Brilliant and pioneering Latina labor organizer; relentless fighter for Mexican Americans' civil, social and economic rights; fiery Tejano orator and educator (1916-1999)
Great story! I had a grandmother, who left lentil soup for her husband and 3 sons to walk with a parade of women from Philadelphia to Washington for the womens’ right to vote.
That’s a wonderful story! Do you know which parade that was, or around what year? And what her name was? I Iove stories about historic marches, and parades…I saw Suffs not long ago and last year helped judge a wonderful documentary junior or high school kids did on Alice Paul. And this is a short article I wrote in the midst of the pandemic for my condo newsletter about the nation’s largest parade to commemorate the ratification of the 15th amendment, that happened in Baltimore, MD, where I then lived: https://stpaulatchase.wixsite.com/mysite/post/largest-parade-in-celebration-of-the-ratification-of-the-15th-amendment-in-baltimore-md
I don’t know the year, just that it stoped in Philly on way to Washington. She was Anna Abrams Abrams Weinstein and was in a Philly newspaper for making an alley into a Victory Garden which fed her neighborhood during WW2. For years she wrote about race relations in The Sandpaper local NJ.paper. A self educated woman, she worked in a factory at age 11 and wrote about a foreman…
Hi Louise, I went looking for activists, organizers or leaders who were Latina, including (but not only) those active in labor, because I thought it was time to write about one. (And because I was waiting on a book about a Native American / indigenous woman I’d found to write about, to get here. There are certain things I look for in a Campfire Resistance Heroine, especially…besides their often being relatively overlooked / unknown, generally those I connect strongly to are fiercely courageous, independent and independent-minded, unforgivingly so; unapologetic for who they are and what they do; completely oblivious to societal norms about what women or “women like them” are supposed to act like, or do; and extremely successful, creative, and effective at what they do. They generally have a very strong sense of who they are, who they want to be, and what they’d like to do, from a pretty early age, and rarely veer from that goal no matter what obstacles they face—although, being blocked from their early exact intention, and the obstacles and challenges, and what they do in the face of them, is generally EXACTLY what makes them the towering heroines of resistance that they become. Emma fit the bill for that, and more. And there’s aspects and parallels to her story and our times when it comes to going after / demonizing immigrants and migrants, and January 6, as well. There’s different ways I come across resistance heroines like Emma…sometimes they find me, and sometimes I find them. But I always know when we were meant to meet.
Great story! I had a grandmother, who left lentil soup for her husband and 3 sons to walk with a parade of women from Philadelphia to Washington for the womens’ right to vote.
That’s a wonderful story! Do you know which parade that was, or around what year? And what her name was? I Iove stories about historic marches, and parades…I saw Suffs not long ago and last year helped judge a wonderful documentary junior or high school kids did on Alice Paul. And this is a short article I wrote in the midst of the pandemic for my condo newsletter about the nation’s largest parade to commemorate the ratification of the 15th amendment, that happened in Baltimore, MD, where I then lived: https://stpaulatchase.wixsite.com/mysite/post/largest-parade-in-celebration-of-the-ratification-of-the-15th-amendment-in-baltimore-md
I don’t know the year, just that it stoped in Philly on way to Washington. She was Anna Abrams Abrams Weinstein and was in a Philly newspaper for making an alley into a Victory Garden which fed her neighborhood during WW2. For years she wrote about race relations in The Sandpaper local NJ.paper. A self educated woman, she worked in a factory at age 11 and wrote about a foreman…
Admirable story, well written.
Thanks, Larisa!
Fascinating! What led you to write about her, Lois?
Hi Louise, I went looking for activists, organizers or leaders who were Latina, including (but not only) those active in labor, because I thought it was time to write about one. (And because I was waiting on a book about a Native American / indigenous woman I’d found to write about, to get here. There are certain things I look for in a Campfire Resistance Heroine, especially…besides their often being relatively overlooked / unknown, generally those I connect strongly to are fiercely courageous, independent and independent-minded, unforgivingly so; unapologetic for who they are and what they do; completely oblivious to societal norms about what women or “women like them” are supposed to act like, or do; and extremely successful, creative, and effective at what they do. They generally have a very strong sense of who they are, who they want to be, and what they’d like to do, from a pretty early age, and rarely veer from that goal no matter what obstacles they face—although, being blocked from their early exact intention, and the obstacles and challenges, and what they do in the face of them, is generally EXACTLY what makes them the towering heroines of resistance that they become. Emma fit the bill for that, and more. And there’s aspects and parallels to her story and our times when it comes to going after / demonizing immigrants and migrants, and January 6, as well. There’s different ways I come across resistance heroines like Emma…sometimes they find me, and sometimes I find them. But I always know when we were meant to meet.