#WhyIMarch

Women's march on Sydney, January 20, 2017. Australia ©VioletaAyala

I march because I choose to believe in humanity. I march because as an indigenous woman of color. I will fight to protect the few hard won rights that I have today.

I march because my 90 year-old grandmother had the courage to take it to the streets and fight, she was imprisoned, she was fearless and kept fighting, for me to have the opportunity to dream. She didn't even finished primary school, yet she made sure all of her children and grandchildren got an education, regardless of their sex. She fought hard her entire life so today I have the right to choose.

Me and my daughter Suri Blue marching in Sydney, January 20, 2017. Sydney, Australia. ©Dan Fallshaw

When I was 17, I had an abortion in a country where it was and still is illegal, my grandmother was next to me, holding my hand, it wasn't easy for any of us, but she made sure I had the right to choose the time of my motherhood. She made sure that a mistake wouldn't define my life. That day I understood that it was my body and my choice, a fundamental human right, denied to most women in the world, the right to have an abortion.

I march because as a filmmaker of colour and an immigrant, I have to keep proving myself everyday in a hypocritical racist western society, either in Australia, France or the USA, yet I know I'm more free in those countries than in my own home country.

Women's March, January 20, 2017. Sydney, Australia. ©Dan Fallshaw

In Bolivia women are killed in the hundreds every year by violent men, most of those crimes go unpunished, in Bolivia thirteen women die a day because of an abortion that goes wrong, yet the macho government fail to legalize abortion.
Most of the women who die are poor, young, indigenous and vulnerable.

I march because in every wrinkle of my grandmother's indigenous face, I see pride, because when she holds my hand, I feel my own power, the power of womanhood.

My daughter, Suri Blue and my grandmother Herminia Soto. July 2016. Cochabamba, Bolivia. ©Violeta Ayala.

I march because its my duty to fight for the right for my daughter to dream, to choose the time of her motherhood, to choose her sexuality, not to be judged by the color of her dark skin or the shape of her indigenous eyes.

I march because, a threat to women's fundamental rights, is a threat to each and all of woman in the world.