Channel Foundation co-hosted an event with grantee partner Front Line Defenders and with Seattle community organization El Centro de la Raza on June 4th, 2015 featuring Lucha Castro, an incredible Mexican human rights activist who works in Chihuahua to promote and protect the rights of women and offer legal and psychological support to women victims of violence.

In April 2015 Front Line Defenders and Verso Books published La Lucha: The Story of Lucha Castro and Human Rights in Mexico – the first book in a series of nonfiction graphic novels. La Lucha features the real life stories of women human rights defenders (WHRDs) in northern Mexico who confront lethal challenges in order to promote human rights, justice and accountability. A series of vignettes threaded together by one of the leading Mexican WHRDs, Lucha Castro, the book offers a rich depiction of the complexity and challenges in the lives of WHRDs and the profound importance of their work.

Following the release of the English edition, Front Line Defenders and Editorial Resistencia published the Spanish edition in Mexico in November 2015, launching the book with events at the Senate in Mexico City and in Chihuahua and Oaxaca.

As Adam Shapiro, FLD’s Head of Campaigns wrote, “This book gives evidence of the risks and adversities human rights defenders across the world have to face to make the rights of their communities a reality. The bravery, persistence and hope women rights defenders featured in the book exhibit in their day to day lives make up these stories of real life heroes.”

A video promo for the book can be watched here.