With all the historical burden that weighs on its shoulders, such as a long dictatorship that usurped its name and its symbols, which was born as the National Republican Party in 1887, today the Colorado Party, continues to claim its democratic origin and the extraordinary social feats of those men who they knew how to combine high intellectual stature with popular struggle.
Source: The Nation
From the chambers of the National Congress they passed to the chair and from the chair to the rallies of students, workers, workers and women. They are part of the wonderful, and incomparable, Generation of 900. They know prison and exile. But the unyielding spirit to fight the good fight for justice raises them to the respectful consideration of the masses, which, in return, cover them with nicknames such as “lawyer of the poor” (Ricardito Brugada), “agitator of ideas” ( Ignacio A. Pane), “friend of the proletarians” (Telémaco Silvera) or “teacher of morality” (Juan León Mallorquín).
Included in that combat agenda were Marshal Francisco Solano López’s demands for eight working hours and a mandatory minimum wage for workers, as well as recognition of women’s social, legal and political rights.
With the first flashes of the 20th century, Dr. Ignacio A. Pane started the feminist movement in our country. Years later, he made his famous statement: “I don’t need to be a worker to be a workerist, just as I don’t need to be a woman to be a feminist.” To a room full of public he pronounces his revolutionary conference: “Women before the workers’ cause”.
In his proposal as a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies, in 1911, he incorporated “the active and passive vote of women” and “the reform of the civil marriage law to favor the interest of children.” Another Republican, Dr. Telémaco Silvera, in 1919 presented before the Lower House, for the first time in our history, the bill for the civil and political rights of women. It was the first attempt at legal equality between men and women.
Beyond the critical judgment – fair or exaggerated – that may be held about the National Republican Association, or the internal preferences regarding proposals and candidacies, it is undeniable that this party organization, through one of its movements – Honor Colorado, in this case–, it has once again made a qualitative leap within the national political scene. In the middle of the week, eight women were put up for consideration by the Republican electorate as pre-candidates for the Senate, where transformative political experience is mixed with an extraordinary intellectual and professional baggage of people who have amply demonstrated their technical and human conditions in the Public Management.
The deputies Del Pilar Medina, from Central, and Cristina Villalba (also former governor), from Canindeyú, have a long resume at the service of the Colorado Party. Beyond the media criticism and censorship of their opponents, they have undoubtedly won the affection of their respective peoples, which is why they were re-elected to occupy a space in the Lower House. Now they point, legitimate ambition, to the Senate. The spaces are won with votes and the votes are won with the trust of the people. A simple equation that many do not want to read or understand.
Those who have never held elective positions are Mrs. Lizarella Valiente, from a traditionally Colorado family – wife of the current mayor of Asunción, Óscar Rodríguez –, Dr. (lawyer) María Teresa Peralta, a well-known party leader, one of the first members of Honor Colorado and current director general of the Electoral Registry (DGRE), and María José Argaña, former minister of the Secretariat for Women and several times a candidate for the Senate. She was also an ambassador to the government of Ecuador and then went on to perform the same functions in Portugal.
And this multidisciplinary team is completed by Dr. Alicia Pucheta de Correa, former Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice; the economist Lea Giménez, the first woman Minister of Finance of Paraguay and the youngest in Latin America to hold that position. And closing this formation of honor – a just adjective, beyond our political inclinations –, the also economist, graduated with honors from the National University of Asunción, Mónica Pérez. She was president of the Central Bank of Paraguay and head of the Financial Directorate of Itaipu Binational until August 2019. Both Lea Giménez and Mónica Pérez worked in multilateral organizations with outstanding qualifications.
Our mission as journalists demands that we be restrained. But sometimes we are allowed some licenses. This list of women candidates for the Senate deserve to be part of a “Roll of Honor”. And as one would say in colloquial language, now is the time: Women in power.
