Las Matronas de las Luchas
PROJECT SERIES
Las matronas de las luchas (Matrons of resistance) is Colectivo Moriviví's very first program. Through the search for and articulation of collective memory we work to eradicate the erasures of our history. Each project within the program establishes a collaboration with groups or organizations that carry out social work in Puerto Rico's resistance movements, through an inclusive and feminist lens.
Objectives
1
Contribution to the collective imagination
Generation of design proposals for public interventions. We translated the verbal memory we collected into a visual language, with the aim of contributing to the collective imagination of our society and combating the erasures of our history.
2
Articulation of feminist and inclusive visual languages
Through research and community workshops with members and participants from various organizations, we searched for symbolism, identified key figures and individuals, and articulated visual narratives for each of the designs.
3
Connections between existing struggles and community organizing
Collaborators
Casa Protegida Julia de Burgos
Colectiva Feminista en Construcción
Centro Paz para Ti La Borivogue
Fundación Mami Ruddys
4
Collective Healing
Community workshops were held with various organizations, offering spaces for art as therapy, memory, dialogue, and story-sharing.
Las Matronas de las Calles
Coming Soon @ Río Piedras, PR.
For Las Matronas de las Calles (The Matrons of the Streets), we are collaborating with Colectiva Feminista en Construcción (La Cole). Founded in 2014, it is a political organization that draws on the legacy of Black and decolonial feminism. La Cole has been instrumental in the development of social movements in Puerto Rico that address structural violence from an intersectional lens. The project will focus on articulating a visual representation of important moments, events, and achievements for La Cole that women and people across the country have experienced. We believe it is crucial to highlight this legacy of feminist struggle and for this project to serve as a visual archive. In this way, we establish connections between different people in La Cole. We use the art and community practices of Moriviví as a facilitating agent for La Cole.
TRANS-valentía
2026
TRANS-valentía (TRANS-courage) is a collaboration with the Mami Ruddy's Foundation and La Borivogue. The design will feature trans women who have made significant contributions to the community, both historically and currently. These figures include: Mami Ruddys, Villano Antillano, Christina Hayworth, Sylvia Rivera, Soraya Santiago, Sofía Isabel Marrero, Ivana Fred, Diane Michelle, Luisa Fernenada, Karina Torres, Natasha Alor, and Anacaona.
The Mami Ruddy's Foundation is a foundation that carries the legacy of Mami Ruddy's, the queer icon on the island that protected and gave shelter to LGBTQ+ youth running away from danger. It’s a foundation where trans identities flourish, where they fight for a future with no prejudice; with as much love and respect as Ruddys did. On the other hand, La Borivogue is a practice space born in the midst of the pandemic that uses Ballroom as a tool of liberation and social justice.
The project is being developed alongside community members who work with these organizations in community conceptualization and design workshops.
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This project is still in need of a wall for the mural as well as additional funding. If you are interested in contributing to its completion in any way don't hesitate to reach out to us!
Matronas de la Montaña
2026
Matronas de la Montaña (Matrons of the Mountain) is a collaboration with the Centro Paz Para Ti (Adjuntas, PR), and illustratir, muralist, printmaker and educator, Rosenda Álvarez Faro. The center was founded in 2019 and seeks to strengthen rural women's protective factors against gender-based violence.
Five "estampas" were designed to capture and encompass the legacy of rural and women from Adjuntas: tobacco workers, seamstresses, farmers, coffee growers, and leadership from the center. The concept was developed with participants from the center in community conceptualization and design workshops. The figures represented are taken from the historical archive, and participants, Sasha Diana Maldonado Nieves, Iris Rivera Plaza and Alana Feldman from the Centro Paz Para Ti.
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This project is still in need of additional funding. If you are interested in contributing to its completion in any way don't hesitate to reach out to us!
Pioneras del Deporte en Puerto Rico
2026
Pioneras del Deporte en Puerto Rico (Pioneers of Sports in Puerto Rico) is a collaboration with artist Elizabeth Barreto; Puerto Rican visual artist, educator, and muralist. This design is nurtured by the artist's research to compile the names and construct the portraits, part of an important effort to compile historical archives.
The figures represented are historically pioneering women in sports in Puerto Rico who were part of the country's first women's delegation to participate in the 1938 Central American Games. These include: Rebekah Colberg, Joaquina Bayrón, María Vilá, María F. Del Corral, Mercedes Espinet, Esther Carballera, Rosa América Martinó, Iris Zengotita and Rosa Julia Modesti.
Elizabeth Barreto has been researching the topic of Puerto Rican women in sports for several years. The following excerpt is taken from her most recent project, Tiro Libre:
“Gender-based violence encompasses a wide range of harmful behaviors that are perpetrated based on people's gender-sexual experiences and that primarily affect women, girls, and people with gender identities that do not correspond to the male-female binary. These behaviors, whether passive or aggressive, exert control, reproduce discrimination, trigger violence, and generate inequality.
Gender-based violence is a structural problem rooted in the conditions that determine how we relate to all spheres of our lives, such as housing, education, health, safety, work, sustainability, interests, and so on, including our relationship with sports.
…hegemonic representations of masculinity and femininity generate inequality and, consequently, normalize sexist behaviors that underestimate and devalue female athletes, who constantly have to prove themselves to secure fair and equitable treatment.
From the beginning, entering a male-dominated sports landscape has been a major challenge for female athletes in Puerto Rico."
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⎼Elizabeth Barreto
This project is still in need of a wall for the mural as well as additional funding. If you are interested in contributing to its completion in any way don't hesitate to reach out to us!