She is Solsireé
One woman’s goal to change discriminatory attitudes one community at a time.
Primary TextWe can have different opinions, but we should always respect each other”
It was 9:00 am and the sun was already high and hot in San Miguel Petapa, a peri-urban town just south of Guatemala City. With the sound of traffic and horns just outside, Solsirée stepped into the Municipal Hall with a determined look on her face. The 48-year-old widow and mother of two is the Municipality’s Director of Community Organization where she has spent years working with community leaders and members on issues of tolerance, discrimination, and sexual education.
Finding the right words to address these topics is a real challenge,”
she says while describing how she adapts the language and topics depending on the person’s level of knowledge, age, and personal circumstances. Working with the community in San Miguel Petapa had exposed her to the challenges they faced, and becoming a mother helped motivate her to create a more inclusive space and help educate her children and community.
I think about my daughters a lot on the job. Teaching children tolerance is the most important thing I would say,” said Solsireé.
In 2022, Solsirée learned through the Municipality of San Miguel Petapa of an upcoming series of activities entitled “Espacios Libres”, led by Pan American Social Marketing Organization (PASMO) and a local NGO, Asociación Somos, with the support of USAID under the Prevention Services against HIV project. ‘Espacios Libres’ (‘Free Spaces’) are a community mobilization intervention where community members can gather and discuss different topics such as gender, self-expression, homophobia, and machismo with professionals from PASMO and the local NGOs.
Solsirée has many examples in mind of people who came out empowered from ‘Espacios Libres’, but it was her own experience in the activities that allowed her to feel confident in better supporting others in her community. The empowered mother recalls the story of her close friend whose son is gay. Solsireé explains, "She called me when she found out and I could tell she was distraught, not really about her son’s orientation, but about how many challenges he would face in society as a gay man in Guatemala”. Solsireé was able to comfort her friend with everything she learnt from “Espacios Libres”, especially helping her friend feel safe and open to talk about things such as sexuality.
After participating in Espacios Libres, Solsirée was able to identify similarities between the struggle for equal rights for women, with the struggle for LGBTIQ+ rights, and now hopes to replicate what she has learned to help educate others through her role at the Municipality and as a community leader herself.
It is so beautiful to see people freely opening up to one another and becoming confident to talk about sexuality and gender identity,” she says with a confident smile.
For her, respect and inclusion are what make the world take a step forward. Solsirée feels grateful for the program’s actions in her city.
These ‘Espacios Libres’ show us a way to live all together with respect and tolerance”, she says with a lot of conviction.
About this Story
Written by: Sofía Batres, PASMO
Editor: Zeina Dubray, Creative Director for USAID/Guatemala
The goal of “Prevention Services Against HIV” is to support government and civil society partners in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama to provide comprehensive prevention services targeted to high-risk individuals, including but not limited to non-discriminatory counseling and testing services with a focus on strengthening linkage of HIV-positive individuals to appropriate clinical care and treatment. The activity also seeks to promote innovative approaches to increase demand for quality services for HRI and address key structural barriers by addressing stigma and discrimination.