A Historical and Regional Overview of Latinas in the United ... - CUNY

Introduction: A Historical and Regional Overview
Latinos in New York asking for
support of the Dominican
Revolution against Trujillo’s
government. Courtesy of the Justo A.
Martí Photograph Collection. Centro
Archives, Centro de Estudios
Puertorriqueños, Hunter College,
CUNY.
a cadre of committed individuals like Carmen Asencio
in Trenton and Gloria del Toro in Newark to provide
educational and social services for Puerto Ricans and
Latinos. Bronx-bred Sonia Sotomayor, an assistant
district attorney in New York, became U.S. district
court judge for the Southern District of New York in
1992. The first Puerto Rican woman to serve in a U.S.
federal court, Sotomayor earned her law degree from
Yale University, where she edited the Yale Law Journal.
Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, an associate
judge of the New York State Court of Appeals in 1994,
served as a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society in
New York City from 1967 to 1969. In medicine two
Latinas from the Northeast stand out for their monumental
service. Antonia Novello, the commissioner of
health for the state of New York (and the first Latina
surgeon general) advocated for quality health care
and led the first national Latino initiative to identify
and strategically address disease prevention. Helen
Rodríguez-Trias directed the Department of Pediatrics
at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, highlighting community
based involvement in health issues, AIDS among
women, and sterilization. Isaura Santiago and Dolores
Fernández each became president of Hostos College
in the City University of New York system. Elsa Gómez
was president of Kean College in New Jersey, and
Marta Casals Istomin, cofounder of the internationally
recognized Pablo Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, heads
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Manhattan’s School of Music. Each of the women
cited represents countless others who have enormously
contributed to the legacy of Latinas in the
Northeast.
In the twenty-first century a dramatic increase in the
numbers of Mexican and Central American immigrants
in northeastern states has emerged that signifies how
each incoming group finds its own way to connect to a
historical legacy. Catering to the growing numbers of
day laborers in Long Island, a group scorned for altering
traditional work patterns in suburbs like Farmingville,
Latinas have formed a door-to-door business.
As cocineras (cooks), they provide home made meals
to men living away from wives and mothers. According
to the New York Times, “These women make dinner,
over-hear secrets, console those who cannot find
work and quickly get used to grown men calling them
madre.” Hired to provide staples, cook, and clean
house for legal or illegal communities of migrant
workers, the women accommodate several homes a
week. They cook the appropriate regional dishes required
by each home, sometimes bring their children
with them while they work, and serve as intermediaries
with the surrounding societies when needed. Resilient
and adapting to changing times, Latinas meet
their own financial obligations, often earning more
than they would at fast-food restaurants. Moreover,
they serve as integral links in the preservation of com-