Acerca De – Colectiva Las Niñas de Guatemala

About

Colectiva Las Niñas de Guatemala seeks to bring visibility to artists' contributions to society. Through their unique disciplines and methodological artistic proposals, we create opportunities for healing and learning processes within a collective framework.

Central to this project is the co-creation with diverse groups of women, who serve as our inspiration. Through these collaborations, we expand the coverage of topics relevant to girls and women and amplify their stories.

We firmly believe in the healing and transformative power of art. Therefore, we emphasize the exploration of the arts in public spaces and the creation of political art.

The increasing interest in art in public spaces has given rise to new experiences within society, generating fresh approaches to creation, contribution, conceptualization, and the visibility of art practices that are interconnected with processes of healing, transformation, and political activism.

Our stance has always been anti-racist and will continue being anti-racist.

Mission

Our mission is to contribute to the awareness, prevention, healing, and eradication of all forms of gender-based violence against girls, adolescents, and women in Guatemala by utilizing artistic exploration and collective creation that facilitates empowerment tools for girls, adolescents, and women. These tools help girls, adolescents, and women state messages of reclamation and advocate for the guaranteeing of their rights.

Vision

We envision a world where Guatemalan girls, adolescents, and women have the tools to confront the structures of systemic patriarchy and achieve collective empowerment through the arts.

Get to Know the Team

Mai de Rimas

Artist/ Community Manager

Guatemalan rapper and Community Manager. She began her career as an artist in 2010 in downtown Guatemala City. She started as part of the 1st duo of female rappers "Melodía Urbana" with Liz Bella, later she was also part of "Rehenes de la Instrumental" and "Las Musas". She is currently a member of Colectiva Urbana, the first collective of women rappers in Central America, a member of Collectif ImpulsArte, a French-Guatemalan project that brings together circus arts and Hip Hop, and of course she is also part of Colectiva las Niñas de Guatemala.

Tanía Martínez

Artist/ Dancer

Dancer by profession and a feminist at heart. She has been trained in contemporary dance, circus, gymnastics, and martial arts. She has collaborated on independent projects and participated in national and international dance festivals. She is currently part of the contemporary dance company Momentum.

Mandy Joha

Founder / Program Coordinator

Anti-racist multidisciplinary Guatemalan artist. She started her career as a DJ in 2008. She uses the arts as a tool for social transformation and utilizes art activism to defend Guatemalan girls and women human rights in Guatemala. Mandy Joha proposes projects that include a therapeutic aspect in thanks to her research and studies focused on movement, music and alternative therapies. She utilizes methodologies from the above mentioned in her ecstatic dance sessions and workshops that she teaches. She founded the collective due to her early interest in political art, her activism, and her passion of defending the rights of girls and women in Guatemala. The collective makes it possible for Mandy Joha to create with other people through different artistic branches that can be utilized in communities to create art that contributes to this society.

Jeanette (Jaime/Juanita) Soria

Artist / Mentor

Storyteller, body artist and cultural agent. Her work is permeated by politics, communication, aesthetics and performativity as a personal and political act. She assumes sensitivity as an intrinsic quality of the human species, and is convinced that her work is to stimulate the ways of perception that have been numbed by modern rationality. She uses irruption and eros as a strategy to provoke a sense-based impression of the world. She is currently part of the contemporary dance group HILA which is based in Quetzaltenango.

Amna Khalafalla

Webpage Coordinator

International development graduate, social/political researcher, and photographer. She joined Colectiva Las Niñas de Guatemala in 2021. She handles communications, fundraising and web development. Prior to Colectiva Las Niñas de Guatemala, she worked in refugee and migrant social services. In the future, she will continue to support the project on the administrative side by connecting the project with financial resources. Amna is from Philadelphia, via East Africa.

Sofia Barrios

Artist/ Dancer

Dancer, dance teacher, activist, researcher of the feminist movement, with more than 10 years of experience in the arts. As an independent artist, she currently works as a facilitator of artistic processes focused on working with women, youth and girls in Guatemala promoting movement and dance as a pathway for learning from a sensible perspective, empowerment and social transformation. She has been part of different national and international dance companies such as Momentum Guatemala and Compañía Nacional De Danza De El Salvador. In addition, she has participated in more than 20 festivals, workshops, choreographies both national and international.