Sonia Cuales Explained

Sonia Magdalena Cuales (October 3, 1941 – July 14, 2018) was a Curaçaoan feminist activist and writer.[1] Her work in the United Nations system and with various advocacy groups focused on the intersection of women's rights and development across the Caribbean.

Career

Sonia Cuales was born in Curaçao in 1941.[2] She immigrated to the Netherlands, where she studied anthropology and development sociology at Leiden University, obtaining a PhD in non-Western sociology.[3] [4] Through her studies at Leiden, she conducted research on women laborers in Latin America and the Caribbean, and on the role of Jews in the historical development of Curaçao.[5] [6] She became involved in the Antillian Women’s Organizations in the Netherlands during her years living there.

Cuales returned to the Americas in the 1970s, and she became an active participant in the Caribbean's second-wave feminist movement.[7] She helped found the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA) in 1985.[8] [9] She was also a founding member of the Caribbean Network on Studies of Masculinities in 1997[10] and helped support the launching of the Annual Female Leadership Conferences in Curaçao in 2004. In part through Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), she was also involved in advocacy on reproductive rights.[11]

She worked in Colombia as a project officer for UNICEF's Regional Office in Latin America and the Caribbean, overseeing the organization's assistance to Guyana and Suriname. She was then assigned to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, working in Trinidad as a social affairs officer focusing on women and development.[12] She also worked on poverty eradication efforts.[13] After 18 years in the United Nations system, Cuales retired in 2001.

In addition to her U.N. work, Cuales lectured on women's studies at the University of the Netherlands Antilles, now the University of Curaçao.[14]

Writing

Cuales authored various academic articles on women and feminism in the Caribbean. She had an early interest in socialism, and she wrote frequently on the intersection of class and gender.[15]

She contributed to the 1984 anthology Sisterhood Is Global, writing on feminism in the Dutch-speaking Caribbean.

Personal life and recognition

Sonia Cuales had one daughter, Gladys Cuales.[16]

She died in Curaçao in 2018.[17] In 2020, she was honored as that year's Outstanding Woman during the 17th Annual Female Leadership Conference in Curaçao.

References

  1. Web site: 2020-06-03. 2020 Outstanding Woman is posthumous Sonia Magdalena Cuales. 2020-09-27. Curaçao Chronicle.
  2. Web site: Founding Mothers. 2020-09-27. Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action. en-US.
  3. December 2001. Tributes to Sonia Cuales. Gender Dialogue. 5.
  4. Book: Women, feminism, and development. 1994. Published for the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women by McGill-Queen's University Press. Piché, Denise, 1947-, Dagenais, Huguette,, Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women. Conference (1988 : Québec, Québec), Université Laval. Groupe de recherche et d'échange multidisciplinaires féministes.. 0-7735-1184-9. Montréal, Que.. 232586676.
  5. Web site: Literatuurlijst Sefardische Joden van Curaçao publicaties. The Mongui Maduro Library.
  6. à Nijeholt. G. Thomas-Lycklama. 1979-06-07. Feminisme en Wetenschap. LH. nl.
  7. 1998. Editorial: Rethinking Caribbean Difference. Feminist Review. 59.
  8. Web site: 1985-04-01. Minutes Of Launching. 2020-09-27. Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action. en-US.
  9. Book: Baksh. Rawwida. Women's Citizenship in the Democracies of the Americas: The English-speaking Caribbean. Vassell. Linnette. Inter-American Commission of Women, OAS. 2013. 978-0-8270-6031-9.
  10. Pizzini. Manuel Valdes. Reddock. Rhoda. 2009-01-01. Recordando a Rafa: testimonios de colegas y amigos. Caribbean Studies. es. 37. 1. 225–243. 10.1353/crb.0.0095. 142534349.
  11. Book: Corrêa, Sonia . Population and reproductive rights : feminist perspectives from the South. 1994. Zed Books. Reichmann, Rebecca Lynn . 1-85649-283-4. London. 31207476.
  12. Book: Gender in Caribbean development : papers presented at the Inaugural Seminar of the University of the West Indies, Women and Development Studies Project. 1999. Canoe Press University of the West Indies. Mohammed, Patricia . Shepherd, Catherine.. 976-8125-55-1. 2nd . Kingston, Jamaica. 43868198.
  13. Web site: 1996-10-21. CARIBBEAN-POPULATION: Regional Governments Attack Poverty Inter Press Service. 2020-09-27. Inter Press Service.
  14. Book: Sisterhood is global : the international women's movement anthology. Morgan, Robin . 1984 . 0-385-17796-8. First . Garden City, N.Y.. 10995757.
  15. April 2017. Nothing about us, without us. The Yearbook of Women's History. Jaarboek Voorvrouwengeschiedenis 37. 2017: Gender and Archiving, Past, Present and Future.
  16. Web site: Sonia Magdalena Cuales. 2020-09-27. Extra Curaçao. 17 July 2018 . pap.
  17. Web site: 2018-07-19. Dr. Sonia Cuales, un katalisador pa empoderashon di hende muhé den Caribe. 2020-09-27. Extra Curaçao. pap.

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