Maria Josefina : Fighting and machismo

María Josefina Roque, 30, belongs to the Mayan Chortí ethnic group, very punished by history and by nature. Faced with the social ecosystem of deep patriarchy, it can be said that Josefina is a neighbourhood pioneer and a universal heroine.

She has overcome the barriers of prevailing machismo and illiteracy to which the members of its community La Ceiba Talquezal, in Jocotán, the Guatemalan department of Chiquimula, are concerned.

This woman, single mother of 4 children after her husband abandoned them, has become the secretary of the bank of seeds of her region, a project of Action against Hunger that seeks to expand the diversity of products in the family diet and stabilize prices. With the accumulation and distribution of the grain, the cost of these products is avoided during the months of scarcity. “It has been a great help for us,” she says.