Wisdom worth sharing, words worth remembering.
Women have always been courageous… They are always fearless when protecting their children and in the last century they have been fearless in the fight for their rights.
If this world is going to be a better place for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren it will be women who make it so.
I can promise you that women working together – linked informed and educated – can bring peace and prosperity to this forsaken planet.
Feminism is dated? Yes for privileged women like my daughter and all of us here today but not for most of our sisters in the rest of the world who are still forced into premature marriage prostitution forced labor – they have children that they don't want or they cannot feed.
I am an American citizen and it is my home now. I like the U.S.A. which is not a place too many people have liked since Bush. The U.S. has a young population and everything can change within a year.
I have more freedom when I write fiction but my memoirs have had a much stronger impact on my readers. Somehow the 'message' even if I am not even aware that there is one is conveyed better in this form.
What I fear most is power with impunity. I fear abuse of power and the power to abuse.
The fact that I am a writer comes from the experience of being cut away from my roots and living in Venezuela where I couldn't find a place for myself for years and years.
Giving women education work the ability to control their own income inherit and own property benefits the society. If a woman is empowered her children and her family will be better off. If families prosper the village prospers and eventually so does the whole country.
I'm aware of the mystery around us so I write about coincidences premonitions emotions dreams the power of nature magic.
All stories interest me and some haunt me until I end up writing them. Certain themes keep coming up: justice loyalty violence death political and social issues freedom.
In times of conflict war poverty or religious fundamentalism women and children are the first and most numerous victims. Women need all their courage today.
