Happy "Martha P. Cotera Day"—August 25, 2023, in Austin, Texas!

Not sure if folks remember, but today is Martha P. Cotera Day here in Austin, Texas. Feel free to read my blogpost on this day back in 2018 when it passed and was celebrated by the Austin City Council together with a gathering of friends and admirers at an honorific event for Martha. Such a beautiful evening.

Martha is my dear friend and colleague and I love her to pieces. She enjoys the admiration of many women and men, as well as scholars and writers, locally and nationwide. After all, she's a chingona! If you don't know what that means, you will know a lot more if you listen to the Fembeat videos below.

The second one is specific to Martha to learn about her work and leadership at the local, state, and national level. She reflects on a storied career in community activism. Martha is a writer, historian, researcher, and is the first published Chicana Feminist in U.S. history. Martha doesn't stop, by the way, suggesting to me that activism keeps one young! 😊

Here is the second must-see video on Martha Cotera that where she gets interviewed. Listen to what they accomplished back in the day when they established the Raza Unida Party and developed a wonderfully progressive platform that they then intelligently pursued as young baby boomers breaking out of the fascist years of the 1950s.  Remember Red Scare and the House Committee on Un-American Activities? 

Her story encourages the view that raising consciousness not only never goes away, but that these efforts result in lasting impacts and legacies.

Enjoy! Que Viva La Raza! Que Viva Martha Cotera!!! 

Love you, Martha.

-Angela Valenzuela