The Feminist Library is a Facebook community that two Mexican women have administered for a little over a year now. Today, the group has more than 9,000 followers. The Library was founded to serve as a collection of information on feminism and women's rights: Compilamos materiales feministas y de mujeres creadoras, para compartir con el mundo. Queremos difundir cultura feminista en toda su diversidad y aportes en la construcción de otros mundos posibles. We compile materials about feminism and creative women in order to share them with the world. We want to disseminate feminist culture with all its diversity and its contributions to the construction of other possible worlds. Global Voices spoke with the community's two administrators, discussing feminists and feminism, the need for solid information, and the importance of responsibly sharing this information. In a country like Mexico, where the frequency of femicide and gender-based abuse is alarming, projects like Feminist Library are trying to raise awareness about a problem with strong roots in culture and conventions. Sharing information involves much more than just clicking on Facebook's share button, however. The amount of information available online is immense and readers don't always look beyond the headlines and photographs. That's why the Library also advocates the idea of “responsibility in publication.” The texts, news, photographs, and articles promoted by the Library are carefully selected, reviewed, and verified before being published on Facebook. As in the case with many other activists, the group's administrators first began contemplating gender roles and feminist movements through their own personal experiences. The community's founder and her creative approach to feminism are connected to issues of body care, food sovereignty, and ideas about freedom from the state and from market pressures. The group's participants are also dedicated to alternative modes of citizenship, and fighting sexism and abuse against women: Me tuve que volver feminista por supervivencia. Cuando trabajas en asuntos de economía solidaria no te imaginas que vas a tener un compañero que te acose. Pero es el golpe de la realidad. La misoginia y el machismo atraviesan los movimientos que se consideran alternativos al sistema y nuestras posibilidades participación quedan sujetas a estos prejuicios y violencias. Fui pareja del dirigente de un colectivo y me expulsaron por no querer continuar la relación. Tuve respuestas muy duras, incluso de amigos cercanos, que me decían que mi palabra no tenía valor por haberme acostado con él. De ahí, por supervivencia, empecé a buscar. Es necesario encontrar ideas que te saquen del riesgo de pensar que estas cosas son normales. I had to turn into a feminist for survival. When you work on issues of solidarity in the economy, you can't imagine you'll have a partner who harasses you. But that's the reality. Misogyny and machismo also occur in the movements that are considered alternative to the system and our ability to participate is subject to these prejudices and acts of violence. My former partner was the leader of a group, and I was expelled from the community for not wanting to continue that relationship. I was treated very harshly, even by close friends, who told me that my word was worthless for having been involved with him. That is why, for survival, I started searching. You need to find ideas that stop you from thinking it's normal to be treated like this. The Library's other main collaborator has similar activist experience and familiarity with the faults within women's advocacy groups. Many of these organizations, she says, are particularly flawed when it comes to taking concrete actions: Tuve la oportunidad de trabajar en un hospital, pero la experiencia me mostró que los grupos que se identificaban como de defensa por las mujeres no siempre trabajaban de modo solidario. I had the opportunity to work in a hospital, but that experience showed me that the groups identifying themselves as defending women did not always work in a spirit of solidarity. The Feminist Library aims to create spaces—virtual or physical—where women can share and reflect together. The group's administrators believe this simple step can be the beginning of many needed changes: Creo mucho en el poder que existe en los espacios para y de mujeres. No es que piense que los espacios mixtos sean malos, pero los espacios autogestionados por mujeres con los que yo me he topado son espacios en los que he aprendido mucho, donde no solo hay trabajos teóricos, sino de crítica y de autocrítica. Este proceso es difícil, aún trabajando en organizaciones dedicadas a la sociedad civil.