Speaker 1: Heyl. I'm Aaron Hank. I'm the editor at large for
Speaker 1: The Nineteenth News, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender politics
Speaker 1: and policy. I'm also the host of a brand new
Speaker 1: weekly podcast from the Nineteenth News and Wonder Media Network
Speaker 1: called The Amendment. Each week, we're bringing you a conversation
Speaker 1: about gender politics and the unfinished work of American democracy.
Speaker 1: Our very first episode features my dear friend and Pulitzer
Speaker 1: Prize winning journalist Nicole Hannah Jones. It's out now, so
Speaker 1: please go listen and follow the show. On top of
Speaker 1: all of this, I'm your guest host for this month
Speaker 1: of Womanica, this Black History Month. We're talking about revolutionaries,
Speaker 1: the black women who led struggles for liberation from violent governments,
Speaker 1: colonial rulers, and enslavers. These women had the courage to
Speaker 1: imagine radically different worlds, and they use their power to
Speaker 1: try and pull those worlds into view. Today were talking
Speaker 1: about an activist often overlooked in Dominican history. This poor
Speaker 1: black farmer was villainized in her lifetime, but fought tirelessly
Speaker 1: to save farmers from an illegal and violent land grab.
Speaker 1: Please welcome Mama Tingo. Mama Tingo was born Florinda Soriano
Speaker 1: Munoz on November eighth, nineteen twenty one, in Villa Maya
Speaker 1: in the Dominican Republic. She came from a poor, working
Speaker 1: class background and didn't have any formal schooling. Her friends
Speaker 1: nicknamed her Mama Tingo because of her caring maternal nature.
Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty one, she married another farmer named Felipe.
Speaker 1: The new couple inherited land from Felipe's father in the
Speaker 1: Atto Viejo region, and ran a small farm to support
Speaker 1: themselves and their son. Then, in nineteen seventy four, trouble struck.
Speaker 1: A wealthy landowner named Pablo Diaz Hernandez claimed ownership of
Speaker 1: the land that Mammatingo and other neighboring farmers had been
Speaker 1: farming for half a century, the only source of income
Speaker 1: for three hundred and fifty families. Hernandez promptly started clearing
Speaker 1: the land. His claim was bunk, but fighting back was risky.
Speaker 1: Hernandez had institutional power and wealth. Mama Tingo and the
Speaker 1: other farmers were poor and black, overwhelmingly ignored or victimized
Speaker 1: by the government. Resistance to the land grab was met
Speaker 1: with swift violence. Saving their farms seemed hopeless, but Mama
Speaker 1: Tingo was determined to keep her land and livelihood. She
Speaker 1: joined the Federation of Christian Agriculture Leagues and started organizing
Speaker 1: for the rights of her fellow farmers. She quickly became
Speaker 1: a leader within the group. She and other farmers met
Speaker 1: to discuss how to stop the land grab and support
Speaker 1: each other through the financial strain it had caused. She
Speaker 1: also organized public protests against Hernandez. The government of the
Speaker 1: Dominican Republic tried to paint her as a dangerous black
Speaker 1: radical to discredit the movement, attacking her in pover's background
Speaker 1: and lack of education, but Mama Tingo kept pushing. Eventually,
Speaker 1: she and her husband got a meeting with the President
Speaker 1: of the Dominican Republic to ask him for his support.
Speaker 1: He promised them he would make sure that the land
Speaker 1: in dispute was divided fairly among the three hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty families who depended on it, but he didn't keep
Speaker 1: his word and a plan failed to materialize. So the
Speaker 1: farmers kept making noise about the land grab, and finally
Speaker 1: a hearing was scheduled for November of nineteen seventy four,
Speaker 1: But the day of the hearing, Mama Tingo was missing
Speaker 1: from the courtroom. She'd heard that her pigs had gotten
Speaker 1: loose and raced back to her farm to round them
Speaker 1: back up, but it was a trap. A man hired
Speaker 1: by Hernandez was lying in wait armed with a gun.
Speaker 1: When Mama Tingo showed up, he fired twice, shooting her.
Speaker 1: She tried to defend herself with a machete, but her
Speaker 1: injuries were too serious. She died without ever making it
Speaker 1: to court. She was fifty two years old. As the
Speaker 1: decades have passed, Mama Tingo's fierce advocacy and bravery have
Speaker 1: often gone unacknowledged in Dominican history. As a poor black woman,
Speaker 1: her contributions to farmers' rights have been overlooked in the
Speaker 1: dominant narratives of our country's history, but her organizing work
Speaker 1: helped play the groundwork for other farmers to continue to
Speaker 1: fight for their rights after her assassination. Today, a statue
Speaker 1: of Mama Tingo stands in the town of monte Plata
Speaker 1: to honor her legacy as an activist. All month, We're
Speaker 1: talking about Revolutionaries. For more information, you can find us
Speaker 1: on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast Special thanks to
Speaker 1: co creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan for having me as
Speaker 1: a guest host. Talk to you tomorrow.