Voices of Wisconsin Latinas

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The Wisconsin Historical Society Press’ book Somos Latinas (“We Latinas”): Voices of Wisconsin Latina Activists first began as part of a UW-Madison course in an effort to engage students in documenting the lives of Latina women in Wisconsin.

In 2012, Andrea-Teresa Arenas worked with her students to highlight the mostly unrecognized community organizing efforts of Latinas across the state. What they uncovered were dozens of dynamic stories of change-makers working to positively impact society in education, civil rights, women’s rights, domestic abuse services, immigration reform, political representation, peace and justice, and other areas. Twenty-five of these women are profiled in the new book Somos Latinas, where they tell stories of community activism and share personal lessons on living with passion. Each powerful narrative in this collection provides proof of the long-standing and important legacy of Latina activism in Wisconsin.

Somos Latinas was edited by Arenas, who recently retired from her position at UW-Madison as a Chicano/a and Latino/a Studies Faculty Affiliate and director of the Office of Service Learning and Community-Based Research (College of Letters & Science), and Eloisa Gómez, the director of the Milwaukee County UW-Extension Office and former vice president of the Latino Historical Society of Wisconsin. Their new anthology includes a foreword by famed labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, who, among her accomplishments, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with César Chávez in 1962 and has gone on to receive many prestigious awards including the United States Presidential Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Arenas and Gómez will speak about their new book at the Milwaukee Public Library-Mitchell Street Branch at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 5, in an event co-sponsored by Boswell Book Company.