Boulder County Spanish-language women’s summit will go global

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Women’s summit, Mujeres Compañeras, a Spanish-speaking event catering to immigrant and Laitno women across Boulder County, will go global next week with speakers and participants joining from all over the world.

Next week, for the 14th year, El Centro Amistad will hold the Women’s and Compañeras Youth summits for three days of discussion of and reflection on culture, social justice and action centered on the theme of healing justice.

Thursday through Sept. 19, the summit will serve as the stage for women around the world to lead conversations on a variety of topics including the Black Lives Matter movement , community and mental health in the time of COVID-19, self care and financial resiliency, according to the program. 

“It’s very mixed this year. Half of the panelists are local … but there are also some from Spain, Portugal, Venezuela, Argentina, and people from Texas, Philadelphia and Florida,” said Elena Aranda, summit founder and director of wellness, health and education at El Centro Amistad, adding the event is for women of all walks of life. “It is a movement of justice where privilege is not only for the few, and we fight for access, equity and social justice,” she said. 

TheSpanish-language event has served as a space for immigrant and Latina women across Boulder County to come together and share experiences and knowledge for more than a decade, Aranda said. 

“For 18 years the Compañeras group met weekly or biweekly … After some time we thought we should celebrate it. Women often participante a lot in their communities, they come in solidarity to share what they know and a way to celebrate this was through the summit,” Aranda said. “It’s made by women, for women and from women, and for us Latin American women, as immigrants in this country, how beautiful is it to also be learning from our own women, in our language and in our culture.”  

This year, and because of the pandemic, the summit will offer the full program online, which will allow anyone, local or not, to take part in the talks and entertainment.

“There are challenges to moving the platform online and problems with access but, really, there have been many great opportunities, like being able to bring panelists from all around the world, wherever they may be, and connect this way, in a time where there is so much isolation,” said Maya Sol Dansie, founder of the youth summit and Mayamotion Healing as well as Generations (formerly Genesister) program coordinator at Boulder County Public Health.

In addition to the modified platform, the virtual approach also will allow for the summit to significantly extend its program, going from one to three days of events, granting additional time and content for adult and youth participants, according to Aranda.

Elena Aranda, left, founder of the women’s summit, and Maya Sol Dansie, founder of the youth summit.(Courtesy photo)

“There is also the youth summit,” said Dansie, adding that for the past nine years, a separate event has catered specifically to middle and high school-age youth. “In the past it was a summit for both mothers and daughters … but with time the youth started to see that in building our own space, we bring our own ideologies, our own identities, and different cultures. If I am bicultural, I’m going to have different values and experiences that might not be the same to those at home, not the same as my mom or my parents.” 

While the women’s summit events will primarily be in Spanish with some interpretation available, the youth summit has adapted to become responsive to the experiences of bicultural adolescents, according to Dansie. 

“The youth summit is for teenagers who speak Spanish, Spanglish and English. We have workshops in those three languages to validate their experience and acknowledge that there are systemic reasons, as well as racism and oppression, that have caused us to lose our language or the pride in being able to speak multiple languages,” she said. 

In years past, the summit has drawn more than 300 women. This year the expectation is the virtual platform will allow even more to participate, according to Aranda. 

“The summit for adults is specifically for women. The youth summit is centered in the experience of women but we include those who self-identify as women as well as trans, non-binary, fluid or questioning identities,” Dansie said. 

Tickets for the women’s summit are $15 for participants in the United States and Europe and $5 for those in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Youth tickets are $5. Scholarships are available to eligible participants. See more details here.