Bilingual and Intergenerational

The Festival’s mission was printed in English and Spanish on its poster and flyers, “In celebration of we as women have done, are doing, and can do/¡En celebración de lo que nosotras como mujeres hemos hecho, estamos haciendo, y lo que Podemos hacer!” This signals both the bilingual nature of the Festival, which drew English and Spanish speakers, as well as MLEA’s embrace of women who had launched positive community change, young activists, and youth who would be future change agents. Here, we see older and younger women and children enjoying the Festival together over tacos, hotdogs, and ketchup.

White feminism of the time often emphasized individual selfhood, sometimes distancing from and even rejecting families of origin and mothering as a way to subvert societal gender role expectations. Yet MLEA and the Festival included and celebrated at least three Latina generations. The mothers and grandmothers of Latina Pilsen, often Spanish-speaking immigrants who identified as Mexican, generally did not consider themselves feminists yet had been key in establishing many of the educational, human service, and activist organizations serving Latinos in Pilsen during the 1970s such as El Hogar de Niño. For example, Diana Solís’ mother, Mexican immigrant and homemaker Esperanza Solís, first got involved in MLEA through their food cooperative. The mother of seven urged her daughter to engage with the organization. 

Like Diana, many young women who got involved in MLEA were inspired by the Chicano movement and feminism, yet sought ways to bring the two together in their lives and community. MLEA and the Festival also catered to youth and who they could become. For example, MLEA partnered with Pilsen’s Latino Youth Alternative High School to provide young women with information about their bodies and reproductive health.

The Festival featured many activities for children and youth: arts and crafts, bilingual balloons boldly printed with “Mujeres son personas… No Propiedad" and "Women are people, not property," children’s books, and college recruitment in a city where Latino students were channeled to manual labor and dropped out of high school at sky-high rates. While the Festival was largely organized, run, and staffed by women, men were welcome and respectfully participated. 

SOURCES:

Fernández Lilia. Brown in the Windy City: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.