Shoulders to Stand On:
Re-membering the Chicana Activist Narrative
Curated by Leticia Gomez Franco, this exhibit was originally installed at the Women's Museum of California in 2016. Formerly, the Director of Programs for the New Americans Museum and the daughter of Mexican born parents who immigrated to California from their native town, Tepatitlán, Jalisco in the early 1970’s, Gomez Franco is deeply committed to cultivating spaces for cultural and artistic exploration and promoting the empowerment of diverse communities.
She worked closely with three San Diego Chicana historians, Rita Sanchez, Sonia Lopez, and Maria Garcia to retell the story of their Chicana experience. The story of women who struggled, organized, innovated, educated, and inspired generations of women.
Shoulders to Stand On: Re-membering the Chicana Activist Narrative acknowledges the women who dared to assert their place within the Chicano movement of the 1960s. As women. As activists. As Chicanas.
The Civil Rights Era found San Diego ripe for Chicano revolution. The movement reached the barrios through various channels. The United Farm Workers mobilized farmworkers in San Ysidro. Students on San Diego campuses actively protested the war in Viet Nam. Parents challenged the school system, decrying the lack of opportunities available to them and their children. All in all, people clamoured for change.
Chicana activists played a critical role in reclaiming and reactivating the Chicana narrative.
They helped to establish organizations, institutions, and spaces that have become agents of change and progress for the Latino community. Chicano Federation, Barrio Station, Chicano Park, Logan Heights Family Center, Centro Cultural de la Raza, Trabajadores de la Raza, Casa Familiar, Chicano Studies Departments at San Diego’s Universities and other spaces ensure that the goals that the Chicano Movement set out to accomplish continue to enrich the community.
Hombros Que Sostienen:
Recordando la Narrativa Chicana
La exhibición Hombros Que Sostienen: Recordando la Narrativa Chicana reconoce a las mujeres que se atrevieron a a rmar el derecho a su lugar dentro del movimiento chicano de la década de 1960. Como mujeres. Como activistas. Como chicanas.
La decada de los 60’s y su lucha por los Derechos Civiles encontró a un San Diego maduro para la revolución chicana. El movimiento llego a los barrios de San Diego a través de diversos canales. Mientras La Unión de Campesinos movilizaba a los trabajadores agrícolas en San Ysidro, los estudiantes en los colegios de San Diego protestaban activamente la guerra en Viet Nam, y los jovenes y sus padres desa aban el sistema escolar, denunciando la falta de oportunidades disponibles para ellos y sus hijos. Con todo, la gente clamaba por cambio.
a establecer las organizaciones, instituciones y espacios que se han convertido en agentes de cambio y progreso para la comunidad latina.
Organizaciones como Chicano Federation, Barrio Station, Chicano Park, Logan Heights Family Center, Centro Cultural de la Raza, Trabajadores de la Raza, Casa Familiar, y los Departamentos de Estudios Chicanos en Universidades y otros espacios de San Diego siguen asegurando que las metas que el movimiento chicano estableció durante los 60’s sigan enriqueciendo a la comunidad.
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