FIGHT WITH JOY: REMEMBERING BERTHA CÁCERES
Bertha Cáceres addresses a massive demonstration in Tegucigalpa on July 4, 2009, six days after the coup d’état in Honduras. Edited photo by Sandra Cuff
Laughter filled the little room and floated out into the dirt courtyard of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) office. Bertha Isabel Cáceres Flores and another longtime COPINH organizer were regaling me with tales of all the pranks he had pulled on her over the years.
One time he slipped an empty crab shell left over from someone’s soup into the front pocket of her laptop case for her to find when she reached in to get the mouse. That particular prank didn’t turn out as intended, which somehow made it that much more hilarious. She didn’t use the mouse anytime soon, and ended up wondering where the funky smell was coming from. Another time, when they were hiking in the mountains to get to a community affiliated with COPINH, he carefully slipped rocks into her backpack one by one along the way until she finally realized that it wasn’t just a sensation. Her backpack really was heavier.
video by Contrainfos group ”in homage to Berta we must save the rivers”
When I heard that Bertha had been killed, that laughter-filled conversation was the first memory to come rushing back. It was followed by other memories from a decade ago, during the four and a half years I lived in Bertha’s hometown of La Esperanza, Intibucá.
Continue reading “Berta Cáceres . contrainfos video homage. Fight with Joy”
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