In the first installment of #VoicesOfChange we interviewed Julia Didriksson, a Mexican digital activist who creates educational feminist content and organizes women's circles to bring together people from all over the continent with a clear purpose: to heal the wounds of machista violence. Women and people of diverse genders in Mexico, one of the countries in Latin America with the highest rate of femicides and with incessant cases of harassment, sexual violence and discrimination, share experiences of feminism and machista violence throughout their lives. Feminist organizing and activism are growing in strength and size throughout the country, creating a network of support based on resistance and sisterhood. Julia Didriksson is one of these women who stands up against machismo. She is a culture manager, a graduate of gender studies, a digital activist, and creator of content on social networks such as Instagram and TikTok. She is 28 and leads a radio program called Voces en Resistencia, which airs on Violeta Radio 106.1 FM, the first feminist community radio station in Mexico. She also participates in a podcast called Sí Somos, a space for feminist dialogues between young women. In her videos, Didriksson politicizes everyday life from a feminist perspective: “I talk about things like love, healing, social struggles, violence issues, etc. But my deepest focus of research is romantic love from a feminist perspective.” We spoke with Didriksson to kick off our new series #VoicesOfChange, a series focused on learning more about the people who are changing the way activism is done in Latin America. Didriksson spoke to us about the state of digital activism in Mexico, how to create safe digital spaces for women and gender-diverse people, how social media has changed the ecosystem of feminist movements in Latin America, and how best to enter the world of gender-focused activism. Gabriela Messones Rojo: How did your path in activism begin? Julia Didriksson: My mom is a feminist activist who helped decriminalize abortion in Mexico City and in the state of Oaxaca. I could say that I've been marching since I was in my mother's womb, and from a very young age I had an upbringing focused on our rights as women, anti-classism and anti-racism. I self-identified as a feminist at the age of 15, but it was in college that my research work focused on feminism and I started organizing with the girls in college. I started in the streets, painting monuments and going to marches; but during the pandemic, when we could no longer go to the streets, so I started to organize with other girls digitally. A post shared by Julia Didriksson (@juliadidri) In this Instagram reel, Didriksson talks about how there are little examples of happy single women in big cultural productions that shaped women's childhoods. GMR: In your podcast “Voces en Resistencia” (Voices in Resistance), you talk about the struggle of women in various areas and across different causes. What is the current state of feminist movements in Mexico? JD: I think feminism in Mexico has become very massively widespread among women, among all women. Although there are women who do not define themselves as feminists, [feminism] is something that inevitably speaks to them because the message is everywhere. I recently interviewed a girl in a rural area of Jalisco, and she told me that in her town there are no feminist organizations, but that thanks to social media she has been able to start organizing. Today it is not true that there is feminism only in the cities. There have always been organized women everywhere, but now there are more of them and in different areas. I also believe that feminism is divided in Mexico; it looks like there is a rivalry and that we fight more among ourselves than against the patriarchy. We can no longer speak of one feminism, but of many feminisms. In Mexico, young women are also leading the way, always recognizing our predecessors and the work they have done to get to where we are. It is very common today to see girls and teens call themselves feminists, something that did not happen before. Also, feminist terminology is now widely used. Many of us can now name the different types of violence whereas before there was a lot of normalization of problematic behaviors. GMR: What is it like to be a feminist Tiktoker in Mexico? What contribution do you think social media has made to feminism? JD: My experience as a digital activist has been very gratifying, but it is also very tough because there is a lot of violence. In Mexico, it is very dangerous to be an activist or journalist. There are many physical risks, but digital activists also face a lot of violence. Even though it takes place online, it does not mean that we do not suffer from it.