Training to Become an Advocate for Women’s Rights

Marcela García Vázquez says that when she started college, she became aware of the inequalities between men and women and began participating in university politics. But at the time she says she was always at the side of men and never took the lead. 

Enter PHI’s Rise Up program. In 2018, Marcela was accepted into a RiseUp advocacy training and through the program she began to develop a more sophisticated view of her activism and her role as a change agent. “When we started working on our strategies and learning more about advocacy and public relations, it made me understand that it wasn’t Marcela the rebel or yelling in the streets that was most important, but rather strategy,” she said. “That was really important for me because for so many years of my life I had lacked all the skills and techniques that Rise Up gave me.”

Following her Rise Up training, in Marcela’s work as the founder and director of Nueva Luna in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, she successfully led projects supporting the social reintegration of formerly incarcerated women and promoting indigenous women’s political rights. In September 2021, she entered the State Congress of San Luis Potosí as a congresswoman, where she works to advance women’s rights as the only feminist female representative.

Read more about Marcela on Rise Up’s website.