Yesterday, Friday the 13th, the paperwork giving legal title for the land to the Women's Group of El Remate, was finally passed through the morass of municipal politics and corruption, thus allowing us to begin the work on the new women's center for the village. Doña Juana, the president of the group, worked long and hard on her mission to legalize their ownership ... she made over 30 trips to the offices of the mayor and governor of Peten over the last couple of months ... she persisted through challenges that would have waylaid a less determined person. Amongst other adventures, she tracked down government employees for signatures in the middle of demonstrations ... she followed the mayor and his staff to their jail cells when they were arrested for fraud ... and she managed to insert a duplicate set of the paperwork when the original set disappeared from the municipal offices.
Today, the women have turned out in force, many of them with husbands and children in tow, to begin the work of clearing and levelling the land so construction can commence.
Doña Juana is working with a pick ax and iron bar to whittle away the rocky protuberance on one end of the area where the building will be ...while Alba wields a machete, making quick work of the tree felling job that she has undertaken.
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