On April 11, 2023 the scholar, activist and archivist Martha P. Cotera will visit Southwestern to discuss the relevance of feminism to today’s social issues and justice causes. It is an honor to welcome her back to Southwestern.

Martha P. Cotera is viewed with esteem on a national scale as a scholar, political activist, community builder and organizer. Ms. Cotera was a leader in the Chicano Civil Rights and Chicana feminist movements in Texas, and she and her husband, Juan Cotera, were among the founders of La Raza Unida Party (RUP). Ms. Cotera ensured that feminism was brought into the political sphere as a co-founder of RUP’s women’s caucus—Mujeres Pro-Raza Unida, and by representing Chicana issues in the National Women’s Political Caucus. In 1974 she also co-founded the Chicana Research and Learning Center (CRLC) where she continued to research and develop some of the earliest materials on Chicana and other women of color histories, which she disseminated to Chicanas teaching in local universities, including Gloria Anzadúa. Cotera’s historical writings and analyses are the foundations for numerous scholarly and creative productions including manuscripts, anthologies, essays, theses, dissertations, and  documentary films. Ms. Cotera’s extraordinary record of scholarly achievement and community activism spanning nearly six decades makes her an ideal speaker for the 2023 Dolores Huerta & César Chávez Dinner and Jessie Daniel Ames Lecture.