Tenayuca as a Feminist

The importance of Tenayuca as a female activist cannot be overlooked. The role of an activist and organizer is incredibly difficult regardless of gender, but the task becomes all the more difficult when the person attempting to organize is a woman. It is much more common now to see women assume leadership roles (although sexism is still a powerful force against progress) but Emma Tenayuca’s ability to organize so effectively and gain such powerful support as a woman in the 1930’s is truly admirable. This drew her to me over other male activist and radicals studied over the semester. Despite her position as a Latina and a female, Tenayuca was such a powerful leader that she was widely seen as dangerous by anti-immigration and anti-union forces. Tenayuca ended up leaving Texas over concerns for her safety and economic stability due to the hatred she faced from these oppositional groups 2.

Reflecting upon her life, the chaplain at her funeral remembered that “at a time when society gave great privilege to the male voice and subjugated the female voice,” Emma Tenayuca spoke out and was listened to 1. During the Pecan Sheller's Strike, Tenayuca organized and worked with groups that had quite a large number of female leadership positions. The Comisíon Pro-Conferencia (2/3 women leaders) and the Strike Committee (2/3 women leaders) had female majorities, and the strikers and union themselves were mostly made up of women 3. 

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1. Gloria Ramfrez, "Emma Tenayuca," La Voz de Esperanza, September 1999, 2.

2. Roberto R. Calderón and Emilio Zamora, "Manuela Solis Sager and Emma Tenayuca: A Tribute," in La Voz de Esperanza, edited by Gloria Ramírez, September 1999, 6. 

3. Calderón, "Tenayuca," 6.