Mariana Ortiz Tirado

“One can never do anything alone” is one of the phrases that resonates with me the most and makes me insist on building collaborative and collective spaces to ensure that all people (especially women and girls) can live in freedom, equality and with dignity.

When I participate in forums, conferences, or spaces for dialogue, I begin by presenting myself as a young feminist woman who dreams of living by the sea and making ceramics once we manage to overthrow the patriarchy. I think that dream is still far from becoming a reality, but at least it is painted as a horizon that can be built with collective action. My vocation has always been human rights advocacy, so I took each opportunity presented to me to get involved from various fronts, starting with activism. I decided to study International Affairs and later Law because I wanted to litigate strategic cases in the Inter-American System. However, along the way, I discovered public service and feminism. My focus changed, and I became passionate about public policies as tools to guarantee rights.

I decided to pursue a master’s in public policies and gender, convinced that women in government and politics have much to contribute to the construction of an equal world. Over the last nine years of my life, I have had the honor of working in public service. From 2015 to 2018, I collaborated as an advisor in the Human Rights and Gender Equality Commission of the Government of Guadalajara (my hometown) I later received an invitation to join as a Director in the Government of Jalisco (the state I live in) for the 2018-2024 administration, where we designed and created the Secretariat of Substantive Equality between Women and Men. Now, I’m back working for the Government of Guadalajara with the task of articulating the care system for my city.

During my time in public service, I have sought to place the key demands of women and girls at the center of the public agenda from a feminist perspective. My focus has been on innovating public policies against gender violence, promote reproductive rights and political participation, improve care systems, and advocate for public budgets with gender perspective. The last couple of years I began to wonder how I could accompany social changes in different spaces, beyond my government work. That’s where the magic happened. I began to teach at university, dreaming of inspiring young folks to change the world, and collaborating as an independent consultant with social-purpose actors. My main goal as a consultant is to accompany social organizations to build public strategies.