Otro mundo es posible | Teresa Correa | TEDxSanta Rosa Women
Teresa Correa shares her 56-year journey with the Venezuelan cooperative movement Cecosesola, describing how the organization operates without bosses or hierarchies and has achieved remarkable success including winning the Alternative Nobel Prize in 2022. She argues that love, dialogue, and recognizing that everyone has their own piece of reality are fundamental to building community and creating positive change.
Summary
Teresa Correa begins by describing herself as an 18-year-old girl who left Caracas for the interior of Venezuela because she wanted to change the world and couldn't tolerate injustice, discrimination, and violence. Now, 56 years later, she remains committed to the same ideals through her work with Cecosesola, a cooperative movement that provided her with an ideal environment to channel her youthful energy without asking about her religion or political affiliation. She explains how she initially thought she knew everything and came to teach others, but quickly realized she was 'totally naked' and had come to learn from others instead. In 1980, when the city's bus fleet was dismantled leaving 180 workers unemployed, she participated as the only woman in a march on foot to Caracas to bring attention to their situation. Through Cecosesola, she learned to work without bosses or hierarchies, learning from each other and creating an environment where everyone can give their best. She references Chilean biologist Humberto Maturana's discovery that there is no objective external reality - each living being perceives the world through their own biology and personal history. This understanding transformed how they approach dialogue, moving from 'I'm right, you're wrong' to 'I see things this way, how do you see it?' She emphasizes that recognizing others have their own piece of reality leads to dialogue, respect, and love, which are essential for community building. Today, Cecosesola has a strong feminine presence characterized by embrace, welcome, horizontality, care for nature, and the search for harmony. The organization's unconventional approach of operating without bosses led to them winning the Alternative Nobel Prize in 2022 for their innovative way of conceiving and living community organization. Their achievements include a funeral protection fund serving 28,000 families, cooperative health services attending 250,000 people annually, and 350 farmers producing collectively to supply over 100,000 families weekly in Barquisimeto.
Key Insights
- Correa argues that effective community building requires abandoning the belief in a single objective reality and instead recognizing that each person perceives the world through their own biology and personal history
- She claims that productive dialogue emerges when conversations shift from adversarial positions of right versus wrong to collaborative sharing of different perspectives
- Correa contends that love is the fundamental requirement for community, arising from dialogue and mutual respect rather than hierarchical authority
- She demonstrates that organizations can achieve remarkable scale and impact without traditional management structures, citing Cecosesola's ability to serve hundreds of thousands of people without bosses or hierarchies
- Correa argues that the integration of feminine principles like embrace, horizontality, and care for nature has strengthened their organization and contributed to their international recognition
Topics
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