Mujeres de Resistencia

Mujeres de
Resistencia
Lindsay
Community School
Lolita Lebron
born November 19, 1919, Lolita was an fervent
advocate for Puerto Rican independence. She
was born and raised in Puerto Rico and later
migrated to New York City, where she joined
the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, gaining
influence within the party's leadership and
promoting ideals based on socialist and
feminist principles. In 1952, after Puerto
Rico's official status was changed to
"Commonwealth", she participated in a series
of revolutionary actions including the Jayuya
Uprising. She served 25 years in a U.S. prison
fighting for Puerto Rico·s independence, and
later upon release, returned to the island
where her Navy - Vieques protests and pro-
pro -
independence activities continue today.
Josefa Loaiza
When gold was discovered by Francisco Lopez in California
shortly after the U.S. theft of Mexican territory,
thousands of Anglos rushed there to get rich. In
Downieville,, a small gold-
Downieville gold - country town, a Mexicana
named Josefa lived with her husband Jose, but her
beauty drew much unwanted attention from white
prospectors. On July 4, 1851 many white miners spent
the holiday getting drunk until 7am. An Anglo miner
went to Josefa·s house with friends; her door was
knocked down and the man verbally assaulted her and
attempted physical assault. Later that day, he was
found stabbed to death. A bloodthirsty mob gathered the
next day, accused Josefa of murder and she was put on
trial, found guilty and executed (despite being
pregnant). Josefa was hanged on a bridge over a river.
Observers commented on her dignity and fearlessness as
she climebed the scaffold voluntarily and adjusted the
rope so it lay free of her hair. She fearlessly refused to
repent.
Digna Ochoa
Born in 1964 in Veracruz, Mexico, Digna first studied
to be a nun, but later earned her law degree. Her
first case concerned human rights violations,
involving the illegal detention and torture of
several peasants by Mexican police. After receiving
death threats for her work,, Ochoa was kidnapped,
tortured and finally released. For the safety of her
family, she left for MexicoCity to finish studying
human rights law and took on some of Mexico·s
most controversial cases, including defense of
members of the Zapatista insurgency in Chiapas,
anti-- logging environmentalists, and smaller cases
anti
devoted to worker and peasant rights. After being
kidnapped, beaten, raped and released with
warnings about her work, Digna continued her
human rights activism and publicizing of the causes
she championed. On October 19, 2001, Digna was
found shot to death in her office³
office ³ she was 37 years
old³
old ³ her killers have yet to be prosecuted.
Juana Belén Gutiérrez
de Mendoza
Born 1975 in San Juan del Rio, Durango, Juana was a
typographer, radical journalist and poet who spent most
of her life writing about and against repressive
government regimes. In May 1901, she founded the
anti-- Diaz newspaper µµVésper
anti Vésperµ,
µ, in which she attacked
the clergy, wrote against foreign domination in Mexico,
and criticized Diaz for not carrying out the requests of
the people of Mexico. As a result, her newspaper was
confiscated and she was jailed several times between
1904 and 1920. However, her subversive writings were
not to be stopped, and she established another
newspaper titled ´El Desmonte
Desmonteµµ and continued her
activist work. She fought for the rights of peasant
workers to vote, encouraged them to become politically
active, arguing that the Mexican population could not
count on the leadership of current political parties to
protect their interests. Despite constant harassment
and intimidation throughout her life, Juana never
stopped writing about and acting against injustice.
Rigoberta Menchu
Born 9 January 1959, Chimel,

Chimel , Quiché, Guatemala an
indigenous Guatemalan, of the Quiché-
Quiché - Mayan ethnic group.
Menchú has dedicated her life to publicizing the plight of
Guatemala's indigenous peoples during and after the
Guatemalan Civil War (1960-
(1960 - 1996), and to promoting
indigenous rights in the country.
After her family members were arrested, tortured and killed
by the army, Rigoberta joined the Committee of the Peasant
Union where she led strikes for better conditions for farm
workers. Later, she joined the radical 31st of January
Popular Front for which she educated indigenous peasant
populations in resistance to massive military oppression.
Responding to death threats/attempts, Menchu fled
Guatemala and became an international organizer of
resistance to oppression in Guatemala and the struggle for
Indian peasant peoples· rights. She is widely known as a
leading advocate of indigenous rights and ethno-
ethno - cultural
reconciliation³
reconciliation ³ work which has earned her several
international awards. She is the subject of the testimonial
biography I, Rigoberta Menchú (1983) and the author of the
autobiographical work, Crossing Borders.
Borders .
Assata Shakur
Born in 1947 in New York City, Shakur changed the face
of the Black revolutionary in the U.S.³
U.S. ³ she brought
Black women to the forefront of the Black Liberation
Movement, stating ´ Black women will never be free
unless Black women participate in every aspect of our
struggle, on every level of our struggle!µ She also
lived by the tenet that any community concerned with
its own liberation, had to be concerned with all
peoples· freedom. Assata took militant stances against
racism, the U.S. prison system, capitalism and
inequalities in education³
education ³ activities that earned her a
place on the FBI COINTELPRO watchlist and
subjected her to constant police harassment. During
her involvement with the Black Panthers, she was
accused of murder, incarcerated, beaten and tortured
in a series of federal and state prisons. In 1979, she
escaped prison and lived underground until 1986,
when she was granted political asylum in Cuba, where
she resides today. Her resolve to persevere remains as
she continues her activist work from Cuba, and her
struggle continues to inspire revolutionary activists
worldwide.
Dolores Jimenez y Muro
Born in 1848 in Aguascalientes, Dolores Jimenez y Muro was a

schoolteacher, poet, journalist and radical activist. A strong
supporter of Emiliano Zapata and the Revolution, Muro wrote
part of the ´Political and Social Planµ - which demanded improved
working conditions, better wages, maximum hours of work, and
educational reform. Muro was the editor for ´La Mujer
Mexicanaµ and ´Las Hijas de Cuauhtemoc
Cuauhtemocµµ and increased her
activism despite frequent arrests and jailings.
jailings . Her contributions
pushed her into leadership positions where she took a strong
stand for decentralizing Mexico·s educational system, which
allowed schools to be locally controlled and run by the people.
She also fought ardently for housing reforms, particularly
affordable housing for poor and working classes, and called for
the restitution of lands to indigenous people. Importantly, she
sought changes to improve the living conditions of women and
increase the wages of women to be comparable to that of men.
She convinced Revolutionary leadership of the economic
contributions of women, and thus, ensured that their voices were
heard in further decisions of economic reform.
Fannie Lou Hamer
Born October 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi,
the last of twenty children born to sharecroppers. For
more than half her life, Hamer was a rural agricultural
worker who saw no end to the cycle of poverty and
humiliation that was the life of a sharecropper.
However, after attending a Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee meeting in 1962, Hamer was
determined to change conditions for African Americans
in the South. She participated in and led several
marches, demonstrations and voter registration drives
for which she lost her jobs and received numerous
death threats. After being charged with disorderly
conduct for refusing to go along with a restaurant·s
´whites onlyµ policy, Hamer was beaten so badly in jail,
she was left permanently disabled. In addition to
forming the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, she
was a catalyst in the development of various programs
to aid the poor in her community.
Lindsay School Girls
Known for their extreme
beauty and intelligence,
the girls of Lindsay
Community School have
continually struggled
against continued racism,
oppression and negative
stereotypes. Not only have
they overcome societal
discrimination, but they do
so with determination and
grace to ensure their own
survival and the success of
their children. They are
tasked with the most
important responsibility in
our communites:
communites : the
raising of our children, our
future. They are strong
examples of mujeres de
resistencia and we honor
them today!

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Mujeres de

Born 9 January 1959, Chimel,

Born in 1848 in Aguascalientes, Dolores Jimenez y Muro was a

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