Ebook: The Autobiography of María Elena Moyano. The Life and Death of a Peruvian Activist (María Elena Moyano: en busca de una esperanza)

Shining Path guerrillas, Sendero Luminoso, assassinated María Elena
Moyano and dynamited her body on February 15, 1992. They murdered
her in the presence of her sons, Gustavo and David Pineki, while the family
attended a community event sponsored by a Vaso de Leche [Glass of Milk]
committee in Villa El Salvador [a large municipality near Lima]. Her assassination had an impact on all of Peru. A multitude attended her burial.
Close to 300,000 persons accompanied the coffin in a monumental repudiation of the terror of the Shining Path. Why kill her? Assuredly, she
represented hope to a country tired of violence and a danger to those who
plotted terrorism.
With this book, I tried to recover the voice of María Elena Moyano—
a voice echoed by thousands of Peruvian women. The book consists of the
reconstructed testimony of one of the best representatives of Peruvian
womanhood of the last decade.
Her support for the development and centralization of the women’s
movement was significant. Her work in the community was innovative,
spurring the formation of committees for the protection of the consumer.
Her clear thinking and determination, in the face of violence, enabled us to
look for peaceful alternatives to that violence. After being twice elected
president of the Women’s Federation of Villa El Salvador, she became
deputy mayor of her district.
In this book, I tried to reconstruct María Elena Moyano’s words—
words that embrace a very significant and creative period for women in
Peru. To retrieve her voice, to introduce her to those who did not know
her, I gathered material from radio, television, newspapers, and magazine
and book interviews that contained her statements. I organized the material by theme and date, designed the chapters, and added notes to give
context to the information.