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De Nosotros, Con Amor

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Women’s Activism NYC.

the first

woman

in the

Dominican

Republic to

receive her

medical

degree

in 1909.

Choosing

to start

her career

in Ramon

Santana,

for over

a decade Rodriguez treated poor

patients free of charge or for very little

and made available great quantities of

medicine for free. In 1921, she studied

gynecology, obstetrics, and pediatrics

at the University of Paris. She graduated

in 1925 and returned to the Dominic

Republic where she was able to work

more effectively with her patients by

delivering babies, offering medical

advice, and visiting local prostitutes to

educate and advise them on sexually

transmitted illnesses. In the late 1930s,

Rodriguez was politically active as an

outspoken opponent of the Trujillo

dictatorship and contributed articles

to several journals and newspapers,

including one titled Femina. Throughout

her whole life, she advocated for

women’s suffrage as well as for broad

social and economic reforms.

Dolores Huerta

Dolores Huerta founded the Agricultural

Workers Association while serving

in the Stockton Community Service

Organization (CSO), where she initiated

voter registration drives and

pressured local governments for barrio

improvements. Upon meeting César

E. Chávez, a colleague that shared the

same desire to organize farmworkers,

resigned from the CSO and in 1962

established the National Farm Workers

Association. In 1963, Huerta secured

Aid For Dependent Families (AFDC) and

disability insurance for farmworkers in

California. She also played an essential

role in the enactment of the Agricultural

Labor Relations Act of 1975, a law that

was the first of its kind in the United

States to grant farmworkers in California

the right to organize to bargain for better

working conditions and wages. Huerta

continues to work tirelessly for those that

are unfamiliar with the benefits they are

entitled to or the laws that protect them,

and as the founder and president of the

Dolores Huerta Foundation, she pursues

social justice by inspiring and organizing

communities in disenfranchised regions

of California.

The Dolores Huerta Foundation.

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