by Linda Vega
On March 21st, Linda Vega gave a speech at Rice University for the Texas Familias Council about how women are shaping communities. This is the text:
Welcome to the first presentation by Women Shaping Communities. Thank you for being here today and that you Maria Jordan, founder of Texas Familias Council, for her contribution and her vision on how we could join, emerge, and contribute to our communities by way of learning and giving out information that is vital to women. Thus, she initiated us to join her in this new quest, Women Shaping Communities.
Maria has what we know as the Revolutionary Vision. A vision that will change the world in a way that we women know how, by providing information and working together to promote a change for our communities, and for humankind. It is thought, by some, that women are not born to lead. Quite the contrary. It is women who lead by planning. By insisting that we forge into the unkown, prepared; and it is women who unite to find solutions to a plan that does yet exist. During the 1800’s when in the United States, slaves were being brought to the US, it was discovered by a woman that young African girls were being brought and sold as sex slaves to men. It was a group of women who during their tea time developed a way to rescue these girls and bring these men to justice. This was the first trafficking in the US and it was women who united to save other women from being sold, raped, and eventually killed. And so it is women who are visionaries to the future not just of an immediate need to the community, but of all of our humanity.
What we are currently seeing in our world, is an SOS signal, to us all. The violence that is being so quickly demonstrated. Human lives appearing to be expendable. Women who are 3,672,286 of our 7 Billion world population are being treated as commodities. And it is important to us because many of those being affected are young women, children oftentimes who are being used to transform the role of women into that of what we are today. And so the violence that we see in our communities is it an attack on our gender? Is it an effort to equalize the numbers of women versus men in the world? Is it an attack on humanity? Yes. All of the above.
Women have an important role in the world. They are ones who give birth to the next generation. They raise the new generations that will lead the world. Women serve as teachers to what we hope the world will become. But women cannot exist without men, of course. It is important that we understand that in order for our world to continue, we must have both genders to provide us with direction. Men, the protectors with their strong force. And women, with their strength of nurture a stronger force because it is instinctual to protect and give direction to a world that is without hope. History has shown us that during battles and war, men protected women and children by leaving them in the villages. Not to be sexists and think that women couldn’t fight in battles, but because women were capable of giving birth to the next generation, which was vital to the survival of the community and it was important that they be protected. And children, because they were the next generation of the community. Women and children, then are the future of our existence. After every disaster women emerge stronger, wiser, and united to continue our existence. It is they who decide that we must populate, raise children, teach them to be strong, and continue the world.
But in todays world our roles have been come muddles with confusion. Women are asserting their strength through anger, through violence, because they feel abandoned by the males who are there to protect and honor their existence. Not for the sake of magnifying their weakness, because if any of you have had children, you understand that women are not weak. But when left alone, feeling abandoned they become prey. They think that they are weak. They become vulnerable. They become victims.
And it is for these reasons, that we as women in any country, should reach out to women and remind them that they are not alone. We as women will look for ways to protect, defend, and liberate those who are trapped and in need of assistance just to survive. And so we have brought you this presentation to give a connection to women in the community. To come together to show unity and strength, and we recognize that this labor of love from us to you will continue in the years to come. That it will be a Revolution not yet understood but soon to be heard. And that requires your participation and input. So please join us in upcoming lectures and listen to our voices and become that catalyst of this Beautiful Revolution of Women Shaping Communities.
Thank you.
Linda Vega is The Founder of Latinos Ready to Vote and a former Candidate for the U.S. Senate from Texas. Linda Vega graduated from the University of Texas in Austin and the George Washington Law School in D.C. She worked for The Department of Labor, and she is currently in private practice at THE VEGA LAW FIRM. Her areas of expertise are in Immigration and Labor/Employment-Labor Law. In 2012, Linda Vega was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to the Family Practice Residency Advisory Committee.
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