Mujeres de Frente - Quito, Ecuador

This week we went to Quito for several days to follow up on an exciting potential collaboration with a feminist abolitionist group called Mujeres de Frente. We were connected to Mujeres de Frente through a mutual friend, whose work focuses on the decriminalization of drug use in Latin America. The group is made up formerly incarcerated women and artists/organizers, working towards “un mundo sin prisones para mujeres, ninas ni ninos”— a world without prisons for women and children. We deeply admire their work. 

We all speak varying levels of Spanish, but we were able to communicate clearly for the most part throughout the meeting. When we entered the space, the group was gathered around a table, chopping some massive amount of carrots for a soup to feed the 20 or 30 kids who come to the space for 3 hours every M-Th. 

​After some back and forth, we landed on the idea of some sort of creative/work exchange, with each group suggesting ways the other could help with current projects and goals. The proposal evolved to look something like this: We arrive in Quito on a Thursday and help care for the children of Mujeres de Frente (colloquially known as “wawas” here, gotta love it). We do art projects with the wawas or just let them play in the space. The next day, Friday, is the weekly assembly meeting where the entire collective of adult members of Mujeres de Frente meets. We attend the meeting and have conversations around forgiveness as a larger group. During the Friday session, we facilitate forgiveness-related activities including art-making, prompts for our Forgivability Scale, and interviews with the women. On Saturday, we return to help paint a mural, do some light carpentry work, and any other housekeeping tasks that might need doing.

The meeting sparked some interesting informal conversations about forgiveness. One woman said that forgiveness brings her closer to her faith. Another said that she could forgive individuals but never politicians or governments. Tomorrow, the small group we met with will propose the exchange to the full assembly. So we will see what comes of it!

​At the end of the meeting, Andrea gave us a tour of the new space, which the group moved into 6 months ago and are in the process of setting up. It occupies the top 3 floors of a building by the Plaza del Teatro near the historic center of Quito. The top two floors are devoted to the kids, offering places to play, make art, eat, etc. Regardless of if the collaboration pans out or not, it was an honor to get to spend an hour with people whose work is so aligned with our personal values and creative aspirations.