What is the "Marea Verde," the Reproductive Rights Movement Sweeping Latin America?

Women march to demand safe and legal abortion access in Mexico City, 2018.
Source: Wikimedia Commons

On a Saturday in April 1977, a group of mothers gathered in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Their purpose was clear - to demand information about their children who had disappeared during Jorge Rafael Videla's dictatorship. Despite facing immense danger, they were determined to make their voices heard.


As they sat in the square, their numbers grew. Eventually, police forced them out of the area, but this only made them more resolute in their mission. They continued to meet, rally, and demand answers relentlessly.

During a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Luján in October of that same year, the mothers finally decided to identify themselves as a group. Distinguished by a plain white headscarf, which is believed to represent the diapers of their missing children, adorned with their embroidered names and birth dates, the mothers stood as a symbol of unity and collective sorrow.


The Mothers of la Plaza de Mayo demand their children be presented alive, 1981. Source: Wikimedia Commons


It was then that Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo became a force to be reckoned with. Their protests and demonstrations would lead to numerous advancements in laws and regulations to locate, identify, and bring justice to their missing children. Their bravery and determination would inspire generations to come.

From the mothers' fight, two powerful symbols were born: the weekly marches every Thursday at 3:30 in the afternoon around the Piramide de Mayo, and the white scarf worn on their heads. These symbols would come to represent not just the mothers themselves, but an entire movement that grew and evolved around them.

The Evolution Of A Movement

In 2015, the #NiUnaMenos movement began in Argentina, driven by the need to put an end to the alarming number of women being murdered in the country. It was a movement that quickly gained traction, as people from all walks of life rallied to demand justice and change.

Three years later, the movement took on a new dimension. In 2018, more than a million activists flooded the streets of Argentina, their green handkerchiefs waving in the breeze, representing hope, health, and life. They were there to support the legalization of abortion, but they were also there to send a powerful message: that women's lives matter, and that they will not be silenced.

The green handkerchiefs soon became a symbol of resistance and solidarity, much like the white handkerchiefs worn by the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo during Argentina's dictatorship years. Their fight for justice had been an inspiration to many, and now, the green handkerchiefs were taking up the mantle.

Marcha en el día de Acción Global por un aborto legal y seguro 3

And so, La Marea Verde, or the 'Green Wave' emerged as a movement advocating for women's reproductive rights in Latin America, driving a shift in the conversation on women's sexual and reproductive health and rights to the forefront of the public and political agenda in several countries. Their relentless campaigning has resulted in significant legal actions and raised awareness around abortion, yet more work remains.

Latin America is a region of diverse cultures and traditions, but when it comes to abortion, there seems to be a general consensus on its prohibition. Only a handful of countries in the region allow women to terminate their pregnancies, and even then, only under certain circumstances.

Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Guyana, Uruguay, and some states of Mexico (Mexico City and Oaxaca) are the only places in Latin America where women can legally request an abortion. However, even in these countries, the process can still be challenging due to social stigma and limited access to healthcare services.

Meanwhile, in El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Honduras, abortion is completely prohibited. In these countries, women seeking to end their pregnancies face legal consequences, including imprisonment.

As the fight lives on and the debate on abortion continues to evolve, La Marea Verde's efforts have laid the groundwork for future progress.

Lessons To Be Learned

While countries like Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia have made progress in liberalizing their abortion laws, the U.S. is headed in the opposite direction, slowly stripping away women's rights across the country.

But where U.S. courts and states have failed, the Marea Verde in Latin America has succeeded. With a unified front across countries and no affiliation with specific political parties or organizations, they have slowly but surely helped increase abortion access in several Catholic-majority countries in the region through protests and legal action.

The recent meetings between U.S. advocates including the Women’s March and the Marea Verde groups are nothing short of historic. They have come together to discuss strategy for the first time, marking a major step forward in the fight for reproductive rights. Despite the challenges of an increasingly hostile political landscape, these advocates refuse to be silenced. Instead, they are emboldened by the shared values of justice and equity that unite them across borders.

In the face of adversity, the La Marea Verde movement has risen up with an unyielding spirit and a steadfast resolve to protect the fundamental right to choose. Together with their allies in the U.S., they are poised to make even greater progress, challenging any attempt to limit reproductive autonomy.

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Have you ever met someone who seems overly confident, self-centered, or even downright rude? Maybe they constantly talk about themselves, disregard your feelings, or even manipulate situations to their advantage. And, if you're anything like us and countless other Latinas, you might've thought, is this person just a purebred a**hole, or are they a narcissist?

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Image by Sayuri Jimenez.

Nathalie Molina Niño has never been one to shy away from breaking barriers, and now, she’s focusing her attention on a new mission: demystifying corporate boardrooms for women, especially Latinas. Molina Niño is the President of Known, an asset management and financial services firm, a veteran tech entrepreneur and builder capitalist, and a board member at the iconic lingerie Brand, Hanky Panky, and others.

Like many corporate boards, Hanky Panky hadn’t publicly disclosed its board composition until recently. After the brand survived the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Molina Niño decided it was time for more women, specifically more Latinas, to know what it means to be on corporate boards.

Coincidentally, the decision to finally be more vocal about this topic aligned with the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, which served as the perfect kick-off to the work.

"Something that rarely gets talked about and I think almost gets kept opaque by design is boards,” she explains in a recent Instagram announcement. “[This Latinx Heritage Month], that’s what I’ll be talking about.” Her goal? To equip more Latinas with the knowledge they need to navigate onto for-profit boards, where they can thrive and build multi-generational wealth.

For-profit corporate boards often feel like an exclusive club. And in many ways, they are, especially for Latinas, who hold the smallest percentage of board seats in Fortune 500 companies compared to other racial groups. According to the latest report from Latino Board Monitor, while Latinos hold 4.1% of these board seats (compared to 82.5% held by white people), only 1% go to Latinas. Molina Niño, a first-generation American of Ecuadorian and Colombian descent, is part of this boardroom minority.

When asked about her experience as a Latina board member during a recent Zoom interview, she said, “It’s been lonely. There’s not a lot of Latinas on boards.” She went on to explain that even serving on boards of Latina-founded businesses gets lonely because, “A lot of the times, people who serve on their boards represent their investors and, as a result, [...] you still don’t see a lot of Latinas on those boards.”

This lack of representation drives Molina Niño’s determination to increase Latina presence in corporate boardrooms. By sharing her insights, she hopes to give Latinas a roadmap to claim their seats at the table. “If you don’t know where to go, it’s impossible to figure out how to get there,” she says.

The Road to the Boardroom

Getting onto a for-profit corporate board isn’t an overnight achievement, but it’s not an unattainable dream either. People often think you need to be a CEO or have a certain type of background, but that’s one of the biggest myths about boards in Molina Niño’s experience. What they’re really looking for is expertise — whether that’s in finance, marketing, sustainability, or even technology. If you have that expertise, you’re already an asset. It’s simply a matter of which road you should take.

Understanding what boards are and how they operate is key to unlocking opportunities. For-profit boards serve as the governing body for companies, overseeing direction and financial stability, and guiding CEOs and executives in decision-making. But Molina Niño emphasizes that not all for-profit boards are created equal.

“There are two kinds [of for-profit boards] [...]. There’s the publicly traded business board and then, on the privately held side, there are, I would argue, two types of boards [...] the traditional business board and the venture-backed business board,” explains Molina Niño. Traditional businesses are often family-owned or long-established and may only form boards to meet requirements, like securing financing or transitioning through an ESOP. Venture-backed boards, on the other hand, are typically filled by investors who hold major stakes in the company.

According to Molina Niño, understanding the difference between them is how you can create a successful strategy. With publicly traded business boards, the whole world is privy to them, so, “The way that you get in there is a little bit more transparent. Sometimes those publicly traded companies will hire a recruiter to help them find new board members,” explains Molina Niño. For private companies, on the other hand, there’s no legal requirement to make announcements. As a result, most people don’t know anything about them or their inner workings.

“Usually what happens in traditional businesses that don’t have venture-capital investments is that the Founders, Executives, or the board members, if one existed already, they usually go to their friends,” and people they deem experienced to fill board seats. In other words, it’s the founder’s decision, and that’s an entirely different approach than hiring recruiters. When it comes to venture-backed business boards, the seats on the board are filled by whichever investor writes the biggest check.

This is why an understanding of the different types of boards and acknowledgment of their own strengths is what will help Latinas define a sound strategy. Whether that’s working with a recruiter, networking and connecting with founders to build trust, or making the biggest investment.

The Path for Latinas

For Molina Niño, the key to getting more Latinas into corporate boardrooms is education. Knowing what a board looks like and how it functions is how you can position yourself to get on it. In openly talking about this, without the mystique it’s usually shrouded in, Molina Niño is providing women, especially Latinas, with invaluable insights. “If we had Latinas understanding what are the three types of for-profit boards I think that, on their own, they would be able to figure out what their best chance is and adjust their careers to make themselves more competitive,” states Molina Niño.

When asked about the impact of increased Latina representation in boardrooms, Molina Niño flips the narrative. “Boards don’t help Latinas by offering them seats; Latinas help businesses thrive by being on their boards,” she says. “The whole point of sitting on a board is that you have experience and expertise, and as Latinas, you also have some cultural experience that everyone wants. [...] At the end of the day, we [Latinas] have to realize that we have a ton to offer and we have to be selective about where we put that expertise,” she explains.

As demand for access to the Latina consumer rises, Molina Niño predicts that more Latinas will find themselves recruited into boardrooms. But she’s not content to sit back and wait for that moment. By openly sharing her journey and insights, she’s making sure other Latinas know their worth and have the tools to claim their place at the table. “I realized that quietly being on boards that helped me personally is not helping other Latinas. [...] I was lucky enough to have friends who could advise me and share their experiences, so that’s why I’m doing this,” she stated.

With Hispanic Heritage Month as the backdrop, Nathalie Molina Niño’s mission is clear: “My goal is just to give Latinas enough information so they can make a plan for how to eventually get on a board that they’re paid to be on and that will eventually help them build generational wealth.”

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Ever noticed how September in Latin America is just one big celebration? As we wave goodbye to summer and avoid winter as long as we can, the streets come alive with parades, music, and festivities. Many Latin American countries celebrate their freedom this month, commemorating their hard-fought battles for independence from colonial domination. Let’s dive into these significant days and understand what makes each unique.

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