VIDEO CAPSULES

The arts, and music in particular, have historically served as a means of expression and political participation in Latin America, reflecting and bearing witness to their times. Mapuche rap, originating in the suburbs of Santiago, was created by young Mapuches aiming to denounce the injustices they were subjected to, making it a compelling example. To discuss this form of artistic expression as a tool for political resistance, and even beyond, Erika Ranke-Farro interviewed Cristopher Coñoman, a Mapuche rapper who has been actively engaged in this movement for over 10 years.

Discover "Diálogos - Dialogues: a series of ÉRIGAL capsules", a set of interviews that highlight local actors, practitioners, and academics from Latin America.

In a global context where waste generation is in constant growth, recycling is becoming more and more crucial. This video tackles this topic by focusing on actors at the heart of this industry in Brazil: the catadores, or waste-pickers, who are responsible for processing around 90% of the total waste recycled.

To learn more about their daily activities as well as the role of the cooperative model in their mobilization, Gustavo Andrade, a Master's graduate in political science from Concordia University and member of ÉRIGAL, meets with two leaders of waste management cooperatives in Brazil.

Discover "Diálogos - Dialogues: a series of ÉRIGAL capsules", a set of interviews that highlight local actors, practitioners, and academics from Latin America.

How were care and reproductive work constructed as political issues in Brazil? In which context and through what actions can the demands formulated by women’s and feminist movements to address the unequal distribution of childcare and reproductive work between parents in gendered, classed, and racialized ways, be translated into public policy? What limits do legal initiatives at the intersection of social movements and “traditional” politics, face in present-day Brazil?

To begin answering those questions, Rose Chabot, PhD Candidate at McGill University, meets with Amanda Mendonça and Pâmella Passos, researchers and activists who collaborated with municipal delegate Marielle Franco in the participatory construction of a law titled « Espaço Coruja », adopted in 2018 by the legislature of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The law seeks the creation of a public, night-time childcare space, to allow families—particularly, women and mothers who suffer from intersecting forms of oppression—to work, study, and participate in political life.

Discover "Diálogos - Dialogues: a series of ÉRIGAL capsules", a set of interviews that highlight local actors, practitioners, and academics from Latin America.

Domestic work is one of the least recognized and protected professional activities within labor law, an invisibility and precarity reflected in its largely informal status. This is particularly the case in Colombia, where most domestic workers are women, Afro-descendant, and internally displaced due to the armed conflict. Suffering from cross-oppressions of class, gender, and race, they nevertheless organize actively and autonomously within increasingly formal structures to defend their labor rights.

To discuss these struggles that are gaining momentum and visibility despite an absence of political will from states, Audrey-Anne Doyle, a master's student at Concordia University, meets Claribed Palacios García. Claribed is the founder of the Union of Afro-Colombian Domestic Service Workers (UTRASD), a workers’ union created in Medellin to defend the rights of Afro-descendant domestic workers all around the country.

Discover "Diálogos - Dialogues: a series of ÉRIGAL capsules", a series of interviews that highlights local actors, practitioners and academics from Latin America.

How does citizen reappropriation of the city as a space for the promotion of urban agriculture come about, in a megalopolis like Mexico City? Is gardening a political act? How do these "informal" forms of citizen participation articulate with “formal” institutional practices?

Martine El-Ouardi, a master's student in political science at Université de Montréal, meets with Gabriela Vargas Romero, founder of the urban garden Huerto Tlatelolco in Mexico City, to discuss these issues.