Luisa Moreno (August 30, 1907 – November 4, 1992) was a leader in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
labor movement and a social
activist. She unionized workers, led strikes, wrote pamphlets in
English
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* English people
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* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
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and
Spanish
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**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
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, and convened the 1939 ''Congreso de Pueblos de Habla Española'', the "first national Latino civil rights assembly", before returning to Guatemala in 1950.
Early life
Moreno was born Blanca Rosa López Rodríguez to a wealthy family in
Guatemala City
Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne ...
, Guatemala. Disenchanted with the gender restrictions on educational attainment, she organized her elite, wealthy peers into La Sociedad
Gabriela Mistral
Lucila Godoy Alcayaga (; 7 April 1889 – 10 January 1957), known by her pseudonym Gabriela Mistral (), was a Chilean poet-diplomat, educator and humanist. In 1945 she became the first Latin American author to receive a Nobel Prize in Li ...
. This group used petition drives and informal lobbying to successfully advocate for the admission of women to Guatemalan universities. Rejecting her elite status, she went to
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...
at the age of nineteen to pursue a career in journalism. While there, she also wrote poetry. She married Angel De León, an artist, in 1927 and together they moved to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
the following year. There, her daughter Mytyl was born.
While in New York, the
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
movie ''
Under a Texas Moon'' (1930) was protested as anti-Mexican by a group of Latinos led by Gonzalo González. Police brutalized the picketers, killing González. The murder sparked a Pan-Latino protest, in which Moreno participated. She later told
Bert Corona
Humberto Noé Corona (May 29, 1918 – January 15, 2001) was an American labor and civil rights leader. Throughout his long career, he worked with nearly every major Mexican-American organization, founding or co-founding several. He organized w ...
that the experience "motivated her to work on behalf of unifying the Spanish-speaking communities."
She was a graduate of the Catholic women's university
College of the Holy Names in
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
.
Union and civil rights activism
The
Great Depression struck in 1929, and in order to support her daughter and unemployed husband, Moreno worked as a seamstress in
Spanish Harlem
East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...
. She organized her co-workers, most of whom were Latinas, into a garment workers union.
In 1935, Moreno was hired by the
American Federation of Labor (AFL) as a professional organizer. She left her husband, who had become physically abusive, and settled with her daughter in
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, where she unionized
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
and Latina cigar-rollers. She joined the
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and became a representative of the
(UCAPAWA), becoming the editor of its
Spanish-language newspaper in 1940.
As UCAPAWA representative, she helped organize workers at
pecan
The pecan (''Carya illinoinensis'') is a species of hickory native to the southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River. The tree is cultivated for its seed in the southern United States, primarily in Georgia, ...
-shelling plants in
San Antonio, Texas
("Cradle of Freedom")
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, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_t ...
, and cannery workers in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
. There, she encouraged alliances between workers at different plants. Her leadership was of the type that empowered other workers, especially women, and she strongly encouraged women to take leadership roles in union organizations.
In 1937, she settled the Encanto neighborhood of
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...
, which she used as a base for her nationwide activism.
In 1939 she was one of the main organizers, alongside
Josefina Fierro de Bright and Eduardo Quevedo, of the ''
El Congreso de Pueblos de Habla Española'' (Spanish-speaking People's Congress). She took a year off from UCAPAWA to travel throughout the U.S., visiting Latino workers on the East Coast, in the Southwest, and allying refugees of the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
to her cause.
In 1940, she was asked to speak before the American Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born (ACPFB). Her speech, which became known as the "Caravan of Sorrow" speech, eloquently described the lives of migrant Mexican workers. Portions of it were reprinted in Committee pamphlets, creating a legacy that lasted much longer than the duration of the speech itself. In it, she stated,
In the same year, she co-founded an employment office in San Diego with her friend Robert Galván. She also organized San Diego-area cannery workers and persuaded employers not to hire scab workers. With the dawn of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the defense industry became a major employer in the United States, particularly in San Diego. Mexicans, however, were forbidden to work in the petroleum industry, shipyards, and other war-related fields, and were relegated to the lowest-paying jobs. Moreno criticized the discrimination, pointing out that "California has become prosperous with the toil and sweat of Mexican immigration attending to its number one industry, agriculture. Now they have sustained a true and lasting patriotism to a democratic country that refuses to give them citizenship or even basic civil rights."
In 1942, Moreno became involved in the
Sleepy Lagoon murder trial, a cause célèbre for the American left and Mexican-American civil rights activists. Along with longtime friend
Bert Corona
Humberto Noé Corona (May 29, 1918 – January 15, 2001) was an American labor and civil rights leader. Throughout his long career, he worked with nearly every major Mexican-American organization, founding or co-founding several. He organized w ...
and attorney
Carey McWilliams, she organized the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee to exonerate the indicted youths. In addition to mounting a legal defense, the Committee sought to put to rest rumors about "violent gangs" of
Pachuco
Pachucos are male members of a counterculture associated with zoot suit fashion, jazz and swing music, a distinct dialect known as '' caló'', and self-empowerment in rejecting assimilation into Anglo-American society that emerged in El Paso, ...
s and to counter sensationalist reports of urban "guerrilla warfare" between Pachucos and servicemen. (The press had dubbed the 1943 attacks of Pachucos the "
Zoot Suit Riots
The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots that took place from June 3–8, 1943 in Los Angeles, California, United States, involving American servicemen stationed in Southern California and young Latino and Mexican American city residen ...
".) She also investigated abuses on the part of servicemen in San Diego, advising city councilperson Charles C. Dail on the matter. She invited Admiral
David W. Bagley, commandant of the Eleventh Naval District in San Diego, to a meeting of San Diego-area community and labor leaders. Bagley did not respond to the invitation. Continuing to press for an investigation, Moreno collaborated with McWilliams to gather evidence. The investigation outraged
California State Senator Jack B. Tenney, who lashed out at Moreno, publicly accusing her of engaging in an "anti-American conspiracy."
During her Zoot Suit campaigns, she continued to work in the labor movement. In the city of
El Monte, she represented walnut pickers, receiving the assistance of the California Walnut Growers Association. One Association representative "came to have a high regard for her character, ability and honesty."
In 1947, she married Gray Bemis, a navy veteran from Nebraska who had been a delegate to the 1932
Socialist Party of America national convention. Bemis shared Moreno's interest in the civil rights of Mexican Americans, and photographed many of her activities.
In the late 1940s, Moreno established a San Diego chapter of the Mexican Civil Rights Committee. In speeches to chapters of the
Young Progressives of America, she warned that racial tensions and communist hysteria provoked
racial profiling
Racial profiling or ethnic profiling is the act of suspecting, targeting or discriminating against a person on the basis of their ethnicity, religion or nationality, rather than on individual suspicion or available evidence. Racial profiling involv ...
,
stereotyping
In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...
and
police brutality against Mexican Americans and other ethnic minorities.
Deportation
During the 1950s, the
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) conducted
Operation Wetback
Operation Wetback was an immigration law enforcement initiative created by Joseph Swing, the Director of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), in cooperation with the Mexican government. The program was implemented in ...
to forcibly deport Mexicans and Mexican Americans. The operation targeted labor leaders in particular. While she was considered polite and law abiding, her activism earned her enemies. She and her husband began receiving threatening letters for their work against police brutality. Tenney, who labeled her a "dangerous alien", was instrumental in her deportation. She was offered
citizenship
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
in exchange for testifying against
Harry Bridges, but refused to be "a free woman with a mortgaged soul."
On November 30, 1950, Moreno and her second husband, Gary Bemis of Nebraska, left the United States via
Ciudad Juárez, slowly making their way to Mexico City. Her warrant of deportation had been issued on the grounds that she had once been a member of the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
.
["Guatemalan Immigrant Luisa Moreno Was Expelled From the U.S. for Her Groundbreaking Labor Activism,"](_blank)
'' Smithsonian'', July 25, 2018.
Eventually, the couple settled in Guatemala, but were forced to flee when a 1954
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
-sponsored coup ousted progressive
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán
Jacobo is both a surname and a given name of Spanish origin. Based on the name Jacob. Notable people with the name include:
Surname:
* Alfredo Jacobo (born 1982), Olympic breaststroke swimmer from Mexico
* Cesar Chavez Jacobo, Dominican profession ...
.
After the triumph of the 1959
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in co ...
, Moreno spent time teaching on the island. She later returned to Guatemala, where she was interviewed by several historians before she died.
Legacy
Although Luisa Moreno is a major figure in the pre-
Chicano Movement
The Chicano Movement, also referred to as El Movimiento, was a social and political movement in the United States inspired by prior acts of resistance among people of Mexican descent, especially of Pachucos in the 1940s and 1950s, and the Black ...
and the
American labor movement
The labor history of the United States describes the history of organized labor, US labor law, and more general history of working people, in the United States. Beginning in the 1930s, unions became important allies of the Democratic Party.
T ...
, her role is often overlooked. Since the 1970s, activists and historians have attempted to reconstruct her role in the movements and give her appropriate credit. Among them are the muralist and professor
Judy Baca
Judith Francisca Baca (born September 20, 1946) is an American artist, activist, and professor of Chicano studies, world arts, and cultures based at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the co-founder and artistic director of the Soc ...
, who memorialized the organization of Cal San workers in her ''
Great Wall of Los Angeles
The ''Great Wall of Los Angeles'' is a mural designed by Judith Baca and executed with the help of over 400 community youth and artists coordinated by the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC). The mural, on the concrete sides of the Tuju ...
''. The wall, a visual representation of the
history of Los Angeles
The history of Los Angeles began in 1781 when 44 settlers from central New Spain (modern Mexico) established a permanent settlement in what is now Downtown Los Angeles, as instructed by Spanish Governor of Las Californias, Felipe de Neve, and auth ...
, pays tribute to Moreno by including an image of her face surrounded by images of strikers. Moreno's story has been featured in the
National Museum of American History's "American Enterprise" installation.
Further reading
*
*
External Links
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moreno, Luisa
1907 births
1992 deaths
People from Guatemala City
American civil rights activists
Women civil rights activists
American communists
American trade union leaders
Holy Names University alumni
Guatemalan emigrants to the United States
Guatemalan writers
Guatemalan people of Spanish descent
20th-century women writers
20th-century Guatemalan writers
Communist women writers
Women trade union leaders
20th-century Guatemalan women writers