PODER

Afro y Abya Yala Fuerza Feminista

is a not for profit organization that works to create spaces that center Trans, Queer, Afro-Latinx and Indigenous individuals in the greater Latinx community.

SOBRE NOSOTRES

ABOUT US

PODER Afro y Abya Yala Fuerza Feminista is a grassroots organization that aims to create decolonial, anti-oppressive, and community building spaces that explicitly prioritize Afrodescendiente, Indígena, LGBTTIQQ2SA+, Non-Binary, Gender Non-Conforming, Agender, Mad, Crip, and Sick and Disabled voices for people with roots to the Latin American and Caribbean / Abya Yala / Anáhuac / Tawantinsuyo diaspora.

MISIÓN

MISION

PODER is a grassroots volunteer-led organization for people with roots to Latin America, Abya Yala, the Caribbean, and the diaspora. We are committed to decolonization through collective learning and community building.

VISIÓN

VISION

PODER aims to create a cultural shift in critical awareness towards decolonization and liberation in solidarity with Black and Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island.

PODER is honoured to cultivate these spaces in the meeting place of Toronto (from the Haudenosaunee word Tkaronto), the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat and the Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. The territory was subject to the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. Today, Tkaronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to build community in solidarity with Indigenous nations on this territory.

NUESTRO TRABAJO

WHAT WE DO

PODER has an extensive thirty-year history, emerging from the encuentro movement organized by the Latin American Coalition Against Violence (LACEV), which was aimed at addressing gender-based violence that affected first generation immigrants and political refugees from the the Latin American diaspora. For the past 20 years, the organizers that spearheaded the evolution from ‘LACEV’ to ‘MUJER’ developed and implemented educational workshops, trainings and campaigns that addressed issues of intergenerational trauma and systemic violence that impact the diaspora.

In order to better serve our communities, the community elected to change its name from ‘MUJER’ to ‘PODER Afro y Abya Yala Fuerza Feminista’ in 2018. ‘MUJER’ is a word evocative of essentialist gender norms, which no longer aligned with our goal to create decolonial, intersectional, community-building spaces. Our name change to PODER aims to better reflect who we are, who we serve, and what spaces we aim to create.