing, we invite you to RSVP for an Open House on Friday, April 24.
