Cool History Of Important Buildings
Historians, activists, and pretty much everyone else often choose to focus on the leaders, organizational tactics, and external conditions that determine the success of a social movement. I won't argue that those factors are probably (definitely) the most important but, for the sake of discussion, why doesn't anyone talk about the physical spaces where those movements got their start? The women's school (Smolny Institute) in St. Petersburg where Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks planned the October Revolution; the school office that refused to enroll Oliver Brown's daughter setting the stage for Brown v. Board of Education, or the government palace where Mohamed Bouazizi decided to self-immolate, sparking the Tunisian Jasmine Revolution and eventually the larger Arab Spring uprisings. Of course, there are movements with infamous structural origins such as LGBTQ Rights and the Stonewall Inn as well as many others that are so geographically and temporally broad that no one physical site can take all the credit. Regardless of these outliers, this week as I visited two more of the organizations that the other make_sense Mexico scholars are working with, I began to wonder about the understated importance of the rooms where revolutions begin.
To be clear, I don't think any of my colleagues hold the illusion that our work is on the same level as some of the most significant social movements in history but as someone who believes the Butterfly Theory applies to societal change; every room that inches humanity towards the future is worthy of studying (or at least a brief blog post on a site that no one visits). And yes I'm also not an architect, interior designer, or even remotely artistic but I reckon that enough rhetorical disclaimers will make readers at least consider what I'm saying...
The Peaceful Sanctuary of Las Sabinas
The ancient Amazon warriors were said to have lived in the dense and mysterious forests that line the southern coast of the Black Sea; from where they led warring expeditions into areas as far away as the Arabian Peninsula and Egypt. The fearless determination and uncompromising independence that put their names into the canon of Greek Mythology has been reclaimed and shaped into a symbol of strength and liberation for feminist movements and female rulers ever since the original Amazons started fighting. But Las Sabinas, a feminist and anti-punitive justice collective, take their inspiration from a different ancient story. The romanesque crown moulding in their office is an unintentional yet powerful reference to the brave survivors and peacemakers found in the Roman myth of The Rape of The Sabines. Linked across thousands of years of violent patriarchy, Las Sabinas carry on the difficult struggle of the ancient Sabines to rebuild their communities that have been plagued with sexual violence. They do this not by seeking revenge and harsher punishments for male perpetrators but instead by planting the seeds of peace and equality with educational programs, community building activities, and personal counseling which all provide critical support to victims on the healing journey to becoming a survivor.
The somewhat clinical white walls are the backdrop for a set of cabinets that overflow with artistic supplies, toys, and an educational puppet in Las Sabinas main meeting room that illustrate Las Sabinas creative, comforting, and restorative approach to curing the societal ill of sexual violence. Las Sabinas clearly believe that sexual violence is an issue that cannot be solved in the courtroom (regardless of how much improvement their is to police training, investigative protocols, or sentencing guidelines), but they also recognize that murals or doctor's rooms alone will also never provide enough education or healing. It is only when these efforts come together, when the ideological descendants of the Sabines forcefully take the lead of educating, healing, painting, and building a society that settles for nothing less than equality and love that will we finally have peace.
Maybe more to come about the other organization we visited, Hagamos Composta.