Olga Ramos Peña (July 22, 1925 – July 18, 2024) was an American political organizer and activist from

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

. She was one of the first

Mexican American Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexico, Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the Unite ...

s to join the Democratic Women's Club and recruited other women from the Hispanic and African American communities to join the Club. She also served as campaign manager for her husband

Alberto Antonio Peña Jr. Alberto Antonio Peña Jr. (December 15, 1917 – July 3, 2006) was an American civil rights activist. Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Peña sought to improve the treatment of Mexican-Americans in his local community. With his schooling in law ...

who was elected

Bexar County Bexar County ( or ; ) is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. It is in South Texas and its county seat is San Antonio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,009,324, making it the state's fourth-most populous county. Bexar County ...

Commissioner.

Early life and education

Olga Peña was born in

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

in July 1925. Her parents were originally from

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and immigrated to the United States when they were young, and became

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

citizens in 1937. Peña's childhood home was in West San Antonio, in a segregated neighborhood. Her mother, Francis Navarro Diaz was a stay-at-home mother and cared for her and her two younger brothers, Guadalupe and Hugo. Her father, Guadalupe Gutierrez Ramos, worked for a Mexican-owned soda manufacturer as a beverage delivery driver who delivered to various retailers in the San Antonio area. Peña, the oldest child, had two brothers, both veterans of wars. Her father used to drive her to school in his delivery truck as the family owned no vehicle. Peña was educated and graduated from a segregated public school system in Bexar County. In her own words, “I grew up in the West Side on Leona Street and went to Navarro School for elementary and then to Joel Chandler Harris and finally San Antonio Tech High School.” As she recalls, “I had a very bad accent and spoke no English but was very lucky that I got one of the teachers who was bilingual, so she could teach us in both languages."

Career

Peña was involved with various organizations, including the Democratic Women's Club,

American GI Forum The American GI Forum (AGIF) is a congressionally chartered Hispanic veterans and civil rights organization founded in 1948. Its motto is "Education is Our Freedom and Freedom should be Everybody's Business". AGIF operates chapters throughout ...

, and

LULAC The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the largest and oldest Hispanic and Latin-American civil rights organization in the United States. It was established on February 17, 1929, in Corpus Christi, Texas, largely by Hispanics re ...

. She was responsible for organizing multiple political movements, the running of Albert's campaigns, and is noted as one of the first Mexican members of the Democratic Women's Club. Peña retired in 1996 to take care of her aging parent.

Personal life and death

As a child, Peña was involved with dancing. From the age of eight, was taught by many of the neighborhood's female dancers until she was proficient in dozens of traditional Mexican dances. She danced at assemblies in school, and dancing was her first paid job. She would dance at local San Antonio events, occasionally traveling to other cities for performances. Peña met Albert Peña, Jr., a lawyer, and they married in September 1947, eventually having five children. They divorced in 1972.University of Texas at Arlington Library website, ''Olga Peña'', article dated August 23rd, 1997
/ref> Peña died in San Antonio on July 18, 2024 at the age of 98.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramos Pena, Olga 1925 births 2024 deaths American activists of Mexican descent Activists from San Antonio 21st-century American women