Una Mujer Sin Fronteras: The Legacy of Luisa Moreno, with Dr. Vicki Ruiz

Luisa Moreno was the most recognized Latina labor leader in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s, the only transcontinental Latina union organizer. Her work carried her from the garment shops of New York City to canneries in Los Angeles, with several stops along the way. A Guatemalan immigrant, she became the first Latina vice-president of a major union the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA), in its heyday the seventh largest CIO affiliate. But her most notable “first,” was as the driving force behind El Congreso del Pueblo de Habla Española (the Spanish-speaking Peoples Congress), the first national Latino civil rights assembly. This talk focuses on her career as a trade union organizer who encouraged women’s leadership across race and ethnicity in building democratic rank and file union locals.Vicki L. Ruiz is Distinguished Professor of History and Chicano/Latino Studies at the University of California, Irvine.