Dr. Marta Moreno Vega is an Afro-Puerto Rican visual artist, activist, scholar, author, educator, and Yoruba priestess. Vega was born in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Her family is of Yoruba origin and she describes herself as Afro-Puerto Rican. Her parents were born in Puerto Rico: her mother in Caguas and her father in Loiza, Puerto Rico

She received her B.A. and M.A. in Education from New York University and began her career by teaching history and arts-in-education to junior high and high schools around New York City.

In the spring of 1971, Vega was voted in as the second Director of El Museo del Barrio.^[8] As Director, she continued the founder's, Rafael Montañez Ortiz, work in educating the community about the need to support a museum depicting their history. In June 1974, she curated an exhibition documenting slavery and Afro-Puerto Rican heritage called Aspectos de la esclavitud en Puerto Rico.^[8] She served as director until March 1975. She was one of the founders of the Association of Hispanic Arts (AHA), which was created in 1975. AHA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the work of Hispanic artists.

In 1976, she founded the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI). Through the CCCADI, Vega advances social justice for African descendants. Vega has dedicated her career to the celebration of the arts, histories, and cultures of communities of African descent in the Americas. Her work increases their visibility, documents their history, and advocates for their needs.

From 1996 to 2000, she was an assistant professor at Baruch College of City University of New York in the Black and Hispanic Studies department. She began this position after earning her doctorate in African Studies from Temple University the year prior.

 Vega became an advisor to the Board of Directors, with Margarita Rosa, Esq. present as the role of interim director of CCCADI in January 2018.

In 2000, Vega served as co-director of the Global Afro-Latino and Caribbean Initiative (GALCI) at Hunter College. The program promoted the struggles of the Afro-Latino communities, which are less visible and insisting that the human, civil, and cultural rights of these communities be respected and acknowledged. The program was terminated several years later.

That same year, she wrote her first book, The Altar of My Soul: The Living Traditions of Santeria. The book dives into the Santeria religion, detailing its origin, themes, and practices while connecting them to Vega's experiences both from her childhood, where she has seen her grandmother practice the religion and as an adult practicing it herself. In 2004, Vega published a personal memoir based on the documentary, When the Spirits Dance Mambo: Growing Up Nuyorican in El Barrio.^[15] It covers the range of issues such as the influence of African culture in South America, Afro-Caribbean-American identity in the Latin community, and the religious aspects of the Santeria religion. She discusses the experience of living in Spanish Harlem, delving into her life as a woman of color. Her book, When the Spirits Dance Mambo, was reprinted and released in April 2018

In addition to Dr. Vega being a Yoruba Priestess, she is also a lead researcher in the culture and religion. Vega has been a professor at many universities throughout America during her career after the GALCI program at Hunter College. Vega has taught at El Centro de Estudios Avanzados Puertorriquenos de Puerto Rico y El Caribe in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was an adjunct professor at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, and an adjunct professor in New York University's Department of Arts and Public Policy.

Vega founded the program, Creative Justice Initiative, whose focus is to allow a fluid creative process of gathering thought makers essentially to create thoughtful and intentional change.

In 2011 Vega was one of five New Yorkers ^[ featured in the HBO documentary by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders called.  The Latino List.  In 2012, Vega gave a talk at the TEDxHarlem detailing Afro-Latino spirituality in Puerto Rican and other Caribbean cultures. In April 2013, Dr. Vega launched a campaign to raise funds to create “ Let the Spirit Move You: The Documentary”. The campaign was completely funded in total a month later.^[2 It focused on Santeria, the African diaspora, and the importance of community. Dr. Moreno-Vega has been referenced in Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez's Guardians of Infinity #3. The comic features Groot as having a Puerto Rican background. In it, Dr. Moreno-Vega's personage is caricatured by a character named Abuela Estela. When asked about this similarity, Miranda-Rodriguez stated “I’ve known Marta since I was about 19. She has always supported me as a young professional… That’s why I made her the abuela. The [idea] literally came from her mouth.  In 2018, Vega was featured in the Brooklyn Museum's exhibit, Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985.

Honors

• Barnard College, Distinguished Visiting Gildersleeve Professor
• Association of American Cultures, Crystal Stairs Award
• Multicultural Council of New York City, Mosaic Award

Portrait of Dr. Marta Moreno Vega photographed by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Gift of Catherine and Ingrid Pino Duran © Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

As a Mexican-American journalist, activist, and suffragist, Jovita Idár often faced dangerous situations. However, she never backed down from a challenge. She single-handedly protected her newspaper headquarters when the Texas Rangers came to shut it down, and crossed the border to serve as a nurse during the Mexican Revolution. Idár bravely fought the injustices in her time.

Jovita Idár was born in 1885 in Laredo, Texas. One of eight children, Idár’s parents were Jovita and Nicasio Idár. Her father Nicasio, was a newspaper editor and a civil rights advocate. From an early age, Idár was exposed to journalism and political activism. She attended a Methodist school in Texas called the Holding Institute where she earned a teaching certificate in 1903. Idár immediately began teaching, but soon resigned due to the segregation and poor conditions for Mexican-American students. During this time, the Mexican-American community in Texas also frequently faced violence and lynching. Idár started working for her father’s newspaper La Crónica, where two of her brothers were already working. The paper was a source of news and activism for Mexican-American rights. she often wrote articles speaking about racism and supporting the revolution in Mexico. In 1911, Idár and her family organized the First Mexican Congress to unify Mexicans across the border to fight injustice. The congress discussed many issues including education and lack of economic resources.

After the Congress, Idár wrote an article for La Crónica supporting women’s suffrage and encouraging women to vote. Idár and her brothers began to advocate for women’s rights and continued to write about women’s suffrage in a positive light. In October of 1911, she founded and became the first president of La Liga Feminil Mexicaista (the League of Mexican Women). This feminist organization started their activism by providing education for Mexican-American students. A few years later, Idár decided to go to Mexico to take care of the injured during the Mexican Revolution. She served as a nurse and eventually joined a group similar to the Red Cross called La Cruz Blanca. Later that year, she returned to Texas and began working at the El Progreso newspaper. While she was there, she wrote an article protesting President Woodrow Wilson’s decision to send Unites States troops to the border. The Unites States Army and the Texas Rangers did not like that she spoke out, so they went to the offices of El Progreso to shut it down. When the Rangers arrived, Idár stood in front the door and would not let them in. However, they returned later and forced El Progreso to shut down.

Even though the Rangers shut down El Progreso, Idár continued to write and advocate for the fair treatment of Mexican-Americans. She went back to La Crónica and soon started running the newspaper when her father passed away in 1914. A few years later, Idár married Bartolo Juárez and moved to San Antonio, Texas. She became active in the Democratic Party in Texas and promoted equal rights for women. She also became an editor of a publication for the Methodist Church called El Heraldo Cristiano. Idár remained committed to her community by volunteering in a hospital as an interpreter for Spanish-speaking patients, and started a free kindergarten for children. She was known for saying, “when you educate a woman, you educate a family.”[1] Jovita Idár died in San Antonio, Texas in 1946.

MLA - Alexander, Kerri Lee.  "Jovita Idár." National Women's History Museum.  National Women's History Museum, 2019.  Date accessed.

Chicago - Alexander, Kerri Lee.  "Jovita Idár."  National Women's History Museum.  2019.  www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/jovita-idar.

FEMINIST, ADVOCATE FOR EQUALITY & JUSTICE, LOBBYIST, BUILDER OF LEADERS, ORGANIZER AND AT 91 DOLORES HUERTA IS STILL GOING STRONG.

The following is her biography as presented on the webpage of the Dolores Huerta Foundation.  The foundation is a 501©3 organization on a mission to inspire and organize communities to build volunteer organizations empowered to pursue social justice.

 

The Feminist Seed is Planted

Dolores Clara Fernandez was born on April 10, 1930 in Dawson, a small mining town in the mountains of northern New Mexico. Her father Juan Fernández, a farm worker and miner by trade, was a union activist who ran for political office and won a seat in the New Mexico legislature in 1938. Dolores spent most of her childhood and early adult life in Stockton, California where she and her two brothers moved with their mother, following her parents’ divorce.

According to Dolores, her mother’s independence and entrepreneurial spirit was one of the primary reasons she became a feminist. Dolores’ mother Alicia was known for her kindness and compassion towards others. She offered rooms at affordable rates in her 70 room hotel, which she acquired after years of hard work. Alicia welcomed low-wage workers in the hotel, and often, waived the fee for them altogether. She was an active participant in community affairs, involved in numerous civic organizations and the church. Alicia encouraged the cultural diversity that was a natural part of Dolores’ upbringing in Stockton. The agricultural community where they lived was made up of Mexican, Filipino, African-American, Japanese and Chinese working families.

Alicia’s community activism influenced Dolores’ involvement as a student at Stockton High School. She was active in numerous school clubs, was a majorette, and a dedicated member of the Girl Scouts until the age of 18. Upon graduating, Dolores continued her education at the University of Pacific’s Delta College in Stockton earning a provisional teaching credential. During this time, she married Ralph Head and had two daughters, Celeste and Lori. While teaching, she could no longer bear to see her students come to school with empty stomachs and bare feet, and thus began her lifelong journey of working to correct economic injustice.

An Organizer is Born

Dolores found her calling as an organizer while serving in the leadership of the Stockton Community Service Organization (CSO). During this time, she founded the Agricultural Workers Association, set up voter registration drives and pressed local governments for barrio improvements. In 1955 CSO founder Fred Ross, Sr. introduced her to CSO Executive Director César E. Chávez, a likeminded colleague. The two soon discovered that they shared a common vision of organizing farm workers, an idea that was not in line with the CSO’s mission.

As a result, César and Dolores resigned from the CSO, and launched the National Farm Workers Association in the spring of 1962. Dolores’ organizing skills were essential to the growth of this budding organization. The challenges she faced as a woman did not go unnoted and in one of her letters to Cesar she joked…

“Being a now (ahem) experienced lobbyist, I am able to speak on a man-to-man basis with other lobbyists.”

The first testament to her lobbying and negotiating talents were demonstrated in securing Aid For Dependent Families (“AFDC”) and disability insurance for farm workers in the State of California in 1963, an unparalleled feat at the time. She was also instrumental in the enactment of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. This was the first law of its kind in the United States, granting farm workers in California the right to collectively organize and bargain for better wages and working conditions.

While the farm workers lacked financial capitol, they were able to wield significant economic power through hugely successful boycotts at the ballot box with grassroots campaigning. As the principal legislative advocate, Dolores became one of the UFW’s most visible spokespersons. Robert F. Kennedy acknowledged her in helping him secure the 1968 California Democratic Presidential Primary just moments before he was shot in Los Angeles. Throughout the years, she has worked to elect numerous candidates including President Clinton, Congressman Ron Dellums, Governor Jerry Brown, Congresswoman Hilda Solis and Hillary Clinton.

 

Women’s Liberation

As much as she was Cesar’s right hand she could also be the greatest thorn in his side. The two were infamous for their blow out arguments an element that was a natural part of their working relationship. Dolores viewed this as a healthy and necessary part of the growth process of any worthwhile collaboration. While Dolores was busy breaking down one gender barrier after another, she was seemingly unaware of the tremendous impact she was having on, not only farm worker woman but also young women everywhere.

While directing the first National Boycott of California Table Grapes out of New York she came into contact with Gloria Steinem and the burgeoning feminist movement who rallied behind the cause. Quickly she realized they shared much in common. Having found a supportive voice with other feminists, Dolores consciously began to challenge gender discrimination within the farm workers’ movement.

Non-Violence Is Our Strength

Early on, Dolores advocated for the entire family’s participation in the movement. After all it was men, women and children together out in the fields picking, thinning and hoeing. Thus the practice of non-violence was not only a philosophy but a very necessary approach in providing for the safety of all. Her life and the safety of those around her were in jeopardy on countless occasions. The greatest sacrifice to the movement was made by five martyrs all of whom she knew personally.

At age 58 Dolores suffered a life-threatening assault while protesting against the policies of then presidential candidate George Bush in San Francisco. A baton-wielding officer broke four ribs and shattered her spleen. Public outrage resulted in the San Francisco Police Department changing its policies regarding crowd control and police discipline and Dolores was awarded an out of court settlement.
Following a lengthy recovery she took a leave of absence from the union to focus on women’s rights. She traversed the country for two years on behalf of the Feminist Majority’s Feminization of Power: 50/50 by the year 2000 Campaign encouraging Latina’s to run for office. The campaign resulted in a significant increase in the number of women representatives at the local, state and federal levels. She also served as National Chair of the 21st Century Party founded in 1992 on the principles that women make up 52% of the party’s candidates and that officers must reflect the ethnic diversity of the nation.

 

Her Second Wind

At 91, Dolores Huerta continues to work tirelessly developing leaders and advocating for the working poor, women, and children. As founder and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, she travels across the country engaging in campaigns and influencing legislation that supports equality and defends civil rights. She often speaks to students and organizations about issues of social justice and public policy.

There are thousands of working poor immigrants in the agriculture rich San Joaquin Valley of California. They are unfamiliar with laws or agencies that can protect them or benefits that they are entitled to. They are often preyed upon by unscrupulous individuals who take advantage of them. They often feel hopeless and unable to remedy their situations.

Dolores teaches these individuals that they have personal power that needs to be coupled with responsibility and cooperation to create the changes needed to improve their lives.

It is rarely practiced today because it is tedious and time consuming. However, the results are long lasting and while people are in the process of building organization, they are learning lessons they will never forget and the transformative roots are planted. The fruit is the leadership that is developed and the permanent changes in the community. In other words, this is how grass roots democracy works.

Recognitions And Awards

There are four elementary schools in California, one in Fort Worth, Texas, and a high school in Pueblo, Colorado named after Dolores Huerta.

She was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in March of 2013. She has received numerous awards: among them The Eleanor Roosevelt Humans Rights Award from President Clinton in l998, Ms. Magazine’s One of the Three Most Important Women of l997, Ladies Home Journal’s 100 Most Important Woman of the 20th Century, The Puffin Foundation’s Award for Creative Citizenship: Labor Leader Award 1984, The Kern County Woman of The Year Award from the California State Legislature, The Ohtli Award from the Mexican Government, The Smithsonian Institution – James Smithson Award, and Nine Honorary Doctorates from Universities throughout the United States.

In 2012 President Obama bestowed Dolores with her most prestigious award, The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Upon Stocktonreceiving this award Dolores said, “The freedom of association means that people can come together in organization to fight for solutions to the problems they confront in their communities. The great social justice changes in our country have happened when people came together, organized, and took direct action. It is this right that sustains and nurtures our democracy today. The civil rights movement, the labor movement, the women’s movement, and the equality movement for our LGBT brothers and sisters are all manifestations of these rights. I thank President Obama for raising the importance of organizing to the highest level of merit and honor.”

 

 

Kimberlé W. Crenshaw is a pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights, critical race theory, Black feminist legal theory, and race, racism and the law. In addition to her position at Columbia Law School, she is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. 

Crenshaw’s work has been foundational in "critical race theory" and in "intersectionality,” a term she coined to describe the double bind of simultaneous racial and gender prejudice. Her studies, writing, and activism have identified key issues in the perpetuation of inequality, including the “school to prison pipeline” for African American children and the criminalization of behavior among Black teenage girls. Through the Columbia Law School African American Policy Forum (AAPF), which she co-founded, Crenshaw co-authored (with Andrea Ritchie) Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women, which documented and drew attention to the killing of Black women and girls by police. Crenshaw and AAPF subsequently launched the #SayHerName campaign to call attention to police violence against Black women and girls.

Crenshaw is a sought-after speaker and conducts workshops and trainings. She is also the co-author of Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Underprotected. Her writing has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the National Black Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, and the Southern California Law Review. She is a founding coordinator of the Critical Race Theory workshop and co-editor of Critical Race Theory: Key Documents That Shaped the Movement. In 1981, she assisted on the legal team of Anita Hill during her testimony at the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Crenshaw writes regularly for The New Republic, The Nation, and Ms. and provides commentary for media outlets, including MSNBC and NPR, and hosts the podcast Intersectionality Matters! In addition to frequent speaking engagements, training sessions, and town halls, Crenshaw has facilitated workshops for human rights activists in Brazil and in India and for constitutional court judges in South Africa. She serves on the Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academies of Science.

Crenshaw’s groundbreaking work on intersectionality was influential in the drafting of the equality clause in the South African Constitution. She authored the background paper on race and gender discrimination for the United Nations’ World Conference on Racism in 2001, served as the rapporteur for the conference’s expert group on gender and race discrimination, and coordinated NGO efforts to ensure the inclusion of gender in the WCAR Conference Declaration.
Education:
LL.M., University of Wisconsin, 1985
J.D., Harvard Law School, 1984
B.A., Cornell University, 1981
Honors and Awards:
Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law
Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize 2017
Lucy Terry Prince Unsung Heroine Award
Fulbright Distinguished Chair for Latin America
Alphonse Fletcher Fellowship 2008-2009
In-residence Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Science at Stanford University 2008-2009
ACLU Ira Glasser Racial Justice Fellowship 2005-2007
Professor of the Year at UCLA Law School 1991, 1994
Kimberle W. Crenshaw Vitae
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw - Wikipedia

Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso – Celia Cruz – was born in 1925 in Barrio Santos Suarez in Havana, one of 4 children. In a career that spanned six decades, Celia became the “Queen of Salsa,” and was central to the genre’s rising popularity.

Celia was drawn to music from an early age. Legend has it that her first pair of shoes was actually a gift from a tourist for whom she sang. In addition to singing her siblings to sleep, Celia sang in school productions and community gatherings.
Her career began in earnest as a teenager, when her aunt and cousin took her to cabarets to perform. Although her father wanted her to become a teacher, she followed her heart and chose music instead, studying voice, theory and piano at Havana’s National Conservatory of Music. In the late 1940’s, she competed on an amateur radio show contest called “The Tea Hour.” As a result of her growing radio fame, she came to the attention of influential producers and musicians.

She was hired as the singer for Las Mulatas Del Fuego, a dance group that traveled throughout Latin America. In 1950, she became the lead female singer for La Sonora Matancera, Cuba’s most popular orchestra. Over the next years with the orchestra, her star continued to rise.

Celia joined the Tito Puente Orchestra in the mid–1960’s. Her flamboyant attire and magnetic personality meteorically expanded the group’s fan base. The group was central to the new sound developing in the 1960s and ‘70s – music born of Cuban and Afro-Latin mixed musical tradition – which came to be known as “Salsa.” A new record label, “Fania,” was launched, devoted solely to the genre. In 1974, Celia joined the label and recorded “Celia y Johnny” with Johnny Pacheco. One of the album’s tracks, “Quimbera” became a signature song for her. Celia was the only woman in the Fania All Stars, and one of the few women to succeed in the male-dominated salsa world. She would go on to perform with the Willie Colon Orchestra and the Sonora Poncena, with Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez.

During Celia’s star-studded 60 years as a performer, she collaborated and performed with many musical legends around the world.

Celia was a true pioneer of AfroLatinidad, focusing on the African elements of her identity (music, lyrics and dress) at a time when it was not popular to do so. In 1974, Celia was one of a group of artists including B.B. King, James Brown, The Spinners, Bill Withers and Miriam Makeba that performed in Kinshasa, Zaire alongside top local groups. The concert was part of a three day festival, “Zaire ’74,” the brainchild of South African trumpeter High Masekela. The performance was supposed to precede the famous boxing match “Rumble in the Jungle” between George Foreman and Muhammed Ali. Just before the concert was scheduled to begin, Foreman injured his eye. The bout was pushed back six weeks, but the Show went on – and was brilliantly documented in the powerful film, “Soul Power.”

Over the course of an amazing career, Celia recorded more than 80 albums and songs, earned 23 Gold Records, and won five Grammy Awards. She performed with a wide range of celebrities, including Gloria Estefan, Dionne Warwick, Ismael Rivera and Wyclef Jean. In 1976, she participated in the documentary film “Salsa” with costars Dolores del Rio and Willie Colon (with whom she made three albums in 1977, 1981 and 1987). She also appeared in several Hollywood movies, including the popular 1992 film “The Mambo Kings.” She earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts by President Bill Clinton. Celia received honorary doctorates from Yale University and the University of Miami. A street in Miami was renamed in her honor. In 1994, Celia was inducted into Billboards Latin Music Hall of Fame with fellow Cuban musician Cachao Lopez. In 1999, she was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame. On July 16, 2002, Celia performed to a full house at New York’s Central Park Summer Stage. She died in New Jersey one year later in 2003, at the age of 77. Her songs, performances and spirit remain international treasures.

Celia’s trademark orange, red and white polka dot dress and shoes have been placed in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian. The exhibit pays tribute to Celia’s iconic style – her flamboyant costumes, brightly colored wigs, tight sequined dresses and perilously high heels.

Humor was also one of Celia’s trademarks. In a 1988 BBC Arena performance, she told the audience: “If your husband hits you, make sure you hit him back. If you can’t do it with your hand, hit him with the frying pan.”

In March 2003, Telemundo produced and aired a special tribute to Celia, entitled, “Celia Cruz: Azucar!” Hosted by Marc Anthony and Gloria Estefan, it featured performances by Jose Feliciano, Patti Labelle, Gilberto Santa Rose, Arturo Sandoval, Luis Enrique and Gloria Gaynor, to list a few.

In May 2005, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History opened the exhibit “Azucar!” celebrating key moments in Celia’s life and music. In March 2011, Celia was honored by the United States Postal Service with a commemorative postage stamp. Celia was one of a group of five stamps honoring Latin Music greats. Selena, Tito Puente, Carmen Miranda and Carlos Gardel joined Celia in this tribute.

Though she has been gone for 14 years, Celia is beloved in every corner of the globe. Poignantly, in a 1997 interview, she commented, “I have fulfilled my father’s wish to be a teacher as, through my music, I teach generations of people about my culture and the happiness that is found in just living life. As a performer, I want people to feel their hearts sing and their spirits soar.”

reprinted from celiacruz.com/biography/