Who is She? 16-Hazel Ying Lee
Sources: hazelyinglee.com/main.html (Site), Wikipedia (site), www.mocanyc.org
Sources: hazelyinglee.com/main.html (Site), Wikipedia (site), www.mocanyc.org
Antonia Hernandez is an attorney based in Los Angeles who now runs the California Community Foundation. She is the daughter of Mexican immigrants from Coahuila, Mexico. She graduate from Garfield high school in East LA, and went on to get her law degree from UCLA in 1971. She quickly began using her degree to fight for the rights of Latinxs in East Los. I found out about her through the ground breaking documentary “No Mas Bebes” about Mexican mothers who were sterilized against their will or without their knowledge. Antonia with several of the women who were victims of this practice sued in a landmark case that would make it illegal to perform such activites without a bilingual representative and the documents in the mothers native language. Later Antonia would become a part of MALDEF-the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. There she would work over 20 years fighting for immigration, language, voting, and healthcare rights for Latinxs nationally. From an early age she was involved in boycotts for the UFW and attended many protests. She is a fighter and has been awarded many times for her work.
Sources: CalFund.org (site), Prof.chicanas.com/ (site)
Emily Pilloton is a designer from the Bay Area who founded a non profit organization that teaches design, engineering, construction, and problem solving called “Project H“. As her bio reads, she was inspired by the fictional TV maverick/problem solver with a toothbrush and a wire; MacGyver! She studied architecture and building, and went on to work on design projects that were not only beautiful, but served a purpose. Some of her projects include building water drums with folks in Africa-BUT, I don’t get the vibe from her that she’s going in and solving people’s problems or viewing anyone as less than or poor. Rather, she is going in and working with people, combining their knowledge and hers to collaborate on a design solution to a problem. Take for instance, the classes her organization currently teaches in Berkeley to empower young girls and their mothers to build!! By putting a drill in their hands she is shifting minds and breaking expectations. I found out about her through the documentary “If you build it” which followed her and designer Matthew Miller as they revolutionized what a high school class could be, by building things with their hands, engaging students, and inspiring new ideas about who they could be.
Sources: If you build it (documentary), Ted Talk (video), Lecture CIDIM (video)
The Gulabi Gang is a group of women in Uttar Pradesh India who are activists for women’s and human rights. The group was started by a woman named Sampat Pal Devi who was fed up with being mistreated by her family after being married off as a teen. The gang started with her seeing a man beat his wife. When she tried to stop him, he hit her as well so she came back with a heavy wooden stick and many other women to hit back. News spread that she was willing to fight back and women around her way began to ask her for help. Slowly, case by case other women started to join her and they began to wear pink (Gulabi) sari’s to signify their unity together. Sampat began helping women dealing with abuse, fights, and family disputes. Many things would go unchecked by local police but she has been proven to challenge her local police as well. And now because she fights back and teaches other women to fight the men give her more respect. Now the work of the Gulabi Gang extends to helping people get employment, fixing roads, and fighting for women’s empowerment and education. The crew has earned several awards in India and internationally and continues to inspire, now through video stories done by International media. They walk through the streets chanting and are now thousands strong!
Sources: http://www.gulabigangofficial.in/ (site) , “The Unstopabble Indians (video)
My wife told me about the Trung Sisters the other day and I had to draw them. The Trung Sisters were from Vietnam and are folk heroes there still to this day for fighting back against China. From what I’ve read they were alive around the time of 40 AD and not much is known understandably about their birth. What is known is that the Chinese were invading what was part of Vietnam back then and controlling the people of the area. These two sisters, fed up with this organized their own army which the Chinese Government underestimated. Thinking two women could not organize an army formidable enough to fight back, they were surprised when the sisters were able to organize thousands with many female generals leading them to kick the Chinese out of their area. The twins would and the Vietnamese would lose control three years later, but they fought back and are a part of a larger legacy in Vietnam of fighting against oppression and rule.
sources: Wikipedia (website), and “Trung Sisters History” by Tiffany Dang (youtube)
Pura Belpre was NYC’s first Puerto Rican librarian. She was a storyteller, educator, and a pioneer in library programming and learning for children. She was born in 1899 in Puerto Rico and came to the US in 1920. In 1921 she began working in the New York City public library system. She has been called a pioneer because of her outreach to the Latino community offering programming in spanish. She founded a mobile puppet company that went around the neighborhood performing her stories. She looked for and purchased books in spanish for the library when multicultural literature was not a thing. As a storyteller she brought stories from her country like “Perez y Martina” and shared them with the children uptown, while also translating them and publishing them in books for the first time. Because of the amazing work she did as an advocate for literacy and education in the community an award has been named in her honor by the American Library Association. I did not hear a single thing about Ms Belpre until I was in my 30’s. But, her dedication to engaging children and getting them to read inspires me. And I hope that more about her life is uncovered and that we as kids and adults learn about stories like hers. Check out the book “The Storyteller’s candle” and the documentary by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College called “Pura Belpre” https://vimeo.com/30837106
Sources: Wikipedia (website) and “Colorin Colorado” (blog)
Did you see the image of Arturo Schomburg?
Mrs Judo as they called her lived from 1913 to 2013. She was born and raised in Japan and came to the US in 1966 establishing her own dojo in San Francisco. She began her study in martial arts at the age of 21 and had over 70 years experience as a practitioner and then teacher of Judo. She was the highest ranking woman in Judo history (10th degree blackbelt). She was the last living student of Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo. As a martial artist, and as an unmarried woman she faced much struggle, sexism, and strife from traditionalists. But through it all she lead the life that she wanted to live and taught many many people. She started Keiko Fukuda Joshi Judo Camp the first Judo camp dedicated to women.
Source: http://keikofukudajudofoundation.org/