This Saturday, various women’s groups from across East L.A. are joining forces to celebrate International Women’s Day.
The East L.A. Women’s Day Fest, which takes place at the East L.A. Civic Center from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is being put on by East L.A. Women’s Center, an advocacy program that supports women who have been abused and helps provide health and social services; Mujeres de Maiz, a women’s art and wellness collective that aims to help women address their physical and mental health needs; and the Goddess Mercado, a monthly roving marketplace that provides Latina business owners a space to showcase their wares.
The event will also serve as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the East L.A. Women’s Center and Mujeres de Maiz’s 29th anniversary.
Felicia Montes, the co-founder and executive director of Mujeres de Maiz, helped launch the organization as a student at UCLA alongside several other classmates and Cal State LA undergrads.
“We were just looking for representation of Chicanx, Latinx and women of color in artistic and organizing spaces,” Montes told The Times. “Because we didn’t see it as much, or we oftentimes didn’t feel safe or heard in those spaces, we made our own space.”
Montes said that one of the main goals of Mujeres de Maiz is to create an intersectional environment for women to discuss and address the many aspects of their lives.
“[It’s a space where] we do work around women’s issues, around sexuality, around feminism, around spirituality, around immigration, around all of our different selves and not have to go to five different meetings for that,” Montes said.
Montes also spoke on the work that the East L.A. Women’s Center has done in its 50-year journey.
“It’s very inspiring to see an organization that has been along, you know, around so long,” she said. “Their focus is so many different areas, [they do work] around families, domestic violence, HIV awareness. They have really connected across all of the different important spaces and needs around women and women of color across not only the Eastside, but Southern California.”
Saturday’s event will feature over 70 vendors with work from local women entrepreneurs and artisans, plus musical performances and talks from prominent Latinx activists and organizers.
While the festival will mark the first time Mujeres de Maiz and East L.A. Women’s Center come together for an International Women’s Day celebration, it’s not the first time the two organizations have collaborated.
In 2015, both collectives communed with several other women’s support groups across L.A. to form the Eastside Mujeres Network.
“We came together really with an urgency around some of the different issues that happen around violence against women in east side and the East L.A. area,” Montes said.
Though Saturday’s event will be a celebration of unity, it will also serve as an opportunity for these organizations to extend their services.
“There will be over 25 different resources, from information on child care to domestic violence, HIV testing as well as immigration and know your rights information,” Montes said. “It’s really a time right now to come together to create a safe and brave space for women and their families.”
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