Luisa Moreno

Blanca Rosa Rodríguez López (August 30, 1907 – November 4, 1992), known professionally as Luisa Moreno, was a Guatemalan-American labor and civil rights activist. She worked as an organizer for the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA), eventually becoming the union's vice president in 1941, making her the first Latina to be elected to a high-ranking national position in a trade union in the United States. She was also the primary organizer behind ( 'The Spanish-Speaking People's Congress'), the first national Latino civil rights conference held in the United States.

Born in Guatemala to a wealthy family, Moreno founded the ( 'Gabriela Mistral Society') to advocate for women's education before moving to Mexico City. There, she pursued her worked as a journalist and wrote poetry before immigrating again, this time to East Harlem, New York City, where she worked in a garment sweatshop to support her family. She also became politically active in New York, joining the Communist Party USA and organizing Latina garment workers there under ( 'The League of Seamstresses'), an International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU)-affiliated union. Dissatisfied with the ILGWU's lack of support for Latina workers, she eventually accepted a position with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) to organize Black and Latino cigar workers in Florida.

Moreno worked with the AFL in Florida for two years but became disillusioned with their unwillingness to advocate for workers of color and their revisions to a contract she had negotiated on behalf of local workers. As a result, she resigned from the AFL and joined the UCAPAWA, who assigned her to organize a pecan shellers strike in San Antonio, Texas. At some point, she moved to Los Angeles, California, where she became known as the "California Whirlwind". She organized cannery workers throughout the state, including at major companies like the California Sanitary Canning Company (Cal San) and Val Vita, where her efforts led to significant improvements in wages and conditions, as well as an on-site daycare. Moreno also established two defense committees for young Chicano men during the early 1940s: one in the aftermath of the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial and one in the aftermath of the Zoot Suit Riots.

Moreno retired from public life in 1947. After being threatened with deportation in 1948 and testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), she ultimately chose to leave the United States voluntarily and return to Guatemala. While there, Moreno organized educational campaigns for Indigenous women. After the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, she was forced to flee to Mexico and later Cuba. She eventually returned to Mexico and later Guatemala, where she died in 1992. Her contributions to organized labor have been recognized by numerous labor activists, including Bert Corona, Cesar Chavez, and Fred Ross. In 2018, she was the subject of a mural designed by artist Judy Baca and an installation at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Scholars such as Vicki L. Ruiz and Theresa Gaye Johnson offer varying interpretations of Moreno's legacy, highlighting her significant but often unacknowledged work in labor and immigrant rights activism as well as her promotion of interethnic solidarity. Provided by Wikipedia