Gabriela Quiroz - A Terrifying Tradition

 

 

So, for most people in this country, for most children, the last day of school is the most exciting day. For me and all the girls in my school, in this remote town in the Peruvian Andes, this was the day we feared the most. Our culture had taught us that men were superior to women, implicitly and explicitly. We would never dare to challenge men, or even fight back if we were put in a situation where we were put down or abused. Not even at school. 

 

There was this boy. He was a bully, and he was the oldest and the tallest in our class, because he kept repeating grades. [audience laughter] He would harass the women. Actually, he had this little mirror that he always had with him and he would use it to look under our skirts. He gave me a nickname. He called me skeleton, because I was the youngest, so I was an easy mark. But I also was the skinniest in my class, even though my mom fed me tons of potatoes. [audience laughter]

 

I was the last of nine siblings, and my mom told me that education was going to be my only way out of poverty. So, even though I had to face the bullying and walking to school for six miles every day, I was eager to learn and to go to class except on the last day of school, when traditionally all the boys would grab the girls and take them to the water canals around the plaza and throw them into the freezing water. This was just for fun as an end of the year celebration. [audience laughter]

 

And while all the boys had fun, we were terrified. They would literally drag us by force. Our knees were scratched, our skirts were rolled up and they would throw us into the stream of freezing water from the mountains. We were supposed to accept it, just like everyone else in the town had accepted it. The major would watch from the balcony in the main plaza, the police from the station in the corner. It was free fun for all, and I hated it. 

 

This is how it had been for years. The boys would walk away laughing while we, the girls, had to walk back home in the cold, drenched from head to toe. But this year, I already talked to some of the girls in my class who are trying to come up with a plan to hide. But it's almost impossible to hide, because there's only one main road to go back home. But the clock's ticking, and this bully boy is staring at me. He's looking at me like when Gollum looks at the rain. [audience laughter]

 

So, I am terrified, and I make up an excuse. I get out of the class, and I run to the back of the school and I climb the back wall. As soon as I land, the bell rings. I can hear the commotion on the other side of the wall like, the girls are screaming, the boys are laughing, the nightmare has started. So, I see a cornfield, I run to it and I hide. I'm waiting there-- I have so much anxiety. I see this girl running by, and I'm about to call her. She's a girl from my class. I see two guys coming, and grabbing her and just dragging her away. 

 

I waited there in hiding for an hour, then two hours. Every minute, I feel like I'm having a mini panic attack. Time goes by, and it starts to get dark. And now, my mom has always told me never go into the corn crops at night, because that's when bad things happen to women. So, I decided I need to get out, I need to go back home. So, I start going out to the road, and I find two of my friends that are also hiding in the crops. So, we are so relieved that the boys are gone, because we can't hear any noise anymore, no crying, no screaming, nothing. So, we decide, “Okay, now, we're going to go out and go home.” 

 

So, we're walking for about three blocks. And a hand holds my shoulder. I turn around, and it's the bully boy. He's been waiting for us. My two friends run, and they're screaming and they run away. But I had it, like I literally had it. This was enough. So, somehow, I grabbed the boy by the arm and twisted. He trips and falls on the ground. And I sit on him. [audience laughter] And then, he lets out a cry, of course. My friends turn around and they're in disbelief. We somehow drag this boy to the canal. [audience laughter]  And there's people watching, and they actually can't believe this either. [audience cheers and applause] And so, we are afraid of what we're doing. But once we get to the canal, our hands are firm as we swing back and throw the boy in the canal. [audience cheers and applause]

 

And then, we look at each other. These girls that I'm seeing are not the same girls that I had seen moments ago before we were feeling defeated and scared. And now, what I see in their eyes is an air of victory, a new confidence, a fire. The fact that us and I, the skeleton, dare to be defiant, changed me.