Decolonial latin american feminism: feminist perspectives in the construction of decolonial thought

Abstract

This article aims to analyze decolonial feminism based on the historical experiences and struggles of Indigenous and peasant women of Abya Yala, highlighting how their bodies and voices are traversed by the double violation resulting from European colonization and misogyny. The rationale for this reflection lies in the need to expand studies on decolonial feminism, which is essential to understand the multiple forms of oppression these women experience and to recognize the originality of their epistemologies and practices of resistance. The methodology consisted of a bibliographic review of authors such as María Galindo, Rita Segato, Lorena Cabnal, Julieta Paredes, Francesca Gargallo, and Lia Pinheiro Barbosa, articulating their contributions with concepts developed by the Modernity/Coloniality Group, including modernity, coloniality, and decoloniality. The analytical trajectory demonstrates that decolonial feminism is not reducible to the mere combination of feminist and decolonial critique, but proposes an epistemological rupture with Western feminism, recognizing that colonization, racism, and misogyny are intertwined and interdependent processes. It is evident that, for Indigenous women, individual and collective struggles are inseparable, as they carry the marks of colonial violence and the intensification of gender inequalities imposed by European patriarchy, which, combined with the patriarchy already present in Indigenous communities, amplified forms of oppression. In this sense, decolonial feminism advocates a movement of return to communities, ancestry, and Indigenous worldviews, assuming territoriality and collectivity as fundamental principles of resistance. It is therefore concluded that decolonial feminism, by questioning the epistemic privilege of white feminism and affirming the situated knowledge of the women of Abya Yala, contributes to the construction of plural epistemologies and combats the reproduction of coloniality in the production of knowledge.