We’re excited to highlight the November LOLA of the Month
Congratulations Sabrina Riveiro!
Meet Sabrina…
Sabrina Riveiro started LILA Uruguay (LILA stands for La Liga de Liberales Asociades, the Spanish name for LOLA Uruguay) alongside friend and co-worker Maria José Fernandez in January 2020. Sabrina has helped lead the planning of multiple successful events in Uruguay that work to educate and unify liberty-minded women through her LOLA Chapter. Outside of LOLA, Sabrina is an advanced student in International Affairs at the ORT University and is currently preparing for her final thesis. She is a Project Coordinator for the Center of Studies for Development, a prestigious Think Tank located in Uruguay, and is an Executive Director in a Charity Foundation for children with hemophilia. As a well-rounded, educated, and passionate advocate for liberty in both her personal and academic life, Sabrina truly embodies what it means to be a Lady of Liberty.
We asked Sabrina about her experiences in LOLA thus far. Here’s what she had to say!
How did your involvement with LOLA begin?
In 2018, I had the opportunity to attend FEECon in Atlanta, Georgia where I met LOLAs Communications and Outreach Manager, Holly Jean Soto. She spoke with me about Ladies of Liberty Alliance and I was fascinated with one day bringing LOLA back home to my country of Uruguay.
Together with my friend and work colleague Maria José Fernandez, we started LILA Uruguay (LILA stands for La Liga de Liberales Asociades, the Spanish name for LOLA Uruguay) in January 2020 whose mission is to educate and empower liberty-minded women in Uruguay. Our first step was identifying the most important issues we wanted to address through our LOLA Chapter including the lack of women in libertarian spaces, little participation of women in politics and economics, feminism ideologized from Marxist theories, and a country that needs liberty to develop.
We are thrilled to be part of a worldwide organization, knowing that LOLAs all around the world are passionate advocates for liberty as we are.
Sabrina (pictured on the right) alongside friend and Chapter co-lead Maria José Fernandez.
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“The birth of LILA Uruguay meant the introduction of libertarian feminism to many.”
What is your favorite part of your role with LOLA?
I’ve always been the type of person that needs to be productive. I love participating in meetings, workshops, seminars and more, so it was natural that I would make it a goal to promote libertarian ideas through my LOLA Chapter. But I couldn’t do anything without the help of fellow LILAs (members of LILA Uruguay) who give meaning to everything we do. We are a large group of over 50 women who are working to make a better Uruguay through classical liberal ideas. Our mission is to reach Uruguayan women with libertarian ideas, help them to achieve personal and professional growth, and educate and empower them to achieve a better country.
We have hosted several face-to-face events since LILA Uruguay’s launch this January. Luckily in Uruguay, the pandemic has been handled rather well allowing us to hold our first in-person event on March 10th with the participation of the nation’s Vice President, Beatriz Argimón, and with one of the most important lawyers in our country, Veronica Raffo with more than 120 people in attendance.
LILA Uruguay has also hosted smaller meetings of 10-20 people with more educational objectives such as exploring liberal theory and studying women’s employment trends (since the highest unemployment rate is found in young women with children). LILA has also offered seminars with the help of the Francisco Marroquin University in Spain and we have traveled to different parts of our country to offer workshops to students who have financial barriers to top educational facilities.
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Why is LOLA important to you and women in Uruguay?
In Uruguay, there wasn’t any organization that challenged traditional feminist ideas strongly rooted in Marxist theories. And many women felt alone in their beliefs because of this. As we promoted libertarian feminism in our LOLA Chapter, we found many Uruguayan women identified with it because it was rooted in the principles like freedom of individuals, freedom of speech, women empowerment and the principles of private property. This libertarian feminist movement didn’t exist before our arrival. We were thrilled to create a community of women who no longer felt alone because they held different beliefs as the public.
Additionally, as a group of empowered LILAs, we strongly believe that in order to achieve economic development, we must change the culture of thought. In Uruguay, the quality of life, education and health is almost like a developed country, but we are underdeveloped because of our economy. We haven’t been able to make progress in a lot of ways because we are stuck in our past. We need to change. We need to develop, progress and reinvent ourselves. That’s why I believe that there is nothing more important than helping cultural change through the education and the empowerment of classical liberal women.
Members of LILA Uruguay unite for a photo after a LILA event
“Growing up, I think I always identified with classical liberal ideas…even one of our national flags reads “libertad o muerte’ which translates to “freedom or death.”
Can you tell us the story of how you found Liberty?
I had no idea what liberalism/libertarianism meant until my first year in university. I was taking a class in “International Systems and Theory” when I was introduced to the liberal international theory of Spencer R. Weart Never at War: Why Democracies Will Not Fight One Another and Norberto Bobbio Liberalism and Democracy. Eager to learn more, my professor recommended Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. That’s when I fell in love with libertarian ideology. Suddenly I belonged to something much bigger than myself. It represented everything I believed in from the importance of the individual, the market, the institutions, and so much more.
In my second year of college, I won a scholarship to attend The Fund for American Studies program in Santiago de Chile. There I met Mr. Bradley Thompson, an amazing professor, and an even better person, who taught me the importance of having an open mind and that perhaps, we as individuals, do not hold all the information to make decisions for others. I also had the opportunity to meet a ton of people from different parts of the world who shared similar experiences in the fight for freedom in their country.
I applied to study in different countries for various programs (which I truly recommend) such as the 2018 FEECon conference, where I met LOLAs Holly Jean Soto.
Growing up, I think I always identified with classical liberal ideas and as I look around at my fellow Uruguayans, I think many of us identify with it. We are a small country of 3 million inhabitants with a history of fighting for freedom and independence. Even one of our national flags reads “libertad o muerte“ which translates to “freedom or death.”
How do you balance being a LOLA chapter leader with other roles in your daily life?
I am an advanced student in International Affairs at the ORT University. Right now I’m preparing my final thesis, which requires a lot of reading and effort. Additionally I have two jobs: I’m a Project Coordinator for the Center of Studies for Development – a prestigious Think Tank located in Uruguay, and also I’m an Executive Director for a Charity Foundation for children with hemophilia. Therefore, organization is vital: We all have a lot of things going on in our own life, both professional and personal, so an effective way to manage your personal time being a LOLA leader is to have a planned time schedule and to maintain fluent communication between chapter members.
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