In an interview with teleSUR, Maria Galindo explains why she is one of Bolivia’s most vocal opponents of the Catholic church.
Maria Galindo attracts a lot of attention wherever she goes. With her knee-high, leather-studded boots, chunky goth jewelry, heavy, dark eyeliner and half-shaved head, you can’t miss the self-proclaimed rebel as she makes her way around La Paz.
“I suppose you could say some people are afraid of me,” admits the 52-year-old anarchist, feminist and lesbian activist. “But I really don’t care what the public thinks, I’m not running for mayor and I don’t work to be applauded by them,” she says. “I was the first publicly ‘out’ lesbian in Bolivia and I’m proud of that, I’ve never not spoken about my sexuality,” says Galindo.
It’s this devil-may-care attitude that has been the trademark of one of Bolivia’s most prominent—and at times most controversial—activists. Since the early 1990’s Maria has staged and been arrested at countless protests and public demonstrations against the Catholic church and state institutions.
