Grandmother Power: A Global Phenomenon (powerHouse Books) is the fifth book by the unstoppable Paola Gianturco, who is a grandmother herself. Ms. Gianturco has dedicated herself to documenting the women who light the dark all around the world. Her oeuvre is sprinkled with a melange of activists who are working in their local communities for the empowerment and betterment of themselves and the next generation.
A perusal through any of Ms. Gianturco’s books fills one with the warmth of a glowing light, of the spark and sparkle of success against the odds. Grandmother Power continues along this path, a positive and powerful look at women who have reached the next phase in their lives. Their families are complete, their children now parents with children of their own, and with their nests empty, these grandmothers are free to give themselves wholeheartedly to their communities.
The result is a stunning array of heartwarming stories from all around the globe, dealing with issues of HIV/AIDS, cultural preservation, environment, human rights, education, justice, spiritual life, health, politics, and energy. For example, in Argentina, a group of grandmothers have gathered to search for babies stolen during the military dictatorship between 1976-1983 that “disappeared” 30,000 people, including babies and children who had not yet learned to speak stolen from detention centers to be raised as patriots.”
As Gianturco reports, “Pregnant prisoners were tortured but kept alive long enough to give birth. An obstetrician or midwife would be kidnapped from the street, blindfolded, taken to the room where the prisoner was in labor, and ordered to deliver the baby alive. After the mothers were killed, their babies were appropriated, sold, and abandoned.”
The grandmothers began to search, at first alone but then became aware of each other and joined together as the Abuelas (“grandmothers”) of the Plaza de Mayo. By 2011, they had identified 105 grandchildren. With four hundred to go, the grandmothers persevere, working together with the government to prosecute the former dictators Jorge Videla and Reynaldo Bignone “for overseeing a systematic plan to steal babies born to political prisoners.”
Such dedication comes from a place of passion and heart that reflects the crusade for the rights of children and women that is equally a part of Ms. Gianturco’s spirit. With her photographs and stories, Ms. Gianturco consistently pays homage to the unsung heroes of our world, the people who live and die fighting for the good, for justice, and for honor.
Complementing her work is Angella M. Nazarian’s Pioneers of the Possible: Celebrating Visionary Women of the World (Assouline). Here, Ms. Nazarian introduced us to some of the most famous women of our time, women whose life’s work has redefined the role of women and the way in which they are perceived, both within their respective fields of work as well as in the culture at large. With profiles of women including Martha Graham, Simone de Beauvoir, Ella Fitzgerald, Frida Kahlo, Golda Meir, Estee Lauder, Somaly Mam, Zaha Hadid, and many others, Pioneers of the Possible shows us the power of a woman standing on her own, challenging the system and redefining what is possible in our world.
Each chapter deftly tells the lives of these women, celebrating their achievements against the odds, their private struggles that made their successes that much more powerful. For each story, Ms. Nazarian takes the public figure and opens their private life, allowing us to share in their dreams and nightmares as their climbed their way to the top. Each story gives us a feeling of communion with these figureheads, making them human and grounded, allowing us to identify with them.
By profiling women who have pioneered in a wide array of spheres of influence, Ms. Nazarian allows us to look to these figures in order to see how we might contribute as well. Each woman has her own journey, her own path, and each woman who travels before us leads the way to a promised land. In both Pioneers of the Possible and Grandmother Power, both Ms. Nazarian and Ms. Gianturco use photography to illustrate the stories told, giving us a new means in which to behold their images and consider their work. Photgoraphy here is the counterpoint, the balance to do what words cannot. Each image allows us to pause in the story, taking in these women’s success, reflecting on their images as way to consider both them and ourselves.
As Ms. Nazarian writes in the introduction, “Our purpose in life may impact something as large as a nartion or as immediate as our community. In most cases, it is multilayered. But no matter where we are headed, learning about the lives of pioneering women is an inspiring way to honor who we are and to encourage each other toward greater possibilities and deeper lives.” Indeed, as both Ms. Nazarian and Ms. Gianturco, changing the world in which we live is possible if it is what we desire most with our hearts.
Miss Rosen
Grandmother Power: A Global Phenomenon
by Paola Gianturco
Publisher : powerHouse Books
ISBN-10: 157687611X
