News of January
Lunàdigas’ new year opens with a series of testimonies from Latin America that examine, from different perspectives, the relationship between motherhood, freedom of choice, material conditions and reproductive rights.
These voices describe specific contexts, Panama and Colombia, but they also speak to us, to the cultural structures that continue to connect the value of women to motherhood.
The nurses: “In Panama it is very rare to find girls without children”
Two nurses from the eastern part of Panama compare their experiences of motherhood and reflect on the situation of the country in terms of births, abortions and prejudices towards women without children.
Grace: “Stand up and be independent!”
Grace lives in Panama. She is the mother of two children planned and born within her marriage, although she is now widowed. Her testimony is a story of strength, autonomy and confidence in women’s independence.
Cristina and Pilar: “Our students live their choices better”
Cristina and Pilar are university biology professors in Colombia. Both have consciously chosen not to have children and to dedicate their lives to work. Their words reveal social and family pressures, but also reflect on the situation in Colombia regarding birth rates and reproductive rights.
Yarilisa: “In Panama there is no birth control”
Yarilisa is a young mother living on the east coast of Panama. She describes the economic difficulties in some areas of the country and the lack of widespread education on birth planning.
Healing from the obligation of motherhood
Fabiana Formica, Childless: A Woman and a Girl in a Man’s World (Nianima Press, 2025)
Review by Claudia Mazzilli
In her narrative debut, Fabiana Formica addresses an “imaginary daughter”, Nia, and through this intimate dialogue tells of her choice not to be a mother. Childless is a journey of liberation from the patriarchal expectations that continue to define women in relation to motherhood, a book that intertwines personal experience, cultural criticism and emotional imagination.
For this new year, we wish all of us freer words and more conscious choices. Above all, we hope for fairer contexts, where it is possible to experience motherhood or not, without obligations or judgements; where every voice can be heard.
We will continue to do what has always guided Lunàdigas’ work: collect voices and restore the complexity of personal stories, in their continuous transition from private to political, keeping open a space for critical thinking and self-determination.
Happy 2026 with Lunàdigas.
