"Fempress was founded in 1981, in Mexico, by two Chi lean women living in exile who were passionately convinced that the media are powerful tools to challenge culturally-rooted social injustice. We felt that the people fighting to overturn the legendary culture of machismo in Lat in America needed a fai r and inspirational magazine on every newsstand; one that would ref lect the real problems facing women. Naturally, this was not an immediate possibility. A quick market study exposed the mechanisms by which, even today, it is virtually impossible for alternative media to survive unless it can cover some of its costs by carrying advertisements. Needless to say, advertising acts against women’ s emancipation almost by definition; and any quest for a profound social change involves swimming against the tide. As pioneers of this now well-known women’ s media network, we reached out for international co-operation and trimmed the project down to realistic proportions that excluded the news-stands and the general public but focused instead on strengthening what was then a small and inarticulate Lat in Amer ican women’ s movement." (Introduction)