It would be impossible for me to write about Latinas who have made history in the United States without starting in the here and now with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
She is without a doubt our most visible symbol of a Latina who has risen to political prominence. Her biography on the White House website describes her background as a truly "American Story":
Judge Sonia Sotomayor has lived the American dream. Born to a Puerto Rican family, she grew up in a public housing project in the South Bronx. Her parents moved to New York during World War II – her mother served in the Women’s Auxiliary Corps during the war. Her father, a factory worker with a third-grade education, died when Sotomayor was nine years old. Her mother, a nurse, then raised Sotomayor and her younger brother, Juan, now a physician in Syracuse. After her father’s death, Sotomayor turned to books for solace, and it was her new found love of Nancy Drew that inspired a love of reading and learning, a path that ultimately led her to the law.
Most importantly, at an early age, her mother instilled in Sotomayor and her brother a belief in the power of education. Driven by an indefatigable work ethic, and rising to the challenge of managing a diagnosis of juvenile diabetes, Sotomayor excelled in school. Sotomayor graduated as valedictorian of her class at Blessed Sacrament and at Cardinal Spellman High School in New York. She first heard about the Ivy League from her high school debate coach, Ken Moy, who attended Princeton University, and she soon followed in his footsteps after winning a scholarship.
At Princeton, she continued to excel, graduating summa cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa. She was a co-recipient of the M. Taylor Pyne Prize, the highest honor Princeton awards to an undergraduate. At Yale Law School, Judge Sotomayor served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal and as managing editor of the Yale Studies in World Public Order.
When I think of Justice Sotomayor and other Puerto Rican women, like my sisters from
The Young Lords Party, who have played a key role in our history, I also have to remember that they had a real chance of not being born at all, given the
policy of sterilization of Puerto Rican women, which ultimately saw 35 percent of the islands women sterilized:
In 1947-48, Paul K. Hatt, in a study of 5,257 ever-married women 15 years old or over, found that 6.6 per cent had been sterilized. A figure more or less equal (6.9 per cent) was put forward in 1948 by Emilio Cofresi from studies of women who were clients of various programs of the Department of Health in Puerto Rico.
In an island-wide survey carried out by Hill, Stycos and Back in 1953-54, the prevalence of female sterilization of ever-married women 20 years old or over was estimated at 16.5 per cent. In 1965 the Puerto Rican Department of Health carried out an island-wide study on the relationship between cancer of the uterus and female sterilization. Although the Department of Health says no link between cancer and sterilization was substantiated, it did discover that 34% of Puerto Rican women between the ages of 20-49 years were sterilized.
The number of women sterilized in the same age group rose to 35.3% in 1968 according to a study by the Puerto Rican demographer Dr. lose Vasquez Calzada.
The incidence of sterilization in Puerto Rico is the highest in the world. India and Pakistan, for example, which have public sterilization programs, have an estimated sterilization of 5% and 3% respectively.
This travesty is documented in filmmaker Ana Maria Garcia's
La operación.
(Continue reading below the fold)
Writing about "latinas" is difficult—the category covers so many ethnic groups in the U.S., with different cultures, including Chicanas, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans and Central Americans.
Latinas also cross socially constructed racial categories. I was thinking about this when I looked at some of the women (and men) interviewed for this short documentary, which I have used in class to teach about latinas in Caribbean culture.
Though many Latinas have become well-known in the arts—particularly music—until recently, there have been few sources for detailed study of the extraordinary role they have played in all facets of U.S. history.
There is now a comprehensive three-volume encyclopedia, edited by Vicki L. Ruiz and Virginia Sánchez Korrol, which should begin to correct historical deficiencies.
Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia records the contribution of women of Latin American birth or heritage to the economic and cultural development of the United States. In more than 580 entries, the historical and cultural narratives of Latinas come to life. From mestizo settlement, pioneer life, and diasporic communities, the encyclopedia details the contributions of women as settlers, comadres, and landowners, as organizers and nuns. More than 200 scholars explore the experiences of Latinas during and after EuroAmerican colonization and conquest; the early-19th-century migration of Puerto Ricans and Cubans; 20th-century issues of migration, cultural tradition, labor, gender roles, community organization, and politics; and much more. Individual biographical entries profile women who have left their mark on the historical and cultural landscape.
With more than 300 photographs, Latinas in the United States offers a mosaic of historical experiences, detailing how Latinas have shaped their own lives, cultures, and communities through mutual assistance and collective action, while confronting the pressures of colonialism, racism, discrimination, sexism, and poverty.
For students, teachers and interested activists, there is now an interactive online resource available
Latinas in History, compiled by the Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at CUNY Brooklyn College. It includes
biographies, photos, a
timeline, and
classroom resources for teachers.
Another important text deals specifically with the history and impact of Chicanas and their role in recent history. Written by Maylei Blackwell, assistant professor in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies and Women's Studies at UCLA, the book highlights activist Anna Nieto Gomez and the Hijas de Cuauhtémoc, one of the first Latina feminist organizations.
The first book-length study of women's involvement in the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, ¡Chicana Power! tells the powerful story of the emergence of Chicana feminism within student and community-based organizations throughout southern California and the Southwest. As Chicanos engaged in widespread protest in their struggle for social justice, civil rights, and self-determination, women in el movimiento became increasingly militant about the gap between the rhetoric of equality and the organizational culture that suppressed women's leadership and subjected women to chauvinism, discrimination, and sexual harassment. Based on rich oral histories and extensive archival research, Maylei Blackwell analyzes the struggles over gender and sexuality within the Chicano Movement and illustrates how those struggles produced new forms of racial consciousness, gender awareness, and political identities.
During my own period of developing political awareness, the Latina who had the most impact on my growing consciousness was (and still is) an organizer, union activist and staunch proponent for women's rights. She is
Dolores Huerta, who
said:
Among poor people, there's not any question about women being strong -- even stronger than men -- they work in the fields right along with the men. When your survival is at stake, you don't have these questions about yourself like middle-class women do.
Her work continues though the
Dolores Huerta Foundation. They will be celebrating her
82nd birthday in April.
Happy birthday in advance, Doña Dolores. May you continue to inspire new generations of activists.
¡Sí Se Puede!
¡Pa'lante Mujeres!
