Women of the Mixteca and Sierra Sur:

reclaiming spaces, nurturing community

In the mountains of the Mixteca and Sierra Sur Regions of Oaxaca, women are taking the reins of their present and their future. As men had to migrate, they sustain everyday life, they plant, care, manage, and dream. They are the beating heart behind every home and every community that refuses to disappear.

They are the pillars of family and community economies, yet barriers persist when it comes to owning land or participating in the decisions that shape their surroundings. Often, the Indigenous normative systems that govern 73% of municipalities in Oaxaca still limit women’s participation in assemblies and access to local leadership positions.

Despite progress toward gender equality, numerous cases of gender-based political violence continue to be reported against women in government positions.

But they move forward, claiming their right to decide, to lead, and to be heard.And they do it together.

Projects like MARES (Women Saving in Solidarity Networks) and Women of Coffee accompany more than 300 women as they transform their reality through training in finance, agroecology, entrepreneurship, savings, and investment. Even more importantly, these projects nurture something deeper: trust in themselves and in one another.

Each savings session becomes a space of trust, sisterhood, safety, autonomy, and collective strength.

Because when a woman grows, she doesn’t just transform her own life, she transforms her entire community. Catalina, a member of the Mujeres Unidas group within the MARES project, is proof of this transformation. She has stepped into new leadership roles:

“During a neighborhood meeting, I was appointed President of the Community Health Center because they knew about our savings group and what we have achieved… That’s when I said, ‘I’m going to put into practice what I’ve learned.’”

— Catalina, member of Mujeres Unidas savings group.

Today, Catalina not only leads her savings group but also presides over her neighborhood’s Health Center, inspiring other women to take the lead and believe that Yes, they can!.

“Working together, maybe not to meet all our needs, but at least the essentials…That’s how we see it: supporting each other as women, because most who come are women with children, people in need. That’s what this is about, putting to action what we’ve learned in the Mujeres Unidas group.”

The collaboration between Puente and SiKanda is a movement that brings opportunities closer, fosters women’s leadership, and recognizes those who have quietly sustained community life for generations.

Because when women grow, entire communities bloom.