The Diplomat
The Casa de la Salud de la Mujer Indígena Manos Unidas de Ometepec (the United Hands Health House for Indigenous Women of Ometepec, State of Guerrero, Mexico) has been awarded the XXVIII edition of the Bartolomé de las Casas Award, corresponding to 2021.
Since 1991, the Secretary of State for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Casa de América have been organizing the Bartolomé de las Casas Award annually with the aim of promoting recognition and respect for the rights of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, as well as the diversity of their cultural manifestations. This award is named after the Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566), a symbol of the defense of indigenous rights. The prize consists of a cash award of 50,020 euros and a medal with an effigy of the Dominican friar.
Inaugurated in 2003, the House for Indigenous Women of Ometepec is a pioneer initiative of the model of the Casas de la Mujer Indígena y Afromexicana (Indigenous and Afro-Mexican Women’s Homes) that has been replicated in 35 other houses throughout the country, “thus becoming a fundamental initiative for empowerment, the fight against gender violence and the defense of their sexual and reproductive rights,” the two organizing entities indicated in a press release. “Her leadership and the impact of this initiative has been recognized throughout the continent as an example for indigenous and women’s organizations throughout the region,” they added.
This year’s award will serve not only to recognize the important work of the Casas de la Mujer Indígena y Afromexicana, but also as a posthumous tribute to Martha Sánchez Néstor (1974-2021), an activist for the rights of indigenous peoples and defender of indigenous women and who “has been and continues to be a reference and symbol of the struggles for indigenous rights in Mexico and Latin America.”
The award was unanimously approved on November 30 by the jury, chaired by the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Pilar Cancela, and also included, among others, Eva del Hoyo, general director of Sustainable Development Policies of the Secretary of State for International Cooperation; Enrique Ojeda Vila, general director of Casa de América; Antón Leis García, director of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID); Laura Oroz, director of Cooperation for Latin America and the Caribbean of the AECID; Guzmán Palacios Fernández, director of Cultural and Scientific Relations of the AECID; and Clemencia Herrera Nemerayema, winner of the 2019 Bartolomé de las Casas Award.
