#MeToo campaign triggers horrid memories for Miami women

MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald

January 10, 2018

By Brenda Medina

In an old warehouse-turned-office in northwestern Miami, a group of women is about to start a painful but empowering conversation.

Sitting on metal folding chairs around an improvised altar covered with a yellow sheet and a lit candle at its center, 16 women share intimate stories of sexual harassment and abuse.

They are not wealthy or famous celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Taylor Swift or Salma Hayek. Their accused abusers are not powerful men like Harvey Weinstein. Those present at this gathering are everyday Miami women, minorities, immigrants. They clean hotels and homes. They serve as nannies and waitresses. They help care for the sick and the elderly.

What brought them together was the national debate sparked by the #MeToo campaign. The millions of testimonies about sexual harassment and abuse that flooded social and mainstream media made them recall their own traumatic experiences, an issue that Golden Globe honoree Oprah Winfrey brought to the forefront again during a speech earlier this week.

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