Gloria Anzaldúa was a Chicana poet, author, and activist, who used words to convey her experience as a LGBTQ woman growing up on the Mexico/Texas border in her most famous work, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Her visibility made others feel visible and represented during a time when that was extremely rare in literature. Anzaldúa also tackles themes including border culture, Chicanx culture, feminism, mestizaje, queer theory, and spirituality.

She also was in charge of their East L.A. Free Clinic, which offered free services including drug addiction counseling, immunizations, physical exams, STI screenings, abortions, and surgical procedures to the community, especially those who were undocumented. However, she soon became disillusioned by the organization’s machismo attitudes, which enabled men to believe women could only work the clinic and volunteer, while they did the “important work.” She persuaded other female Brown Berets to form their own support group known as “Las Adelitas de Aztlán.” Together with other activists, she advocated for better bilingual education in L.A. for Latinx youth, protested against the Vietnam War, and fought for Chicano rights for all. Later in life, she worked closely with the Tongva people of Los Angeles as a community health advocate and representative. She passed in 2024 and has been celebrated for her significance to many East L.A. communities.  Gloria Arellanes worked with the Neighborhood Adult Participation Project, was the Minister of Finance and Correspondence of the Chicano Brown Berets (at their founding East L.A. chapter, where she also edited their La Causa newspaper), served as the administrator at the El Barrio Free Clinic, and was also a member of the National Chicano Moratorium Committee. In addition to all this, Arellanes also co-founded the Chicana civil rights organization La Adelitas de Atzlan.

SPARC’s first project involved young people as co-creators of one of the largest murals in the United States—The Great Wall of Los Angeles. Baca’s artworks represent the stories not just of Mexican Americans, but all the people who have contributed to U.S. history but have been disenfranchised from it, including African and Asian Americans, Indigenous peoples, and others. She is deeply interested in creating equitable public spaces that honor community memories and uplift neighbors.

She also became involved with the Political Association of Spanish Speaking Organizations (PASSO), worked with the farm workers movement, co-formed Texans for Educational Advancement for Mexican Americans (TEAMS), helped found Jacinto Trevino College, co-founded  Mujeres por La Raza Unida, co-founded the Texas Women’s Political Caucus, and founded the non-profit Chicana Research and Learning Center. She and other educators formed Texans for Educational Advancement for Mexican Americans, which helped support striking students organized by the Mexican American Youth Organization. In 1970, she helped to found Jacinto Trevino College, which prepared Mexican American teachers for bilingual classrooms. She worked with the Raza Unida Party and the Texas Women’s Political Caucus for political advancement of Chicano and Hispanic issues. In 1974, she founded the Chicana Research and Learning Center, which helped secure grants for community projects centering women of color.  Her first published work “Diosa Y Hembra” focuses on this important archival work, uncovering the lost, erased, and hidden histories of Chicanas and combating the myth that history belongs only to men.

Known as “Hermanas de la Revolución Mexicana,” the group inspired Flores to advocate for women’s rights in politics, labor, and daily domestic life. After leaving the sanatorium, she joined the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee, which was working to help 12 young Mexican American men falsely convicted of murder in what became known as the Sleepy Lagoon trial. She later helped found the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA) and the Comisión Femenil Mexicana Nacional, the first national Chicana feminist organization in the United States. Through the organization, she was able to open a job trading center, two bilingual daycare centers, a shelter for domestic violence victims, and 20 chapters across the state. She also served as the editor of Regeneración, a Mexican feminist magazine where she wrote about Chicana women’s struggles and oppression under the community’s patriarchy. Today, she continues to be remembered as a groundbreaking Chicana feminist who worked to liberate her fellow Chicana women through reproductive rights, education, and labor rights. 

She continues to pilot the app and fundraise for its development, and she advocates for more tech solutions to challenges that affect the Latinx community through her Latina Legacy Foundation.  Through her own experience with Calor, Florez encourages other young Latinas to become advocates for their community.  “I would urge them to not be afraid of taking risks, and doing things that aren’t necessarily their interest,” she said. “It is difficult to navigate different aspects of your life but go for it. It pays off in the end.” 

The organization, also known by the Twitter hashtags #NeverAgain, and #EnoughIsEnough, staged protests demanding legislative action to be taken to prevent similar shootings in the future and has vocally condemned U.S. lawmakers who have received political contributions from the National Rifle Association (NRA). It was credited in the Washington Post as winning a “stunning victory” against the NRA in the Florida legislature in March 2018 when both houses voted for various gun control measures. The law increased funding for school security and raised the required age to buy a gun from 18 to 21.

In 1974, she became the only woman, and fifth member of the Chicano artist collective Los Four. Judithe also collaborated with El Teatro Campesino, advocated for the United Farm Workers, and was a member of the Concilio de Arte Popular (CAP), all with fellow Los Four member, friend, and collaborator Carlos Almaraz.  Art and activism has always gone hand in hand. Bold visuals depict injustices happening in the barrios, heroes helping to create change, and the hope that keeps us going. 

By leading boycotts, picketing, protesting, and grassroots engagement, Dolores was instrumental in bringing about legislation that protects some of the most vulnerable of America’s immigrant working population. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. 

Her work gained momentum when she founded Zero Hour in 2017 and led a youth climate march on Washington DC. Jamie also played a role in the most recent Global Climate Strikes, and testified before Congress about the impact of growing up under the looming threat of the climate crisis.

She has written several works, including 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures and De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century. Martinez also worked for the United States Secretariat researching colonization and decolonization in Africa, served with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC; one of only two Latinas), and co-founded a newspaper to support the Alianza Federal de Mercedes called El Grito Del Norte. The list goes on, she also co-founded and directed the Chicano Communications Center and taught Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies at Hayward State. 

The case centered on young Mendez, who was rejected by a “Whites only” elementary school in the Westminster School District of Orange County, CA. Her parents, Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez were from Puerto Rico and Mexico, respectively. When Sylvia and her brother were denied entry into the local elementary school because of the color of their skin, while their lighter skin cousins without Hispanic last names were allowed entry, they appealed to the school board and finally took the matter to court. They became vocal advocates in their community to push for change. They won their court case and Sylvia and her brother were allowed to enroll in the school, becoming one of the first Latinos to attend a whites only school in California, although they still would face bullying and hate once they were in. Sylvia persevered, obtaining her higher education and becoming a nurse. Her court case would set a crucial precedent for desegregation legislation and is credited with helping to end desegregation in California.

In 2015, she organized the first national trans anti-violence protest that brought together over 100 activists, mostly trans women of color, to address the epidemic of violence trans communities face. Isa also founded and works as a national advocate with El/La Para TransLatinas, an organization for transgender Latinas that works to “build collective vision and action to promote survival and improve TransLatinas’ quality of life” in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Her inspirational journey includes a 30-year career with NASA and serving as Johnson Space Center’s first Hispanic director. As a physicist and astronaut, she has inspired many to follow in her footsteps.

She was a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement. She believed in the necessity and importance of using the Spanish language in both education and politics in order to reach wider audiences.  In 1917, Otero-Warren was appointed Superintendent of Public Schools in Santa Fe County. She focused on improving the conditions of Hispanic and Native American communities. She criticized the federal government’s Indian school system and argued both English and Spanish should be allowed in schools.

The song does not mention her combat role because the government did not want to acknowledge female participation in the Revolution. She received much less money than the men she fought beside and was impoverished for the rest of her life. The barriers to equality came down only in wartime, and then for only a very short time.

Throughout her life, she fought against the exclusion of transgender people, especially transgender people of color, from the larger movement for gay rights.  The Sylvia Rivera Law Project continues her legacy, working to guarantee “all people are free to self-determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination, or violence.”  

She inspired revolutionaries as a poet, feminist, and political activist. She was a strong champion for the independence of Puerto Rico and wrote the original lyrics of the Puerto Rican revolutionary anthem. 

A reproductive rights and public health advocate, she worked to increase access to quality healthcare for women and children. She also fought to abolish forced sterilization. She was the first Latina to serve as president of the American Public Health Association. In 2001, she received a Presidential Citizen’s Medal for her work in public health and AIDS advocacy.

The Latina Network, a committee of the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, gave their Lifetime Achievement Award to Adaljiza Sosa-Riddell, UC Davis senior lecturer and director of the Chicana/o studies program, for her contributions toward the advancement of Latinas in the public and private sectors. Sosa-Riddell founded the UC Davis Chicana/Latina Research Institute.

Talamantez was a co-founder of Chicano Park and a co-founder of the Chicano Park Steering Committee on April 22, 1970. Over the next 20 years, and with Talamantez’s activism, many pieces of artwork were added, including more than 70 murals by Chicano artists from across California, making the Park the largest collection of murals in the United States. 

After graduating high school, she secured a job in the U.S. attorney’s office, where she became the only and first Mexican American in the Justice Department. She worked to ensure fair trials for Chicano folks in the court system. Later, she served as the assistant director of SER (Service, Employment, and Redevelopment) to help her community get jobs and secure labor rights. While living in Vincent Ranch, she also founded her own newspaper known as El Grito del Norte where she ran her own political column to spread awareness to her community about different issues in the Chicano movement and around the world. When law enforcement claimed the group was training guerilla soldiers at the ranch, she was tailed by police, their library was burned down, and she and other members were frequently doxxed. However, she persevered, and worked as a journalist, traveled around the world, and became an advocate for socialism and cultural pride. To this day, she continues to write and paint, creating murals that celebrate her community. 

Vázquez later joined the staff at Proyecto ContraSIDA Por Vida (Project for Life Against AIDS). Proyecto (1993–2005) was a Latinx HIV-prevention organization in San Francisco’s Mission District.  “She was one of the people who was [breaking] ceilings, being the first trans Latina to do a bunch of things, including talking for the first time in front of the Human Rights Commission to advocate for trans people in hospices,” said writer Julian Delgado Lopera in a speech at San Francisco Pride’s Ken Jones Awards earlier this year, when Vázquez received the José Sarria History Maker award.