Decoloniality and community building: interview with Breny Mendoza

"We will not be free without reconstituting the bonds of affection between men and women that constitute the community's whole social fabric"

Abstract

Breny Mendoza (1954) is originally from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. She studied political science at the German Ruprech-Karl University of Heidelberg and the Free University of Berlin. She received her PhD from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She was chair of the Department of Gender and Women's Studies at California State University, Northridge from 2016-2019 and 2022-2024 and is founder of the Institute for Feminist Studies and Social Action. Breny is a well-known activist and political philosopher within Latin American feminism. Her main contributions are framed within decolonial feminism. Her work has been published in Spanish and English and translated into several languages. In this interview, the author reflects on patriarchy, colonization and extreme violence that persist against women; as well as on the matrix of possibilities for peace and "Good Living" (Buen Vivir) that represent the struggles of all of them in the construction of the ontological argument of mestizaje to overcome the mandate and colonial logic.