Life and career
Gutierrez was born in Mexico. In 1954, she married Ricardo Gutierrez and in 1956 the couple moved to Los Angeles where they had nine children. [1] They lived in Los Angeles for forty-three years. [2]
She founded Madres de Este Los Angeles Santa Isabel (MELASI) which defeated a proposal to build a prison near her home, [3] and later a proposal to place a toxic dump and oil pipeline nearby. This organization, composed of neighborhood residents of Vernon in East Los Angeles, have worked together to ensure that their community obtains safe conditions to live in. [4] According to the National Women's History Project, MELASI also helped with the problems of "crime, unemployment, failing schools, dangerous working conditions, and pesticide-filled foods". They established a scholarship fund, giving more than $300,000 to local students, and a water conservation program that employed 22 people and built a community garden. [1] Further, MELASI also partnered with other grassroots organizations like the Greenpeace and the National Resources Defense Council to promote environmental well-being among the community. [4]
Winona LaDuke is an American economist, environmentalist, writer and industrial hemp grower, known for her work on tribal land claims and preservation, as well as sustainable development.
Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta is an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Cesar Chavez, is a co-founder of the United Farmworkers Association, which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to become the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta helped organize the Delano grape strike in 1965 in California and was the lead negotiator in the workers' contract that was created after the strike.
Charlotta Amanda Spears Bass was an American educator, newspaper publisher-editor, and civil rights activist. She also focused on various other issues such as housing rights, voting rights, and labor rights, as well as police brutality and harassment. Bass is believed to be the first African-American woman to own and operate a newspaper in the United States; she published the California Eagle from 1912 until 1951. In 1952, Bass became the first African-American woman nominated for Vice President, as a candidate of the Progressive Party.
The Chicano Movement, also referred to as El Movimiento, was a social and political movement in the United States that worked to embrace a Chicano/a identity and worldview that combated structural racism, encouraged cultural revitalization, and achieved community empowerment by rejecting assimilation. Chicanos also expressed solidarity and defined their culture through the development of Chicano art during El Movimiento, and stood firm in preserving their religion.
Anne McCarty Braden was an American civil rights activist, journalist, and educator dedicated to the cause of racial equality. She and her husband bought a suburban house for an African American couple during Jim Crow. White neighbors burned crosses and bombed the house. During McCarthyism, Anne was charged with sedition. She wrote and organized for the southern civil rights movement before violations became national news. Anne was among nation's most outspoken white anti-racist activists, organizing across racial divides in environmental, women's, and anti-nuclear movements.
Aurora Castillo known as "la doña — a title of respect given to her by her largely Latino community — was an American environmentalist and community activist from Los Angeles, California. She co-founded the Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA) in 1984. The MELA organization successfully opposed a planned building of a toxic waste incinerator and state prison in Eastside Los Angeles. Castillo was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1995.
Favianna Rodriguez is an American artist and activist. She has self-identified as queer and Latina with Afro-Peruvian roots. Rodriguez began as a political poster designer in the 1990s in the struggle for racial justice in Oakland, California. R is known for using her art as a tool for activism. Her designs and projects range on a variety of different issues including globalization, immigration, feminism, patriarchy, interdependence, and genetically modified foods. Rodriguez is a co-founder of Presente.org and is the Executive Director of Culture Strike, "a national arts organization that engages artists, writers and performers in migrant rights. "
Mary Ruthsdotter was a feminist activist who co-founded the National Women's History Project, for which she produced curriculum guides, teacher training programs and videos on women’s history. She played an influential role in obtaining Congressional resolutions and Presidential proclamations designating Women's History Week and, later, Women's History Month.
Cindy Marano was an economic justice activist from the United States. Marano worked for economic equity for women and low-income workers. She is a designated Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project, which described her as a "brilliant strategic thinker".
Selma Rubin was an American environmentalist and environmental activist. She was called a co-founder of Earth Day. Rubin was a member or adviser for more than forty organizations spanning more than 57 years. Many of the grassroot organizations she co-foundered are still thriving today like the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), the Community Environmental Council (CEC), the ACLU, SBCAN, and the Fund for Santa Barbara among them.
Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA), started in 1986, as a group of Latina mothers to fight the proposed construction of a state prison in East Los Angeles by Governor George Deukmejian. Rosa Diseno, Lucy Ramos, Mary Lou Trevis and Aurora Castillo are some of the founding mothers among the 400-member group. Two organizations exist today who originate from the same founding members, one organization being the Mothers of East LA and the other being Madres de Este Los Angeles, Santa Isabel. Both groups are primarily focused on environmental justice because they are mothers who have coalesced around something of immediate importance to them, the safety of their families and children". They are known nationally for their victory over the proposed state prison in East L.A. which later lead MELA to take on many issues that have affected their environment and quality of life and has been unceasing in their dedication to protect their community from other projects they perceive as harmful.
Jeanne Córdova was an American trailblazer of the lesbian and gay rights movement, founder of The Lesbian Tide, and a founder of the West Coast LGBT movement. Córdova was a second-wave feminist lesbian activist and proud butch.
Juana Alicia is an American muralist, printmaker, educator, activist and, painter. She has been an educator for forty years. Juana Alicia, as part of the faculty Berkeley City College, founded and directed the True Colors Public Art program. Her sculptures and murals are principally located in the San Francisco Bay Area, Nicaragua, Mexico, Pennsylvania, and in many parts of California.
Nancy Buchanan is a Los Angeles-based artist best known for her work in installation, performance, and video art. She played a central role in the feminist art movement in Los Angeles in the 1970s. Her work has been exhibited widely and is collected by major museums including the Museum of Modern Art and the Centre Pompidou.
Andrea Bowers is a Los Angeles-based American artist working in a variety of media including video, drawing, and installation. Her work has been exhibited around the world, including museums and galleries in Germany, Greece, and Tokyo. Her work was included in the 2004 Whitney Biennial and 2008 California Biennial. She is on the graduate faculty at Otis College of Art and Design.
Alicia Escalante is a Chicana activist who was active during the Chicano Movement. She was the founder and chair of the East Los Angeles Chicana Welfare Rights Organization from 1967 to 1978.
Although often characterized as apolitical, “Los Angeles has provided the setting for many important chapters in the struggle for gay and lesbian community, visibility, and civil rights." Moreover, Los Angeles' LGBT community has historically played a significant role in the development of the entertainment industry.
Johnnie Tillmon Blackston was an American welfare rights activist. She is regarded as one of the most influential welfare rights activists in the country, whose work with the National Welfare Rights Organization influenced the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in particular.
Adela Vázquez is a Cuban American transgender activist and performer. Hailing from Cuba during a time of political uprising, Vázquez was one of 125,000 people who sought asylum and migrated in the Mariel Boat lifts in 1980. Local to San Francisco's gay scene, Vázquez began to organize with HIV prevention organization Proyecto ContraSIDA Por Vida and became a community activist for transgender rights.
Vivian Leburg Rothstein is a labor rights activist, feminist, and community organizer. She was instrumental in the civil rights movement and the peace movement. She also cofounded the Chicago Women's Liberation Union.
