This week my exposure program was with Gabriela. I have been looking forward to this week since I got my original schedule in January, partically because it would allow me to spend a whole week in my own bed in Manila, but also becuase it was intended to introduce me to the feminists in the country. Gabriela is an organization, like so many other activists groups in the Philippines, which was inspired into conception by the Marcos dictatorship and Martial Law. In 1984 the various women's organizations in the country, who where facing intimidation and violence for their organizing activities, formed an umbrella network for solidarity and strength. This network was named Gabriela, after Gabreila Silang, a Filipina heroine from the fight for independance against the Spanish. (The Filipino masses never accepted Spanish colonialism, and they
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