Dear Isabel,
You entered this world a warm winter Sunday in the month of February. Breaking all conventions you filled every corner of our lives with your peaceful smile and defiant character: your fist up in the air, sometimes both of your little fists surrounding your beautiful face in an air of triumph; others setting it against your temple, your eyesclosed imagining the future. And your gentle smile can’t but herald a life bathed by the Sun that paved your arrival into this world.
30 years ago your grandfather and I celebrated with your mother her first International Women’s Day marching in the streets of Bogota. We wanted to leave her and you a world of justice and equality not only for girls and women but for every human being. Today we are still fighting, and your mother has joined the fight for her, for you, for everyone.
In moments when prejudices of all kinds –gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, place of origin, social class, skin color– increase; when rights obtained after years of struggle may be on the verge of evaporating in a nick of time; we must be more than ever vigilant so that boys and girls all over the world can obtain and maintain their inalienable rights and flourish as well-rounded individuals in a society that values the principle that all human beings were created equal and deserve the same opportunities. Make of this principle your own rallying cry.
Your grandparents
Photo Credits: Judit Klein