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The Guatemalan-American activist, journalist, and labor leader Luisa Moreno was a labor leader, a journalist, and a journalist. During US Hispanic Heritage Month, the Doodle honors her. Juliet Menendez, a guest artist from Guatemala City, drew a picture of Moreno linking arms with people from different areas where she worked hard.
In Guatemala City, Moreno was born Blanca Rosa Lopez Rodrigues on August 30, 1907. In her childhood, she moved with her family to Oakland, California. Her family moved back to Guatemala when she was a girl. In those days, women were not allowed to attend college, so she stopped studying. Defending women's right to go to college, Moreno formed a group. She became a lifelong activist after winning this civil rights fight.
For a few years, Moreno worked as a journalist in Mexico City, where she covered social issues. After moving to New York in 1928, she lived there for a few years. In the days following her move, a group of Latino protesters opposed to the anti-Mexican Warner Brothers movie were beaten and killed by police. As a result of this event, she later became interested in bringing Spanish-speaking areas together. For her family's support, she went to work as a seamstress at a clothing shop during the Great Depression. Seeing the long hours for low pay and dangerous working conditions, she recognized there was a need for labor change.
Moreno was hired by the American Federation of Labor in 1935. As part of her work at UCAPAWA (United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America), she helped cigar factory workers in the East, sugar cane workers and pecan shellers in the South, and beet farmers and tuna packers in the West. Finally, she was elected vice president of UCAPAWA in 1941.
Additionally, Moreno fought for equal rights for people of different races and ethnicities. As a result of her efforts, the National Congress of Spanish-Speaking Peoples was founded in 1938 as the first national Latino civil rights gathering. It advocated for less segregation in schools and neighborhoods and fair treatment for Latino workers. A defense team she set up in 1942 helped get charges dropped against Mexican-American teenagers who were arrested without evidence.
Although Moreno worked hard to improve the lives of thousands of US workers, she was targeted by Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) because she was a labor leader. INS officials told her that if she didn't testify against other union leaders, she would be deported. Due to her unwillingness, she had to leave the US and return to Latin America. As she worked in Mexico, Cuba, and Guatemala, she organized workers.
You have spent your life trying to make things better for those you meet. Let's toast to you, Luisa.
