21st October 2005
Second year of La Casa del Encuentro
Tales of an event full of emotion, art, politics and acknowledgments

By Mónica Arroyo and Irene

A LESBIAN ORGANIZATION WHICH IS MAKING WAVES

On Friday, October 21, 2005 La Casa del Encuentro celebrated its second year of existence. Over a hundred women came to the celebration, willing to share that moment with the enthusiasm and the euphoria elicited by having attended the XX Encuentro Nacional de Mujeres (National Women´s Meeting) at Mar del Plata, Argentina. Since 9 pm la Casita (the Little House), as it is known among its members, started to fill with women, happiness and, above all, emotion due to the meetings and encounters which are so common in these situations.
Fabiana, one of our hosts and the spokeswoman, for now, of La Casa del Encuentro´s organizers, started her speech by telling us about the new phase of their project and their new proposals, with her customary fervor and her “strong belief in what we are doing”. Besides, she read aloud a financial report, informing the women on the grants received and the use they were given, and on the issues still pendant.
She thanked the group Las Lunas y las Otras (The Moons and the Others), ATEM (Women Work and Study Association), Ilse Fuskova and Chita, and there was a special mention to La Librería de Mujeres (The Women´s Library).
Ada, another host, presented the story of the organization on a PowerPoint display with the technical assistance of the designer of Encontradas, a magazine published monthly by La Casa del Encuentro. Thus we could watch the images of La Casa when it was still under preparation, not yet as it looks today, when a group of women with hand tools turned and old house into the political and affectionate space which became La Casa del Encuentro. Then there came the pictures of the women who attended La Casa, the shows, the activities, the balls, the parties, the campaigns, the National Women´s Meeting at Mendoza in 2004, La Casa´s first anniversary, all among our applause and the greetings to the LesbianBanda.
Fabiana resumed her speech to talk about the National Women´s Meeting, stressing that in 2004 only four women from La Casa del Encuentro were present, while next year forty of La Casa´s attendants took part in it, which resulted in an act of lesbic visibility.
Then Josefina took Fabiana´s place at the microphone to talk in behalf of the “baby feminists”, a group of women with little or no previous experience in feminism, who set up weekly meetings to talk about and investigate on the subject. She specially thanked Marta Miguélez, a long-time feminist activist who coordinated these meetings during its firsts months; she acknowledged the importance of the reflection group, whose members have contributed so to the growth and development of La Casa, and she finally summoned the rest of the group to the front, where they presented the organizers with a banner they had made as a present, at which moment the rest of the women sang spontaneously some of the songs heard at the National Women´s Meeting.
For their part, Las Chinchetas, a lesbian feminist group from Dominican Republic, delivered a speech full of humor and energy, which repeated “every woman arrives at La Casa, La Casa del Encuentro, a lesbian organization which is making waves”.
Ilse Fuskova, our first public lesbian feminist, described with a metaphor what is it that La Casa means to her: “it´s like a garden with black soil, where you can plant a seed and watch it sprout, where every woman can develop her full potential”.
Magui, speaking in behalf of ATEM, an organization that has been working since 1982 towards an autonomous and self-sustained feminist movement and in the defense of Human Rights, stressed the creativity and the reaching out to society that characterize La Casa´s work. “They are opening new ways”, she said.
Chita, who may be Argentina´s most experienced feminist, one of the founders of ATEM, said she felt “extremely yo… comfortable” and all the women present corrected her at once “young!!!”. She conceded that, “surrounded by so many young women, I can´t help feeling more than young”.
Then it was Lorena´s and Alejandra´s turn at the microphone, two women who have supported the organization all trough its long process. Lorena is the coordinator of La Casa´s theatre workshop and directs the play that La Casa del Encuentro first presented on the 8th of March at the Obelisk (Buenos Aires´ most important monument) and also played at the XX National Women´s Meeting and the Cultural Center of La Paternal´s Popular Assembly, a social organization. As an activist, Lorena has always put all of her considerable energy into the lesbian feminist struggle.
With great difficulty, due to the emotion of the occasion, silence was made and two women, Janet and María, sang their favourite songs with their touching voices.
Afterwards Ochy Curiel, a well-known Latin American lesbian activist and singer, sang some of her own songs, among which is “Ellas/nosotras” (“Us/Them”), one of the themes at La Casa del Encuentro´s website.
Luckily for us, which really appreciate her art, Silvia Palumbo delighted us with some of her better known songs, including “Tortas de miel” (Honey cakes).
The members of LesbianBanda gave closure to the show singing without their drums but with the full force of their voices. Their music addresses the oppression of the patriarchy with sensitivity, humor and creativity, thus becoming weapons in our fight against injustice.
Finally, we sang “Happy Birthday”, the LesbianBanda performed once more and the dancing started at last. We have a long way ahead of us, a path of compromise, activism, creativity and hard work. Today we can claim the motto adopted by La Casa del Encuentro, that prophetic sentence they found scribbled in a wall at the entrance of the house, the very first day they set foot on it: JUNTAS SOMOS LA FUERZA (Together we are the strength)