#Emma Tenayuca

[radiofreederry]

Happy birthday, Emma Tenayuca! (December 21, 1916)

Born to a Mexican family in San Antonio, Texas, as a young child Emma Tenayuca would visit the Plaza del Zacate to see socialists and anarchists speak. Radicalized by the poverty and suffering she saw in the Great Depression, Tenayuca joined the Communist Party and worked to organize Latine workers in Texas, helping to lead a pecan sheller's strike in 1938. Facing jail several times for her activism, Tenayuca continued to fight for labor and civil rights until her death in 1999.

[antiwaradvocates]

[tejanaculturalstudiesrocio]

"Its the women who have led. I just have a feeling, a very strong feeling, that if ever this world is civilized, it would be more the work of women."-Emma Tenayuca

www.ccfwg.org

[haircut]

I spent so long on my mural reflection for my MAS class and I chose a really good one. But everyone just wanted to talk about vanessa guillen 😑

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 23 July 1999, Emma Tenayuca, Mexican-American strike leader of Nʉmʉnʉʉ descent died aged 82 in her hometown of San Antonio, Texas. Taking part in many organising efforts and strikes, she is best known for being elected strike leader of the 1938 women pecan shellers' strike, which was hugely successful. After the strike, Tenayuca was blacklisted and subjected to death threats amidst anti-communist hysteria and had to leave the state of Texas, moving to San Francisco. There she became a teacher, and returned to San Antonio in the late 1960s. More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9575/emma-tenayuca-dies https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=666729248833627&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[historybizarre]

American history education tends to describe the Latino population as a monolith, but they have long played a key role in advancing the causes of fairer wages and humane working conditions that has benefited people from all racial and ethnic groups.

Discussion of the labor movement in textbooks has historically focused on the white union leaders and white immigrants. If any Latino individuals are spotlighted, the farm worker organizers of the 1960s like Cesar Chavez are the ones most often acknowledged. Other than a brief mention of Dolores Huerta, textbooks historically haven’t spotlighted the roles of other Latina women in the U.S. labor movement. For example, less attention is paid to Cesar’s wife Helen Chavez, whose critical work behind the scenes helped pave a way for Mexican American economic upward mobility.

But Latinas were active in the labor movement nearly three decades earlier, and that work is not taught as often in schools. In the above video, historians Sandra I. Enríquez, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Lindsey Passenger Wieck, an Assistant Professor of History at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, spotlight two Latina activists to know about.

[fistsoflightndarkness]

On One of the Great Unsung Heroes of the American Labor Movement. Emma Tenayuca behind bars—not for the first time. She was first arrested when she was sixteen, but by the time she led the pecan shellers strike she had become a real threat to business as usual in San Antonio.

[an-insurgent-history-blog]

Emma Tenayuca (1916-1999)

photo from Anne Lewis’ A Strike and an Uprising

Emma Tenayuca was an outspoken activist who fought for laborer, migrant, and women’s rights. Tenayuca grew up as a radical in her San Antonio community, rallying other Mexicans into political action to gain better wages and opportunities. Best known as the organizer of the largest labor strike in San Antonio history, the 1938 Pecan Shellers’ Strike, Tenayuca helped shape solidarity amongst Mexicans during and post-Repatriation. Despite the quick flame of Tenayuca’s participation in the Mexican-American labor movement, her work made way for the movement to include gender and class dynamics. 

Emma Tenayuca understood from a young age the injustices that were happening in her community. Inspired by the Mexican Revolution and then governor-candidate Ma Ferguson, Tenayuca adopted hard stances on transnational politics, labor rights, and civil rights. Because her family was economically affected by the Great Depression, she had a personal stake in her reasons for political participation. She took it upon herself to become involved in efforts to combat wage theft of Mexicans, getting arrested at age 16 for joining the Finck Cigar Company strike in 1933 after seeing her local government and church ignore the female labor force’s demands.

She was intrigued by election politics in both the U.S. and Mexico. In 1936, Tenayuca joined the Communist Party - pusing for “socialist aspects of New Deal Liberalism... to reform and regulate business and to create an economic safety net for Americans.” 4 Because of the community’s distrust of local politicians, Tenayuca structured worker political participation through her leadership in the Workers Alliance of America - taking command of the rights that were often ignored by employers and representatives alike.

in 1937, Tenayuca helped organize protests after news of U.S. Border Patrol agents severely beating Mexicans came to regional attention. While the protests ended in arrests for many involved, Tenayuca went on a year later to organize the Pecan Shellers’ Strike - a three-month-long protest to increase the wages for the female-dominated pecan production industry. This strike was met with conflict by police intervention, who came into protests on “riot duty” and tear-gassed, beat, and arrested protesters in a grand show of violating civil liberties.5 

While the Strike when on to successfully increase wages for the workers, in 1939 due to Tenayuca’s communist affiliations, she was asked to step down from her position of leadership so as to maintain the legitimacy of the labor movement. Tenayuca was targeted and blacklisted by local businesses in San Antonio for her communist beliefs. By 1941, she was forced out of the community all together.

While Tenayuca stopped labor organizing after her departure from San Antonio, her adult life in California saw other opportunities to teach. Chicanx activists and scholars were inspired by Tenayuca and she helped advise their work up until her death in 1999.6

[fandomshatewomen]

Historical spotlight: Emma Tenayuca (December 21, 1916 – July 23, 1999) was a Mexican American labor leader & union organizer. She is best known for her work organizing Mexican workers in Texas during the 1930s, particularly for leading the 1938 Southern Pecan Shelling Company worker's strike. She was highly involved in both the Worker’s Alliance of America and Woman’s League for Peace and Freedom & organized a protest over the beating of Mexican migrants by United States Border Patrol agents.

Thanks for this Nonny!

mod m

[mexamwomencreatespaces]

Emma Tenayuca June 29, 1937 in Bexar County Jail demonstrating how women were treated why they were fighting for better rights

[akonoadham]

On Jan. 31, 1938, Communist labor organizer Emma Tenayuca led 12,000 pecan shellers, mostly Mexican American or Chicana women, out on strike in San Antonio, Texas to demand better working conditions and higher wages.

[cheshirelibrary]

Children's books to support conversations on race, racism and resistance 

[via embracerace.org]

Research from Harvard University suggests that children as young as three years old, when exposed to racism and prejudice, tend to embrace and accept it, even though they might not understand the feelings. By age 5, white children are strongly biased towards whiteness. To counter this bias, experts recommend acknowledging and naming race and racism with children as early and as often as possible. Children’s books are one of the most effective and practical tools for initiating these critical conversations; and they can also be used to model what it means to resist and dismantle oppression.​

Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz

Unstoppable: How Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team Defeated Army by Art Coulson

Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh

The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson

Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford

My Hair is a Garden by Cozbi A. Cabrera

The Legendary Miss Lena Horne by Carole Boston Weatherford

Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford

Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Alexander Ramsey

Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis by Jabari Asim

When We Were Alone by David A. Robertson

Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America by Carole Boston Weatherford

Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison

Coretta Scott by Ntozake Shange

The Whispering Town by Jennifer Elvgren

Rosa by Nikki Giovanni

Frederick Douglass: The Lion Who Wrote History by Walter Dean Myers

Sojourner Truth’s Step-Stomp Stride by Andrea Davis Pinkney

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney

That’s Not Fair! Emma Tenayuca’s Struggle for Justice by Carmen Tafolla and Sharyll Tenayuca

...

Click through to see more titles.

[afroavocadowitch]

News and interesting updates on POS and POS System Hardware.

“Blood In Blood Out” made them co-stars, but the San Antonio art community made Jesse Borrego and Adan Hernandez “family.” 

Adan Hernandez, the iconic artist behind the artwork of the classic 1993 film, died Saturday at his home in San Antonio. 

The West Side San Antonio native created the artwork that Borrego’s character, Cruz Candelaria, was supposed to have painted in the film. Hernandez also played a cameo role as Gilbert, a drug dealer in the movie. 

RELATED: Historic San Antonio labor leader Emma Tenayuca honored by Smithsonian

Borrego spoke of his friend, who he regarded more as “family,” on Monday. A cause of death was not disclosed. He called him “the real Cruzito” and reminisced on how the “cinematic feat” pulled off painting 50 art pieces for the movie in 30 days. 

Hernandez’s work centered on images and symbolism of the Chicano culture and experience.

“When you look beyond the ‘Blood In Blood Out’ collection to his work — oh my God, now you see why Cheech Marin has him in his collection, Taylor Hackford has him in his collection, the (Metropolitan Museum of Art) in New York has a couple of his pieces. If you’re smart, you have an Adan Hernandez, then you have something that’s going to live forever.”

READ MORE FROM MADALYN: San Antonio native Jesse Borrego starred in a 1996 film that is making an impactful comeback

Borrego said he plans on working with the local art community to build a memorial and foundation to continue sharing his friend’s work. 

“That’s the beauty of being an artist, that when you’re gone, your work is going to live on after you. In that case, I’m honored to share the screen with his work and with him. That vato loco’s art is going to live forever. Vato loco art is forever.”

The actor is encouraging the public to donate to a GoFundMe set up in Hernandez’s honor to pay for funeral expenses. The online fundraiser can be found here.

  This post was first provided here.

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[tejanaculturalstudiesrocio]

Emma Tenayuca

Emma Tenayuca in Bexar County Jail. June 29th, 1937. UTSA Special Collections.

Making the forefront of labor activism, Emma would become known as one of the most prominent and important Latinas in labor organizers of the 20th century. Largely inspired by her grandfather, Emma took a strong interest in social justice. Specifically, she recalls the important role La Plaza de Zacate held for Latino and Mexican Americans residing in San Antonio. Stating that it was "the center of activity", where Magonistas and "exiles from the Mexican Revolution" would speak to crowds, Mexicans would gather, and they would be informed of the latest political news. Moreso, while she began working with the International Ladies Garment Worker Untion (ILBWU), her most distinguished worked can be recognized within the year of 1938. During this time, she organized and led on the largest strikes in San Antonio history, which today is recognized as the Pecal Shellers Strike.

[masf319-nguyen-digital-project]

The San Antonio Light newspaper reporting the arrest of pecan shellers’ strike leader Emma Tenayuca, San Antonio, Texas, 31 January 1938.

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 21 December 1916, Mexican American strike leader Emma Tenayuca was born in San Antonio. Most famously she led a successful strike of 12,000 pecan shelling women in 1938. More info here: https://libcom.org/history/emma-tenayuca-1938-pecan-shellers-strike Pic: Emma Tenayuca with strikers, 1938 https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.1819457841572691/2167477816770690/?type=3