grand stories of liberation, is taken directly from republican discourse. By contrast, in
their discussions and praxis, community activists challenge the current political rhetoric
and seek to place barrio women at the center of new liberatory imaginaries.
At this point in the assembly, three of the women cooks, Jessica, Magaly, and
Marta, left the room and entered the adjoining kitchen to begin preparations for the next
days’ meal. YaquelĂn stayed in the room. The conversation focused on the three men
present, who began discussing questions of financing for the soup kitchen. YaquelĂn
noticed that the women were being left out of the conversation, and she called out to
them, “Leave your caraotas (beans) and come and join in the discussion.” Through her
involvement in politics, YaquelĂn is more alert to the gender differences that emerge even
in the process of popular organizing, and she is more ready than the men to call this out.
The women came back in the room and the activists finished up with the meeting quickly,
and then I was surprised to see all three men enter the kitchen and help with cleaning the
rice, washing the beans, and cutting meat. The point seemed to be understood by those
present, that rather than replicating gender divisions in community organizing with
women doing the cooking and men discussing the finances, men and women should have
equal participation in all aspects of community organizing. One older male neighbor
present, Gilberto, did not look like he had ever cooked before in his life, but the women
showed him how to do it. Treating the soup kitchen as a collective responsibility, and not
as the sole work of the women volunteers, had the effect of challenging the notion that
cooking is the domain of women.
Community Politics and the Masculine Public Sphere
Convention