Sonia Cuales

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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[edit]

Sonia Cuales was born in Curaçao in 1941.[2][1] She immigrated to the Netherlands, where she studied anthropology and development sociology at Leiden University, obtaining a PhD in non-Western sociology.[2][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.[2]

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.[1] 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.[2] 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.[3][1][12] She also worked on poverty eradication efforts.[13] After 18 years in the United Nations system, Cuales retired in 2001.[3]

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.[2][14]

Writing[edit]

Cuales authored various academic articles on women and feminism in the Caribbean.[2] She had an early interest in socialism, and she wrote frequently on the intersection of class and gender.[3][12][15]

She contributed to the 1984 anthology Sisterhood Is Global, writing on feminism in the Dutch-speaking Caribbean.[14]

Personal life and recognition[edit]

Sonia Cuales had one daughter, Gladys Cuales.[1][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.[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "2020 Outstanding Woman is posthumous Sonia Magdalena Cuales". Curaçao Chronicle. 2020-06-03. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Founding Mothers". Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  3. ^ a b c d "Tributes to Sonia Cuales" (PDF). Gender Dialogue. 5. December 2001.
  4. ^ Women, feminism, and development. 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. Montréal, Que.: Published for the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women by McGill-Queen's University Press. 1994. ISBN 0-7735-1184-9. OCLC 232586676.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. ^ "Literatuurlijst Sefardische Joden van Curaçao publicaties". The Mongui Maduro Library.
  6. ^ à Nijeholt, G. Thomas-Lycklama (1979-06-07). "Feminisme en Wetenschap". LH (in Dutch).
  7. ^ "Editorial: Rethinking Caribbean Difference". Feminist Review. 59. 1998.
  8. ^ "Minutes Of Launching". Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action. 1985-04-01. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  9. ^ Baksh, Rawwida; Vassell, Linnette (2013). Women's Citizenship in the Democracies of the Americas: The English-speaking Caribbean (PDF). Inter-American Commission of Women, OAS. ISBN 978-0-8270-6031-9.
  10. ^ Pizzini, Manuel Valdes; Reddock, Rhoda (2009-01-01). "Recordando a Rafa: testimonios de colegas y amigos". Caribbean Studies (in Spanish). 37 (1): 225–243. doi:10.1353/crb.0.0095. S2CID 142534349.
  11. ^ Corrêa, Sonia; Reichmann, Rebecca Lynn (1994). Population and reproductive rights : feminist perspectives from the South. London: Zed Books. ISBN 1-85649-283-4. OCLC 31207476.
  12. ^ a b Mohammed, Patricia; Shepherd, Catherine. (1999). Gender in Caribbean development : papers presented at the Inaugural Seminar of the University of the West Indies, Women and Development Studies Project (2nd ed.). Kingston, Jamaica: Canoe Press University of the West Indies. ISBN 976-8125-55-1. OCLC 43868198.
  13. ^ "CARIBBEAN-POPULATION: Regional Governments Attack Poverty | Inter Press Service". Inter Press Service. 1996-10-21. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  14. ^ a b Morgan, Robin (1984). Sisterhood is global : the international women's movement anthology (First ed.). Garden City, N.Y. ISBN 0-385-17796-8. OCLC 10995757.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  15. ^ "Nothing about us, without us" (PDF). The Yearbook of Women's History. Jaarboek Voorvrouwengeschiedenis 37. 2017: Gender and Archiving, Past, Present and Future. April 2017.
  16. ^ "Sonia Magdalena Cuales". Extra Curaçao (in Papiamento). 17 July 2018. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  17. ^ "Dr. Sonia Cuales, un katalisador pa empoderashon di hende muhé den Caribe". Extra Curaçao (in Papiamento). 2018-07-19. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
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