The Vagina Monologues in Guatemala

I had never seen the vagina monologues before but it’s safe to say that I had a pretty good idea about what this type of “play” would consist of, thus, I immediately wanted to invite my counterparts along to expose them to such a taboo topic. First let's set the scene a bit about sex and women in Guatemala. I've gone to plenty of classrooms where young girls the age of 14 are bringing along their children, so clearly girls are having sex, but it is NOT discussed. Furthermore, I'd bet a hefty sum that the majority of Guatemalan women don't even enjoy sex and find it as a chore. To top it all off, the men here are completely machista, typically have more than one woman to sleep with and enforce very traditional gender roles.

So, a couple weeks ago, I found out that some Peace Corps volunteers were putting together a bilingual version of the Vagina Monologues complete with PCV actresses as well as Guatemalan actresses. I knew it was something I wanted to see but how awesome would it be to bring my counterparts! When would I have the opportunity to take women who probably have never talked about sex to people outside of their close circle of friends (if that) and live in an incredibly machista culture to a candid and somewhat flamboyant celebration of sexuality!? In addition, I feel myself constantly wanting to bring my counterparts to events or activities but because of a lack of money, it’s usually not even worth mentioning. For some reason on this particular day though, I figured it wouldn’t hurt just to mention how nice it would be if the mayor would drive us to Antigua to see a play focusing on women’s issues. She decided to ask and, to my surprise, the mayor said definitely, we’d make a day out of it. So it was a lady’s day out: me, my two counterparts, the mayor’s wife, and our muni driver (so he’s the oddball, a typical machista man with a wife and plenty of mistresses).
I found myself being nervous that entire day. First, I was sure that the mayor was going to cancel on us last minute because it’s Guatemala and it’s pretty rare that things go according to plan. But five-thirty rolled around and we were bumping around the twists and curves on the road to leave Canillá. Once arriving to Antigua, I learned a little bit about how my Guatemalan counterparts like to travel. In my head I’m thinking we can go site seeing, eat some new delish food, and completely expose them to this new culture that lies within their own country. Yea not so much. Turns out walking isn’t really on the list of things fun to do, even if it involves seeing ruins or beautiful churches. So we walk for a little bit, sit in the park for a while, buy scarves (the mayor’s wife bought me a pretty purple one which was very generous of her) and then get in the car to drive around Antigua (not the most car friendly place). For lunch we had the oh so exotic Pollo Campero (the equivalent of a KFC) and I of course giggled in my head for even thinking that we might try to eat at a good pizza place or pick up something completely new. Then at lunch I dropped the bomb. “So this play might be a little fuerte (strong) because it’s about women and sex and sexuality so yea just warning you ahead of time.” Immediately Mito (the muni driver) starts laughing and is like “Shit, I’m going to wake up tomorrow with a husband after this girl’s day out activities and this play”.
We walk over to the small but cute theater and I hand them their tickets. My nervousness is increasing, what if the play doesn’t include enough Spanish? What if they think this is wildly inappropriate? What if they want to walk out in the middle of the play? I hand them their tickets and I notice they’re pointing at the ticket and snickering to each other. “Que pasa?” (what’s up?) and my counterpart points to the word “Vagina” with a giggle and perplexed look on her face. “les dije” (I told you guys!) and I shrug my shoulders jokingly back at them. “Here goes nothing” I think to myself.
The volunteers did an amazing job putting together the play and it was a perfect blend of Spanish, English, laughter, seriousness and interesting facts (did you know the female clitoris has twice as many nerve endings as the entire male penis!? 8,000 vs. 4,000 for a man; did you also know that in January of 2011 a woman was raped every day that month in the department of Alta Verapaz? Heavy.) What was the best part of the entire day/event was the reaction of my counterparts. They seemed pumped, energized, totally on board with the fact that it is incredibly sad how women do not talk about their vaginas or their sex lives. They all also were like “Carolina, you totally didn’t mention what this play was about on purpose until right before hand huh? You’re sneaky!” to which I replied that there was a little bit of truth to that statement but I honestly thought if I had mentioned what the play was completely about, no one would have been interested. They definitely acknowledged that and also acknowledged the fact that never in their lives did they think they’d see a play about vaginas. Our muni driver didn’t involve himself in the conversation but during the play he laughed along with everyone else and he didn’t seem to have fallen asleep which means he was paying attention (and who knows perhaps it even made him think! Gasp! Perhaps for once he thought about his wife and pleasing her instead of just his, well, his “self”). We got in the car and discussed the possibility of starting our own girls groups to help empower young women before it’s too late, we made vagina jokes, we bonded. I feel like we achieved the goal of the Vagina Monologues…we talked about it! Even today (the day after) my counterparts are still discussing the play and how true it is that we don’t talk about sexuality. How awesome! In the afternoon we were celebrating a birthday at the muni and our mayor even joked about it, “why don’t you share what you two learned about yesterday?” he jokingly asked us.
In sum, I feel awesome to have been able to share this experience with the people I work with and see every day. I hope, even if it’s in a miniscule way, that my counterparts remember our day in Antigua and that it inspires them in some way; whether it’s being more open about their sexuality, being more open to participating in events about topics that may make them uncomfortable, or even if it’s just sharing the experience with other women.