We all have the power to tell our story, to share our histories with those who are willing to listen. But, as marginalized communities, we have often been told and conditioned to believe that our voices lack value. The histories of marginalized people have been excluded from dominant narratives and public records to maintain hegemonic and dominant modes of thinking that prioritize white, patriarchal power. In collaboration with Dr. Sophia Martinez Abbud, an Assistant Professor at Utah State, and Dr. Gaby Barrios, an independent scholar in Los Angeles, Dr. Sonia Del Hierro, an Assistant Professor here at Southwestern University, developed Señora Power.

Señora Power is a multi-disciplinary project committed to writing Chicana feminist consciousness into public history. With particular attention to the coalescence of Chicanx culture and identity in Los Angeles and Houston from the early 20th century to the late 1980s, the initiative tracks the radical work and resistance of señoras prior to the civil rights movement.

Chicana feminists are women of Mexican descent whose politics and culture align with both the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 70s and the feminist movement. Chicana feminists critique machismo, sexism, homophobia, and white supremacy.

Señoras are traditionally defined as cishet women who are married or within an older age group. The project redefines señoras by their access to respect within Mexican American communities, so señoras can be unmarried and younger than the traditional age range but always demand and hold the respect of their families, neighbors, and in some cases, constituents.

Within communities of color, a common trend has emerged in which these marginalized groups hold liberal ideals and consciousness aligning with feminist ideology but do not necessarily affix the identity of feminists to themselves. To narrow the scope of señoras and their acts of resistance, Drs. Abbud, Barrios, and Del Hierro consider the following factors: 1) each señora and their geographic location will consist of a multi-faceted history, 2) what initiatives or actions are being taken by the women, 3) what makes them a señora, and 4) what makes señora consciousness?

With this lens and understanding, the Drs. approach the embodied experiences and archival knowledge of señoras as a vulnerable process. Through a collection of conversations with familial connections to the chosen señoras and podcast episodes exploring history, the accessing of señora power, engaging in plactica, and interrogating geo-political obstacles of oppression, history is and can be recorded from the perspective of Chicanx people, giving visibility and power to their own experiences. In this process, space is held for the vulnerable and intimate stories shared. The intention is to establish trust and open communication that thoughtfully honors, respects and memorializes the work of Chicana feminists and señoras. Here, Chicanx voices and stories can be remembered in a sustainable way without co-opting the knowledge as our own.

The primary aim of the initiative is to interrogate existing narratives and record the invisibilized historical narratives and “different strategies of survival and resource-gathering, which appear, at times, very differently in each city despite facing similar issues of racism, forced assimilation, and violent policing” (Del Hierro). To execute this recording of personal and scholarly nuances towards archival knowledge, the final products of Señora Power translate to the creation of a podcast discussing the various señora figures; a website to illustrate the project overview, hold podcast episodes, and provide breakdowns of each episode; and create physical pamphlets to be distributed in Houston and LA community centers to increase accessibility to Chicanx knowledge and history.

The project, Señora Power, is well underway and we can’t wait to see how it evolves, reaching a vast community, and sharing the many histories of Chicanas who challenged the normative. Podcast episodes of Señora Power Project are now available wherever you listen to podcasts!