Everyone in the gym stopped to watch, and Laurie started to feel shaky. She felt like she couldn’t move. But as she felt the beam under her feet, she had an idea. It felt a little strange at first, but she let the sound of her hands and feet hitting the beam mark the beat. She gave each twist, turn, and jump its own rhythm. And before she knew it, she had done her whole routine perfectly!
Laurie went on to do many perfect routines following her own beat. She made it all the way from her small gym in New Jersey to the Olympics, where she won silver and gold medals. And, since she had always loved to dance, she tried out for Dancing with the Stars and won that competition, too! Now, as she thinks of all of the wonderful possibilities for what she will do next, she feels strong knowing that she has everything she needs inside of herself. Whether she decides to compete a second time in the Olympics, goes on to become a dancer or an actress, or discovers a new path she hasn’t even dreamed up yet, she knows, as she decided that day for her first silent routine, “I got this!”
More Latinitas
There are so many stories of inspiring Latinas across the United States and throughout Latin America, and I wish I could write about them all! Here are just a few of the other Latinitas that I wanted to share with you. I hope they encourage you to discover even more on your own!
Leona Vicario
1789–1842
Leader in the war for independence and informant for the rebels. One of the first female journalists in Mexico.
Petronila Angélica Gómez
1883–1971
Leader of the first feminist organization and editor of the first feminist magazine in the Dominican Republic.
Hermelinda Urvina
1905–2008
First South American woman to become a pilot and join Amelia Earhart’s group named The Ninety-Nines.
Eva Perón
1919–1952
First lady of Argentina and activist who advocated for public services and was a strong supporter of workers’ rights.
Mirabal sisters
1924–1960
Rebel activists during President Trujillo’s regime in the Dominican Republic and whose assassination sparked a revolution.
Sylvia Mendez
1936–present
First Latina child to desegregate an all-white school in the United States after the 1948 landmark case Mendez v. Westminster.
Sara Gómez
1942–1974
First woman film director in Cuba and the first to show revolutionary Cuba through an Afro-Cuban perspective.
Verónica Michelle Bachelet
1951–present
First woman in South America to be democratically elected as president. Elected for two consecutive terms in Chile.
Gloria Estefan
1957–present
Winner of seven Grammy awards for her singing. She also works as a producer supporting Latinx talent.
Ellen Ochoa
1958–present
First Latina astronaut to go into space. Inventor with three different patents for optical systems technology.
Acknowledgments
I am so grateful to Macmillan for letting me spend the last year and a half getting to know these incredibly inspiring women and for the chance to bring this collection of stories to life. I am especially thankful to my brilliant and generous editor, Laura Godwin, who has polished away at my words to turn these stories into what she poetically calls “little gems,” and my talented designer, Liz Dresner, whose beautiful, thoughtful details fill every page of this book. Many thanks also to Mary Van Akin, Molly Ellis, Rachel Murray, Starr Baer, and the rest of the team at Godwin Books. I feel so honored to have gotten the chance to work with all of you!
None of this would have been possible without my wise agent and friend, Adriana Dominguez, who has poured so much love into this book from the very beginning, hopping on the phone day and night to talk about everything from Latinx identity politics to font colors to how I am doing.
Muchísimas, muchísimas gracias to Luis de León Díaz, who has been there for everything—from brainstorming ideas with me to helping me edit my Photoshop files to bringing me tecitos late into the night.
To my Irish American mother, who traveled back to the United States while pregnant with me so that I could one day be president, but could not be happier about me publishing this book. To my two older sisters, Lisa and Jessica Menéndez, who were my first role models and who I am still trying to live up to. To my Guatemalan father and his family of artists, who never told me my art was any good until it was. And to my friends whose excitement about this project has kept me going. Thank you!
An enormous thank-you to everyone who delved into this research long before I did. I particularly want to thank all of the Latinas who carefully guarded records, letters, photos, and documents, wrote their thesis dissertations on these women, and created beautiful documentaries to honor their spirits before they left us. A special thank-you to Balbina Herrera and Dania Batista, who generously took the time to send me treasured pieces of Gumercinda Páez’s story, and Emma Otheguy for her amazing insights.
Finally, I want to thank all the women on these pages, whose lives and work inspired me to make this book! I particularly want to thank the architect Susana Torre, who reached out to me in the beginning and whose enthusiasm and support of this project pushed me to make it happen. ¡Mil gracias!
Selected Sources
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Aguilar Salas, Lourdes. “Biografía [de Sor Juana Inés].” Ciudad de Mexico, n.d. http://ucsj.edu.mx/dec/sjm/documentos/biografiaLAS.pdf.
Arróniz, Marcos. 2018. Manual de Biografía Mejicana, ó Galería de Hombres Célebres de Méjico. Alicante: Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, 2018. http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/manual-de-biografia-mejicana-o-galeria-de-hombres-celebres-de-mejico-877891.
Bono, Ferran. “El amor sin tabúes entre sor Juana Inés de la Cruz y la virreina de Mexico.” El País, March 30, 2017. https://elpais.com/cultura/2017/03/29/actualidad/1490761165_233141.html.
Colchero, María Teresa. 2006. La Cultura En Movimiento. Puebla, Pue. [Meexico]: BUAP.
de la Cruz, Sor Juana Inés. Antología poética. Alianza Editorial, 2007.
________. El Sueño. n.d.
________. Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz. n.d. http://bibliotecadigital.tamaulipas.gob.mx/archivos/descargas/31000000339.PDF.
Elorza, Eva M. “Juana Ramírez de Asbaje (1648–1656). El paisaje de la infancia, horizonte inicial.” Euskonews, n.d. www.euskonews.com/0602zbk/gaia60201es.html.
Fuller, Amy. “A Mexican Martyr.” History Today, September 28, 2015. www.historytoday.com/amy-fuller/mexican-martyr.
Grupo Akai. 2019. “Vida De Juana Inés De La Cruz|.” NoCierresLosOjos.Com. August 8, 2019. http://www.nocierreslosojos.com/juana-ines-de-la-cruz-biografia/.
Long, Pamela H. “‘El caracol’: Music in the Works of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.” PhD diss., Tulane University, 1990. https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane:27540.
Mexico Desconocido. “Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: biografía de 1648–1695.” Mexico Desconocido, November 12, 2019. www.mexicodesconocido.com.mx/sor-juana-ines-de-la-cruz-1648-16951.html.
Morales, Talía. “Vida y obra de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.” Aion.mx, November 12, 2017. http://aion.mx/biografias/vida-y-obra-de-sor-juana-ines-la-cruz.
Vallès, Alejandro Soriano. “La inestimable primera biografía de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.” n.d. www.academia.edu/35500178/La_inestimable_primera_biografía_de_Sor_Juana_Inés_de_la_Cruz.
Vázquez, Graciela. “Monografía [Sor Juana].” n.d. http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/vazquez/vazquez/pdf/monografiaestudiante.pdf.
Juana Azurduy de Padilla
Humboldt Travel. “5 Latin American Women to Celebrate on International Women’s Day.” The Humboldt Current (blog), March 8, 2018. https://humboldttravel.co.uk/5-amazing-latin-american-women-celebrate-international-womens-day.
Márquez, Humberto. “Latin America: Women in History—More Than Just Heroines.” Interpress Service News Agency, September 8, 2009. http://www.ipsnews.net/2009/09/latin-america-women-in-history-more-than-just-heroines.
Museo Histórico Nacional de Argentina. “Juana Azurduy: la revolución con olor a jazmín.” Museo Histórico Nacional de Argentina, Accessed December 1, 2019. https://museohistoriconacional.cultura.gob.ar/noticia/juana-azurduy-la-revolucion-con-olor-a-jazmin.
O’Donnell, Pacho. 2017. Juana Azurduy. Debolsillo.
Policarpa Salavarrieta
Agaton, Carlos. “Colombia 1817: Las últimas palabras de la heroína ‘La Pola’ ante de sus verdugos.” Agaton (blog), November 14, 2017. https://carlosagaton.blogspot.com/2017/11/colombia-1817-las-ultimas-palabras-de.html.
Castro Carvajal, Beatriz. “‘La Pola’, una eterna heroína.” Semana, November 13, 2018. www.semana.com/nacio/articulo/historia-sobre-policarpa-salavarrieta-la-pola/540169.
Felipe, Andrés. “Biografía de Policarpa Salavarrieta.” Historia-Biografía.com, August 3, 2017. https://historia-biografia.com/policarpa-salavarrieta/.
Malaver, Carol. “Tras los orígenes de Policarpa luego de 200 años de su ejecución.” El Tiempo, December 22, 2017. www.eltiempo.com/bogota/libro-que-cuenta-la-historia-de-la-pola-luego-de-200-anos-de-su-ejecucion-164340.
Molano, Enrique Santos. “Una y mil muertes.” El Tiempo, November 17, 2017. https://www.eltiempo.com/opinion/columnistas/enrique-santos-molano/una-y-mil-muertes-bicentenario-de-la-muerte-de-la-pola-152076.
“Policarpa Salavarrieta.” Biografías y Vidas. www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/s/salavarrieta.html.
“Policarpa Salavarrieta.” La encyclopedia de Banrepcultural. http://enciclopedia.banrepcultural.org/index.php?title=Policarpa_Salavarrieta#Biograf.C3.ADa.
“Policarpa Salavarrieta Ríos.” Colombian Culture, Colombia Adoption, and Raising Colombian Kids (blog), May 4, 2009. http://raisingcolombiankids.blogspot.com/2009/05/policarpa-salavarrieta-rios.html.
Robledo, Beatriz Helena. ¡Viva La Pola! Instituto Distrital de las Artes—Idartes, 2009.
Rosa Peña de González
Rodríguez Alcalá de González Oddone, Beatriz. Rosa Peña. Academia Paraguaya de la Historia, 1970.
“Una cuestión de familia.” ABC Color, August 22, 2004. www.abc.com.py/edicion-impresa/suplementos/abc-revista/una-cuestion-de-familia-780910.html.
Teresa Carreño
Coifman, David. “Bajo la forma de un ángel.” Mundoclasico.com, December 22, 2011. www.mundoclasico.com/articulo/16593/%E2%80%9CBajo-la-forma-de-un-%C3%A1ngel%E2%80%9D.
Goedder, Carlos. “Centenario de Teresa Carreño.” Centro de Divulgación del Conocimiento Económico para la Libertad de Venezuela. http://cedice.org.ve/centenario-de-teresa-carreno-por-carlos-goedder/.
Gutiérrez, Jesús Eloy. La página de Teresa (blog). https://lapaginadeteresa.blogspot.com/.
“Idealism in Music Study: An Interview Secured Expressly for The Etude with Noted Piano Virtuoso Mme. Teresa Carreño.” The Etude, June 1917. https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1635&context=etude.
Kijas, Anna. Documenting Teresa Carreño (blog). https://documentingcarreno.org/resources.
Milinowski, Marta. Teresa Carreño, “by the Grace of God.” Forgotten Books, 2018.
Murley, Katherine. “History Hunt: Teresa Carreño.” Katherine Murley’s Music Studio Blog (blog), August 28, 2015. https://kamurley.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/history-hunt-teresa-carreno/.
Rojo, Violeta. “Teresa Carreño. Una Biografía Autoreferencial.” Universidad Simón Bolívar División de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Departamento de Lengua y Literatura, September 2006. https://studylib.es/doc/5873949/teresa-carre%C3%B1o-una-biograf%C3%ADa-autorreferencial.
“Teresa Carreño Plays Chopin Ballade No. 1 in G Minor Op. 23.” Posted by gullivior, October 8, 2010. YouTube video, 8:18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SCoheEblp0.
Wilson, G. Mark. “Teresa Carreño—Observations in Piano Playing.” The Etude, February 1914. https://etudemagazine.com/etude/1914/02/teresa-carreno---observations-in-piano-playing.html.
Zelia Nuttall
Adams, Amanda. Ladies of the Field: Early Women Archaeologists and Their Search for Adventure. Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2010.
Diderich, Peter. “Assessing Ross Parmenter’s Unpublished Biography about Zelia Nuttall and the Recovery of Mexico’s Past.” Newsletter of the History of Archaeology Interest Group, Society for American Archaeology 3, no. 3 and 4 (January 2013). https://www.saa.org/Portals/0/SAA/ABOUTSAA/interestgroups/haig/SAA%20HAIG%20newsletter_v3_no3.pdf.
Nuttall, Zelia. “The Terracotta Heads of Teotihuacan.” The American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts 2 (April 1, 1886). https://archive.org/stream/jstor-495843/495843#page/n1/mode/2up.
Tozzer, Alfred M. “Zelia Nuttall Obituary.” American Anthropologist (July–September 1933). http://www.americanethnography.com/article.php?id=40.
Valiant, Seonaid. Ornamental Nationalism: Archaeology and Antiquities in Mexico, 1876–1911. Brill, n.d.
Yount, Lisa. A to Z of Women in Science and Math. New York: Facts on File, 2007.
Antonia Navarro
Cañas Dinarte, Carlos. “Ella es la primera mujer universitaria de Centroamérica.” Noticias de El Salvador, September 21, 2018. www.elsalvador.com/entretenimiento/cultura/520777/ella-es-la-primera-mujer-universitaria-de-centroamerica.
________. “La primera abogada de El Salvador.” Diario El Mundo, April 1, 2019. https://elmundo.sv/la-primera-abogada-de-el-salvador.
Hernández, Rosarlin. “Antonia Navarro, la mujer del presente.” Séptimo Sentido, March 19, 2017. https://7s.laprensagrafica.com/antonia-navarro-la-mujer-del-presente.
Ligia. “Antonia Navarro, la primera mujer en obtener un título universitario en El Salvador.” Qué Joder (blog), December 16, 2018. https://quejoder.wordpress.com/2018/12/16/antonia-navarro-la-primera-mujer-en-obtener-un-titulo-universitario-en-el-salvador.
Wollants, Mirella. “¿Sabemos realmente qué es educación?” Elsalvador.com, December 22, 2018. https://historico.eldiariodehoy.com/historico-edh/100992/sabemos-realmente-que-es-educacion.html.
Matilde Hidalgo
Benítez Correa, Carmen Delia. “Matilde hidalgo, la mujer que creyó en los derechos de las mujeres.” In Locas: escritoras y personajes femeninos cuestionando las normas, pp. 131–44. Arcibel, 2015. https://idus.us.es/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11441/54699/Pages%20from%20libro%20locas-5.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
Clark, A. Kim. Gender, State, and Medicine in Highland Ecuador: Modernizing Women, Modernizing the State, 1895–1950. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012.
Estrada Ruíz, Jenny. Una mujer total: Matilde Hidalgo de Procel. La Cemento Nacional, 1997.
“Matilde Hidalgo abrió las puertas de una sociedad equitativa en Ecuador.” Ministerio de Salud Pública de Ecuador. www.salud.gob.ec/matilde-hidalgo-abrio-las-puertas-de-una-sociedad-equitativa-en-ecuador/.
“Matilde Hidalgo de Procel.” Octubre Noviolento. https://noviolento.wordpress.com/personajes-de-la-noviolencia/matilde-hidalgo-de-procel-2/.
Gabriela Mistral
“About Gabriela Mistral.” Gabriela Mistral Foundation. www.gabrielamistralfoundation.org/web/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=15.
“Biografía y 15 poemas de Gabriela Mistral.” Archivo Chile, Centro de Estudios Miguel Enriquez. www.archivochile.com/Cultura_Arte_Educacion/gm/d/gmde0004.pdf.
Daydí-Tolson, Santiago. “Gabriela Mistral.” Poetry Foundation. www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/gabriela-mistral.
“Documental ‘Volveré Olvidada o Amada … Tal como Dios Me Hizo’ (2014)|Museo Gabriela Mistral.” Posted by Gabriela Mistral Vicuña, January 9, 2018. YouTube video, 51:21. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXx6ZsvdhfM.
Figueroa, Lorena. “Tierra, indio, mujer: Pensamiento social de Gabriela Mistral / Lorena Figueroa, Keiko Silva, Patricia Vargas.” Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. www.cervantesvirtual
.com/obra-visor/tierra-indio-mujer-pensamiento-social-de-gabriela-mistral--0/html/ff1be9f4-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_40.html#l_1_.
“Gabriela Mistral.” EcuRed. www.ecured.cu/Gabriela_Mistral.
García-Gorena, Velma, ed. and trans. Gabriela Mistral’s Letters to Doris Dana. University of New Mexico Press, 2018.
“Historias de vida—Gabriela Mistral.” Posted by Raridades, January 17, 2017. YouTube video, 26:43. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMAj7taYn4s.
“Lea la última entrevista que Doris Dana concedió a Revista El Sábado en 2002.” Emol, January 9, 2007. www.emol.com/noticias/magazine/2007/01/09/241650/lea-la-ultima-entrevista-que-doris-dana-concedio-a-revista-el-sabado-en-2002.html.
Mora, Carmen. “Mistral y las vanguardias.” Centro Virtual Cervantes. https://cvc.cervantes.es/literatura/escritores/mistral/acerca/acerca_02.htm.
Sepúlveda Vásquez, Carola. “Gabriela Mistral: tácticas de una maestra viajera.” Revista Colombiana de Educación 61 (February 13, 2011): 281–97. https://doi.org/10.17227/01203916.864.
Latinitas Page 5