Civil Rights Movement
SPECIAL FEATURE
EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF EMMA TENAYUCAIn her formative years Tenayuca followed election politics of the U.S. and Mexico. She became a labor activist before graduating from high school. She was arrested at age 16 when she joined the picket line of workers on strike against the Finck Cigar Company of San Antonio in 1933.
Influenced by the causes of the Mexican Revolution, and Texas gubernatorial candidate Ma Ferguson's position against the Ku Klux Klan, Tenayuca's work for labor issues and civil rights predated Cesar Chavez and the Civil Rights movement.
She founded two International Ladies' Garment Workers Unions, and organized strikes against San Antonio's large pecan shelling industry.
Tenayuca worked as an organizer and activist for the Workers Alliance of America and Women's League for Peace and Freedom. She lobbied the mayor of San Antonio to improve relief distribution for unemployed workers during the Great Depression.
In 1937 she organized protests of the beating of migrants by US Border Patrol agents.
Like many artists and activists (including Frida Kahlo and Woody Guthrie) who were concerned about poor workers as industries grew powerful, Tenayuca joined the Communist Party in 1937. She was scheduled to speak at a meeting of the Communist Party in 1939, when organized opposition rioted at San Antonio's Municipal Auditorium. She received death threats and was blacklisted in San Antonio. She briefly relocated to Houston before moving to San Francisco, California to pursue a degree in education.
Throughout her life, Tenayuca was a vocal advocate for free speech and workers' rights, and a critic of many government policies. She was a dedicated student of political issues and processes. She expressed her belief in greater economic equality for citizens over expensive government relief programs.
In 1987, she told Jerry Poyo, with the Institute for Texan Cultures Oral History Program, "What started out as an organization for equal wages turned into a mass movement against starvation, for a minimum-wage law, and it changed the character of West Side San Antonio."
During Emma Tenayuca's 1999 eulogy, writer Carmen Tafolla read: "La Pasionaria, we called her, because she was our passion, because she was our heart -- defendiendo a los pobres, speaking out at a time when neither Mexicans nor women were expected to speak at all."
December 21, 1916 - July 23, 1999
| Emma Tenayuca is born in San Antonio, Texas | |
| 1924 | The U.S. Border Patrol is created. See a Timeline of the US-Mexico Border. |
| Tenayuca is profoundly affected by the events of the stock market crash (Black Tuesday) and the Great Depression, particularly the condition of workers. She listens to speeches on the plaza in San Antonio. | |
| 1932-1933 | Tenayuca joins protests of working conditions at the Finck Cigar Company. She is arrested at age 16. |
| 1934 | Tenayuca graduates from Brackenridge High School in San Antonio. |
| 1934-1935 | Tenayuca helps organize two branches of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union in San Antonio. |
| 1936 | Tenayuca lobbies Mayor Charles K. Quin to improve distribution of relief supplies. |
| 1937 | Tenayuca has become general secretary for ten Workers Alliance chapters by 1937. |
| 1937 | Tenayuca joins the Communist Party. |
| Tenayuca organizes Workers Alliance members to protest brutal beatings of migrants by US Border Patrol agents. | |
| June 30, 1937 | Tenayuca, national committeewoman for the Workers Alliance of America, is jailed for "disturbing the peace" during a nonviolent protest (a WPA sit-in). |
| Tenayuca is arrested for her role in organizing a labor strike of pecan shellers. | |
| 1938 | Tenayuca works with the Women's League for Peace and Freedom to feed striking pecan workers. |
| 1938 | Tenayuca marries Communist Party organizer Homer Brooks. |
| 1939 | Tenayuca becomes chairperson of the Texas Communist Party. |
| April 27, 1939 | Tenayuca and other members of the Workers Alliance stage a nonviolent demonstration at City Hall to protest the city's refusal to grant the organization a parade permit. |
| Tenayuca prepares to speak at a meeting of the Communist Party when a riot breaks out at Municipal Auditorium. Tenayuca receives death threats and is blacklisted in San Antonio. She relocates to Houston and soon moves to San Francisco, California. | |
| 1952 | Tenayuca receives teacher certification from San Francisco State College. |
| 1960s | Tenayuca returns to San Antonio in the late 1960s. |
| 1974 | Tenayuca receives her master's degree in education from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio. |
| 1982 | Tenayuca retires from Harlandale School District. |
| July 23, 1999 | Emma Tenayuca dies in San Antonio. |