Biography
Arrangement note
Related Collection
Acquisition Information
Publication Rights
Title: Josefina Fierro photographs
Identifier/Call Number: M0784
Contributing Institution:
Dept. of Special Collections & University Archives
Language of Material:
No_linguistic_content
Physical Description:
2.0 Linear feet
(114 photographs housed in 1 manuscript box, 1 flat box)
Date (inclusive): 1903-1987
Abstract: Photographs of Josefina Fierro, a leader in the Mexican American community.
creator:
Fierro, Josefina
Biography
Born in the border town of Mexicali, Baja California during the tumultuous years of the Mexican Revolution, Josefina Fierro
was raised in a familial heritage of revolutionary activism. Her father was an officer in General Francisco "Pancho" Villa's
northern revolutionary army, a fact that made him largely absent from her life. Raised by her mother, who separated from her
husband and immigrated to the U.S. when Josefina was a baby, the language of revolution and social justice was a constant
in her young life. Her mother's family was followers of Ricardo Flores Magon, a Mexican anarchist banished from Mexico for
promoting radical reforms as part of his Partido Liberal Mexicano, a movement he continued while in exile on the U.S. side
of the border. As a "Magonista," Josefina's mother taught her daughter to stand up for the underdog, to speak out against
injustice, and to treat others with dignity and respect. It was no surprise that Josefina would eventually use this background
as a basis for assuming leadership within the Mexican American community in California as she came of age.
Born in the border town of Mexicali, Baja California during the tumultuous years of the Mexican Revolution, Josefina Fierro
was raised in a familial heritage of revolutionary activism. Her father was an officer in General Francisco "Pancho" Villa's
northern revolutionary army, a fact that made him largely absent from her life. Raised by her mother, who separated from her
husband and immigrated to the U.S. when Josefina was a baby, the language of revolution and social justice was a constant
in her young life. Her mother's family was followers of Ricardo Flores Magon, a Mexican anarchist banished from Mexico for
promoting radical reforms as part of his Partido Liberal Mexicano, a movement he continued while in exile on the U.S. side
of the border. As a "Magonista," Josefina's mother taught her daughter to stand up for the underdog, to speak out against
injustice, and to treat others with dignity and respect. It was no surprise that Josefina would eventually use this background
as a basis for assuming leadership within the Mexican American community in California as she came of age.
Josefina's successful organizing efforts and her emergence as a key leader in the Los Angeles Mexican community attracted
the attention of Latino leaders, especially Luisa Moreno, who were preparing to launch the first-ever national Latino civil
rights organization, the Congress of Spanish-Speaking People. The Congress was founded in Los Angeles in 1939, and young Josefina
was elected national secretary, the second highest ranking position in the organization. For the next several years, she and
her colleagues led a broad-based civil rights movement for Mexican Americans and other Latinos in California and in the Southwest.
A fiery orator who could captivate an audience, Josefina traveled throughout California to participate in various demonstrations
and activities aimed at bringing down the walls of discrimination against Mexicans in housing, employment, education, and
other public places. She played an instrumental role, in addition, on the defense committee of the infamous "Sleepy Lagoon
Case" in war-time Los Angeles (a murder trial involving several Mexican American youth accused and sentenced to prison for
a crime they did not commit). The Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee eventually won the release of the defendants from state
prison two years after the original convictions. A year later, in June 1943, Josefina almost single-handedly brought an end
to the days of rage and physical assault on Mexican Americans in downtown and in East Los Angeles during the so-called "Zoot
Suit Riots." With the L.A.P.D. unwilling to stop the brutality in the streets against Mexican American youth, Josefina flew
to Washington, D.C. with a Mexican consulate official to prevail upon the Vice-President of the United States, Henry Wallace,
to help bring an end to the violence unleashed against her community. Convinced by her graphic, first-hand stories about the
beatings of Mexican Americans by servicemen, buttressed by an armful of newspapers she carried with sensational headlines
about the riots, Wallace secured a military order that restricted all service personnel to their respective bases until order
was restored.
As Josefina's efforts to advocate for Mexican Americans attracted more notice, she was labeled as a "communist subversive"
by the California Committee on UnAmerican Activities. After her divorce from John Bright, she returned to Madera where she
organized on behalf of Henry Wallace's Independent Progressive party. By 1948, after being hounded by the FBI and fearing
arrest and deportation, she decided to leave the United States and head to Hermosillo, the Mexican port city where she lived
the rest of her life.
As Josefina's efforts to advocate for Mexican Americans attracted more notice, she was labeled as a "communist subversive"
by the California Committee on UnAmerican Activities. After her divorce from John Bright, she returned to Madera where she
organized on behalf of Henry Wallace's Independent Progressive party. By 1948, after being hounded by the FBI and fearing
arrest and deportation, she decided to leave the United States and head to Hermosillo, the Mexican port city where she lived
the rest of her life.
Arrangement note
The collection is arranged in chronologically.
Related Collection
See M0811 for interviews of Josefina Fierro by Dr. Albert M. Camarillo, Professor of History, Stanford University.
Acquisition Information
This collection was given by the donor to Stanford University, Special Collections in March 1995.
Publication Rights
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the
Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research
and educational purposes.
Copying. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Labor history
Mexican American women
Mexican Americans--Biography
Photoprints.