She Persisted:
a Red Sun Press Calendar for 2019
Berta Cáceres, water protector, Lenca woman, mother, and uncompromising activist developed a distaste for injustice at a very early age. Growing up in the colonial town of La Esperanza, Honduras in the middle of Lenca country, she complained to her mother about the treatment of indigenous people and recognized the savage violence of poverty. While still a teenager, she traveled to neighboring El Salvador to support that country’s rural uprising. Back in Honduras, together with other young indigenous leaders, she founded the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), an organization committed to protecting indigenous rights and the sanctity of La Madre Tierra.
Before long, Berta and COPINH found themselves in the middle of a life and death struggle with DESA, a Honduran energy company hell-bent on damming the Gualcarque River —waters sacred to her Lenca people — in order to supply electricity to fuel mining operations and urban development. On March 3, 2016, that struggle took Berta’s life when hired assassins burst into the house where she was staying and brutally shot and killed her.
For COPINH and many Hondurans, hungry for justice, the killers may have murdered Berta’s body, but her spirit will never die. She remains, ¡Berta Cáceres, Presente!
To support ongoing work in Berta’s Lenca community, you can contribute at GrassrootsOnline.org/Berta
Photos used in the poster include images courtesy of Goldman Environmental Prize.
For a copy of the print calendar, 12×18 inches on 80# coated paper, let us know with the form below.
