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Miriam Olivas Jarquín, a campesina activist and leader in community development in El Regadío, the farming community near Estelí, Nicaragua, will give a lecture,  "Political, Economic and Social Fallout of the present Globalization Model and Prospects for Transformed U.S. Trade Relationships," on Friday, Oct. 29, at 4:10 p.m., in Benedict 104.

On this Collateral Damage Tour in the United States, Miriam will be speaking from her experience as an activist.  Her talk will highlight both the problematic impact of economic globalization on the lives of women in Central America as well as the power and success of global feminist activism for social justice.

Free and open to the public.  This talk is in Spanish with English translation.  Sponsored by the Kirkland Project for the Study of Gender, Society and Culture.  Co-sponsors:  Kirkland Endowment and Office of the VPAA/Dean of Faculty.  For more information call x4288 or email kirkproj@hamilton.edu.

Miriam Olivas Jarquín worked in the education system for 42 years, beginning teaching at age 15 in two rural, one-room schools. After going back to finish high school and teacher's college as a mother, she worked as the school's administrator. She also worked on the literacy campaign that attempted to eliminate illiteracy in Nicaragua in 1980. Despite IMF-forced cutbacks in education, she led the struggle to bring high school-level education to El Regadío, bringing new opportunities to the children of farming families.

Miriam has experienced many of the cycles of military and economic violence that have affected El Regadío. She participated in the Community Defense Committee during the insurrection that ended the US backed Somoza dictatorship. And after the Sandinista government came into power, she watched as several of her children defended Nicaragua from US-back Contra rebels. Miriam has never tired of working towards community development. During the 1980's she was a leader in the town council, and worked with national women's organizations to get women out of the house and active in the community. Since 1990, she has worked on the community development board successfully bringing drinking water and electrification projects to El Regadío. After IMF-imposed reforms left small, family farmers totally abandoned, without credit or access to technical assistance, she worked to organize local farmers into a cooperative to gain access to financing. Since 2000, the El Progreso 'Progress' Cooperative has expanded from 120 to 274 members, including 145 women, and it serves 12 rural communities. Now, the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement threatens the livelihoods of rural Nicaraguan communities.

If ratified, CAFTA would increase competition between struggling Nicaraguan farmers and the farming industry in the United States, forcing even more Nicaraguans to leave the countryside for cities, or to leave Nicaragua altogether.
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