Florinda Soriano Muñoz: Peasants Also Have Rights In a personal interview with Johnny Calzado (My father), he told me that Florinda Soriano Muñoz was known as (Mamá Tingó). She was a woman who blindly trusted her country's government until the moment when this same government turned its back on her. Muñoz was born on November 8, 1921. She was born In Villa Mella, a sector within Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Muñoz was a working woman from her childhood. According to Johnny Calzado her parents raised her to love and work the land in which she had grown up. Mamá Tingó never went to school because in those years education was not affordable for everyone due to lack of financial resources, which made her illiterate. Working the land was all that the poor people and the peasants had since the Dominican Republic was supported mainly by agriculture, tobacco and sugar cane. (countrystudies.us) At the age of 30, Muñoz married Felipe and her seven children were born from that marriage, years later her husband passed away and Muñoz dedicated herself to raising and educating her children alone, working agriculture. Mamá Tingó also worked, pig raising, sold firewood to the old Hato bakeries in Yamasá and sold meat to some businesses in the city. Most of the jobs that Muñoz did were considered hard jobs and for men in the 1970s Dominican Republic. Women, especially the peasantry, lacked many of the rights they have today such as education for all, the right to protest or openly give their opinion. Women mainly had limited rights because they were women. Men had all the rights that women were denied which made them the privileged gender of that time. In 1974 the landowner Pablo Diaz claimed the lands of hundreds of peasants as his own, including the land that had belonged to Muñoz and her family for more than 50 years (Johnny Calzado). Despite being a woman, illiterate, a peasant and poor, Muñoz, who belonged to the Federation of Agrarian Leagues, raised her voice against the unjustified dispossession of land from peasants. Muñoz led a fight in favor of the peasants, she defended the right of the peasants on the land that they have worked all their lives. Muñoz became the first Dominican peasant woman to defend the rights of peasants. Months later, more than 8000 hectares of land were invaded by armed men sent by landowner Diaz (Johnny Calzado). As a result of this Muñoz and other defenders of the rights of the peasants as well as Diaz were summoned to the courthouse, but this appointment was postponed because Diaz did not attend. Upon returning to her house Muñoz went in search of her pigs that one of the landowner Diaz's men had intentionally released. That same day, November 1, 1974, at 53 years old, Florida Soriano Muñoz lost her life while looking for her pigs. Everything was a trap. Muñoz was shot twice in the chest and the second in the head in order to kill her so that she would stop defending the peasants and persuade them that it was unfair that after having worked all their life the land was taken from them. The news of Muñoz's death spread throughout the country and internationally, prompting the government that turned its back on her, and they began investigating why they killed Muñoz. The government discovered the injustice that was being committed against the peasants and as a consequence more than 300 families obtained land titles and since then the peasants began to be heard and valued. In order not to forget the first woman who became an advocate for peasant rights in the Dominican Republic, different ways of honoring her have been created. They created a statue of Muñoz in the town hall of Puerto Plata, it is called the first subway station of Santo Domingo in Villa Mella (Mamá Tingó), Johnny Ventura, a famous Dominican merenguero, sang a merengue in his honor called (Mamá Tingó) narrating the day of her death and books were made in honor of muñoz, which tell her story and documentaries of her life such as (Mama Tingó, a Giant in time), 01/28/2018. Several institutions in the Dominican Republic and other countries bear her name, to honor Muñoz for her activism and bravery. The story of Florinda Soriano Muñoz appears in the Museum of The Resistance in the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo. Today Mama Tingo is remembered as the pride of peasant women. I met Florinda Soriano Muñoz through the stories my father Johnny Calzado told me about this brave woman who dared to fight for her rights and the rights of other peasants when no one dared. My father lived in Villa Mella like Muñoz and living near him allowed him to know his history first hand. My father has always used the Muñoz story to encourage me to fight for the things that I consider fair and for my rights. My father told me from a young age that Florinda Soriano Muñoz has been the bravest woman he has ever known and that he wants all women to be like her, independent, brave and fighter. For me Muñoz is an inspiration as a woman and an activist. I am honored to be able to share her story with others. Works Cited Afric Network (Mamá Tingó, Dominicana Revolutionary) https://youtu.be/5gE5pv3L5jc https://belatina.com/ April, 12 2020. Calzado, Johnny. Personal interview. 5 april, 2020. Roberta Nin Feliz (Feminin international) https://womensmediacenter.com/ April 06/2018. I am Jeilin de Jesus, a student at Hostos Community College, enrolled in WGS 100 with Professor Jerilyn Fisher, Spring 2020. Our class wrote biographies as our "Making a Difference" project, done in partnership with WomensActivism.NYC.

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