from Women’s Activism NYC

Evangelina Rodriguez: 

Evangelina Rodriguez grew up in the highly segregated community of San Pedro De Macoris, Dominican Republic. She lived with her grandmother and sold gofio to buy supplies for primary school at a young age. After completing her secondary schooling, Rodriguez became the first woman in the Dominican Republic to receive her medical degree in 1909. Choosing to start her career in Ramon Santana, for over a decade Rodriguez treated poor patients free of charge or for very little and made available great quantities of medicine for free. In 1921, she studied gynecology, obstetrics, and pediatrics at the University of Paris. She graduated in 1925 and returned to the Dominic Republic where she was able to work more effectively with her patients by delivering babies, offering medical advice, and visiting local prostitutes to educate and advise them on sexually transmitted illnesses. In the late 1930s, Rodriguez was politically active as an outspoken opponent of the Trujillo dictatorship and contributed articles to several journals and newspapers, including one titled Femina. Throughout her whole life, she advocated for women’s suffrage as well as for broad social and economic reforms. 

from General Photograph Collection/UTSA Libraries Special Collections

Jovita Idár: 

From a young age Jovita Idár was interested in journalism and political activism due to being inspired by her father Nicasio Idár; a newspaper editor and civil rights advocate. While working for her father’s paper La Crónica, she wrote articles about racism and support for the Mexican Revolution. In 1911, the First Mexican Congress was organized by Idár and her family to unify Mexicans across the border to fight injustice where issues such as education and economic resources were often discussed. After the Congress, Idár turned to write about women’s rights which led to the founding of La Liga Feminil Mexicaista in 1911, a feminist organization that provided education for Mexican-American students. A few years later, Idár served as a nurse in Mexico during the revolution, where she joined La Cruz Blanca, a group similar to the Red Cross. After returning to Texas later that year, she began working at the El Progreso newspaper and wrote an article opposing President Wilson’s decision in sending United States troops to the Southern border. When the United States Army and Texas Rangers arrived at the offices of El Progreso because they disliked what she had written, Idár refused to let them in and stood in front of the door. Although they returned later to shut down El Progreso, Idár continued to write by returning to La Crónica and ran the newspaper in 1914 when her father passed away. After marrying and moving to San Antonio, Texas, she fought for equal rights for women in the Democratic Party in Texas and was an editor of El Heraldo Cristiano. She was constantly active in her community, later starting a free kindergarten for children and volunteering in a hospital as an interpreter for Spanish-speaking patients. 

from El Faro/Fred Ramos

Claudia Paz y Paz: 

Claudia Paz y Paz was the first woman to serve as the Attorney General in Guatemala. She made it her mission to reduce crime, punish criminals, and ensure that the law guaranteed equality, justice, and peace for all. She worked as a judge, national consultant to the UN Mission in Guatemala, and founded the Institute for Comparative Criminal Studies of Guatemala before becoming Attorney General in 2010. As Attorney General, Paz y Paz immediately began setting records such as arresting more drug traffickers in the first six months of her term than in the past ten years, catching five of Guatemala’s ten most wanted criminals. She also resolved ten times more cases of violence against women and homicide than under any previous leadership. She improved evidence analysis by fortifying a crime investigation unit and opened 24-hour courts so cases of violence against women could be expedited. She went after high-ranking combatants of the civil war for war crimes and was the first Guatemalan law enforcement official to do so, succeeding in convicting four of the soldiers for the 1982 Dos Erres massacre. Believing that all are equal before the law, Paz y Paz has spent her life demonstrating that justice is possible in her forceful dismantling of corruption.