Delia Zamudio

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Zamudio and the second or maternal family name is Palacios.

Delia Zamudio
Born	Delia Rosa Zamudio Palacios (1943-06-20)20 June 1943 Hacienda "Hoja Redonda", Chincha Province, Peru
Died	28 September 2024(2024-09-28) (aged 81)
Occupation(s)	Trade unionist and Afro-Peruvian and women's rights activist
Years active	1955–2024

Delia Rosa Zamudio Palacios (20 June 1943 – 28 September 2024) was an Afro-Peruvian trade unionist and leader in the activism for the rights of Afro-Peruvian women. She was the first woman to become the head of the General Confederation of Workers of Peru (Spanish: Confederación General de Trabajadores del Perú (CGTP)). She has worked since the 1970s to improve the human and civil rights of Afro-Peruvians and working women. As a founder of the Casa de Refugio San Juan de Lurigancho she has worked to assist victims of domestic and sexual violence. She was recognized by the Ministry of Culture for her contributions with the Meritorious Personality of Culture Award in 2014.

Early life

Delia Rosa Zamudio Palacios was born in 1943, on the hacienda “Hoja Redonda” in the Chincha Province of Peru to Victoria Palacios and Grimaldo Zamudio. In the 1950s, her mother migrated with her children to the La Victoria District of Lima in search of employment. After completing the third grade, Zamudio stopped attending school to care for her younger siblings to enable her mother to work. At twelve, she began working as a domestic laborer and three years later began working at the Libertad Canning Factory in the Rímac District. Simultaneously while working during the day, Zamudio returned to school and completed her primary education. In 1966, she was hired at a pharmaceutical factory and joined the union. Within three years, she was elected as the social assistance secretary of the factory union. Continuing her night studies, Zamudio completed her secondary education at the Escuela María Parado de Bellido in Rímac in 1971.

Activism

Zamudio's struggle for her education and to earn a livable wage, as a poor black woman in a predominantly Latino culture, led her into activism. In 1970, she became a representative of the "Federation of Laboratories, Drug Stores and Affiliates" and began participating as a delegate in conventions. Openly critical of President Juan Velasco Alvarado's military regime, she attended the 1974 Convention of Industrial Communities to protest the government. Becoming a member of the Revolutionary Worker's Party (RWP), in 1975, she was selected as the secretary-general of the General Confederation of Workers of Peru (Spanish: Confederación General de Trabajadores del Perú (CGTP)). Her election was the first time a woman or Afro-Peruvian had headed a trade organization in Peru. The CGTP is an umbrella organization of labor unions in Peru and during her tenure through 1980 as the head of the confederation, Zamudio fought for the rights of women workers. In 1977, the union held protests demanding social and political rights and Zamudio was one of those involved in the national strike. She was selected by RWP as a provisional candidate to the 1978 Constituent Assembly, but as a result of her activism, she was replaced by another candidate and lost her job.

In 1981, Zamudio was a delegate to the Convention of Mexican Laborers and the following year became secretary for women's concerns in the CGTP. In addition to her labor activism, Zamudio attended women’s rights conferences, like the Latin American Feminist Conferences held in Brazil and Mexico in 1986, as well as the 1990 Fifth Argentine Feminist Conference of Buenos Aires. Preferring to work in grassroots organizations because of the paternalistic attitude of more formal women's NGOs, Zamudio's activism focused on training and protection for working-class women. She worked with the Organizing Commission of Peruvian Women (COMUP), to evaluate problems facing women in the work force, looking at maternity rights and sexual harassment, though the proposals did not become law until the 1999 passage of Law 27240 concerning maternity and the 2003 adoption of Law 27942 regarding sexual harassment.

In the mid-1990s, when the Peruvian economy became restricted, Zamudio again lost her job and worked from a small shop in her home. In 1995, a testimonial of her life Piel de mujer (Woman's Skin) was published, describing what it was like to grow up as a poor, black woman with limited opportunities and how through activism and helping others, she overcame the physical and emotional abuse, racism and discrimination she faced by helping others. She founded a women's shelter, the San Juan de Lurigancho House of Refuge (Spanish: Casa de Refugio San Juan de Lurigancho), to assist women and children fleeing domestic violence in her neighborhood. Continuing her advocacy for Afro-Peruvians, she works with the Ministry of Women in the Afro-Peruvian Labor Bureau to address concerns of working women. In 2014 on International Women's Day, Zamudio was one of the honorees of the Meritorious Personality of Culture Award for her human rights work. Her testimony was republished in 2016 by the LUNDU Center for the Afro-Peruvian Study and Promotion (Spanish: LUNDU Centro de Estudios y Promoción Afroperuanos) in a compilation which included forty case studies of violence against women of African descent in Peru.

Death

Zamudio died on 28 September 2024, at the age of 81.

References

Bibliography

• Arrelucea Barrantes, Maribel (2016). "Zamudio, Delia (1943– ), Afro-Peruvian labor union activist". In Knight, Franklin W.; Gates, Jr, Henry Louis (eds.). Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro–Latin American Biography. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-199-93580-2. – via Oxford University Press's Reference Online (subscription required)
• Garay Rengifo, Brenda (20 November 2015). "Delia Zamudio, líder afroperuana que combate la violencia de género, recibe el reconocimiento "Rostros de Poder"" [Delia Zamudio, Afro-Peruvian leader who combats gender violence, receives the "Faces of Power" recognition]. Somos Afrodescendientes Peru (in Spanish). Lima, Peru: LUNDU Centro de Estudios y Promoción Afroperuanos. Archived from the original on 12 April 2016. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
• Harris II, Emmanuel (Spring 2011). "The Triple Consciousness of Delia Zamudio". Callaloo. 34 (2). Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press: 282. doi:10.1353/cal.2011.0061. S2CID 161798333.
• Intemann, Almuth; Kaschinski, Kai (21 June 1997). "Interview mit Delia Zamudio: Frauenhaut" [Interview with Delia Zamudio: Woman's skin] (in German). No. 31. Bremen, Germany: Kassiber. Archived from the original on 5 September 2017. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
• Zamudio, Delia (1995). González, Maritza (ed.). Piel de mujer: testimonio [Woman's Skin: Testimonial] (in Spanish). Lima, Perú: Fomento de la Vida-Fovida. OCLC 253926876.
• "Delia Zamudio, labor reconocida en San Juan de Lurigancho" [Delia Zamudio, recognized for work in San Juan de Lurigancho] (in Spanish). San Juan de Lurigancho, Peru: SJL Digital. Perú.21. 25 June 2016. Archived from the original on 21 January 2017. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
• "Ministerio de Cultura reconocerá a mujeres que aportan a la cultura peruana por el Día Internacional de la Mujer". Ministerio de Cultura (in Spanish). Lima, Peru: Government of Peru. 5 March 2014. Archived from the original on 5 March 2018. Retrieved 5 March 2018.