Alicia Dickerson Montemayor facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Alicia Dickerson Montemayor
Born	Alice Dickerson (1902-08-06)August 6, 1902 Laredo, Webb County, Texas, United States
Died	May 13, 1989(1989-05-13) (aged 86)
Resting place	Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Laredo, Texas
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Laredo High School Laredo Junior College
Occupation	Political activist Community organizer
Known for	Vice President of the League of United Latin American Citizens
Spouse(s)	Francisco Montemayor, Sr.
Children	Francisco Montemayor, Jr. Aurelio Montemayor

Alicia Dickerson Montemayor (born August 6, 1902 – died May 13, 1989) was an important American civil rights activist from Laredo, Texas. She made history as the first woman to be elected to a national leadership role in the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) that wasn't specifically for women. She served as the vice president general.

Alicia was also the first woman to be an editor for the LULAC newspaper. She even wrote the first rules for starting a LULAC youth group. She strongly believed that girls and women should be included in activism. She also worked to help middle-class Mexican-Americans. Today, she is honored during Women's History Month by the National Women's History Project.

Early Life and Education

Alicia Dickerson was born in Laredo, Texas. Her parents were John Randolph Dickerson and Manuela Barrera. She had both Irish and Hispanic family roots. Alicia grew up speaking two languages, which was not common in many Mexican-American homes back then.

In 1924, she finished high school at what is now Martin High School in Laredo. After high school, Alicia wanted to study law. But her father passed away, so she stayed in Laredo to be with her mother. For one year, she took business classes in the evenings.

On September 8, 1927, she married Francisco Montemayor. They had two sons, Francisco Jr. and Aurelio.

Working as a Social Worker

In 1934, Alicia Montemayor became a social worker for Webb County. Her job was to help Mexican-American families get welfare support during the Great Depression. When she started, she faced challenges. She was not given an office key and sometimes had to work outside under a tree. Some white clients refused to work with her. At one point, she even needed a bodyguard for her safety.

In 1947, she went back to school. She studied for two years at the new Laredo Junior College. Alicia said she was inspired by many famous women. These included Marie Curie, Amelia Earhart, Frances Perkins, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Leading the League of United Latin American Citizens

In 1936, Alicia Montemayor helped start the women's group of LULAC in Laredo. This group had about thirty members. Most were married homemakers, secretaries, or other workers. Most had finished high school.

This LULAC women's council was very active.

• They encouraged women to vote.
• They supported women working outside the home.
• They helped abused children.
• They raised money for the Laredo orphanage and flood victims.
• They bought school supplies for children in need.
• They wrote a column in the local newspaper and in the LULAC News.
• They also traveled to LULAC conventions.
• They sponsored the Junior LULAC league.
• The women's council worked on its own, not just as a helper group for the men's council.

Alicia served as the first secretary for the local LULAC women's chapter from 1936 to 1937. She was president from 1938 to 1939. As secretary, she wrote news about her chapter for the LULAC News column "Around the Shield."

In 1937 and 1938, she was one of two women from Laredo to attend big LULAC meetings in Houston and El Paso. In Houston, she was the only woman on a five-person finance committee. In 1937, a committee mostly made of men chose her for a national position. After April 1940, her name stopped appearing in LULAC News. This marked the end of her time with the organization.

Becoming a National LULAC Leader

From 1937 to 1940, Alicia Montemayor held three important national jobs with LULAC:

• Second national vice-president general
• Associate editor of LULAC News
• Director general of Junior LULAC

She was the first woman to hold the second national vice-president general role. This job was not specifically for women. After her, other women continued to hold this position until it was removed in 1970. In this role, Montemayor worked to create more LULAC women's councils.

As an editor for LULAC News, she spoke up for women. She wrote an anonymous article called "Son Muy Hombres(?)" (Are They Really Men?). She wrote it after two unfair incidents involving men. In one case, a male LULAC member wrote that he hated being "under a woman" when Montemayor became vice president. In another incident, three letters from the El Paso Ladies' LULAC asking for help were ignored. The El Paso group left LULAC to avoid more problems.

In her article, Montemayor wrote: "My honest opinion of those who think in that line, is that they are cowardly and unfair, ignorant and narrow minded." She challenged any LULAC member to write an article supporting the idea of stopping women's councils or denying women equal rights.

Helping Young Latinos

In 1937, Mrs. Charles Ramirez from San Antonio's LULAC had the idea for Junior LULAC. She helped start the first group. In August 1938, Montemayor began writing articles to encourage senior LULAC councils to support youth groups. She wrote the first official rules for a youth chapter.

In March 1937, she started the second Junior LULAC council at her home. This chapter became one of the most active in LULAC. She invited both boys and girls to join the program. She believed that starting young would help them "abandon the egotism and petty jealousies so common today among our ladies' and men's councils." Her son, Francisco Montemayor, Jr., also supported mixed groups. He did not like the idea of all-girl groups.

Montemayor believed that Junior LULAC taught young people important leadership skills. These skills would help them become good citizens and future LULAC members. The youth learned how to debate, act, do public service, and improve their reading and writing skills.

Life After LULAC

In 1937, Alicia Montemayor opened a dress shop, but it did not succeed. She ran another dress shop between 1951 and 1956. In 1956, she worked as a substitute registrar for the Laredo Independent School District. She also worked at Christen Middle School until 1972.

Montemayor was very active in her local church, Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church. She played the organ, taught catechism (religious education), and started the first youth choir. She received a special blessing from the Pope for her work at the church.

Becoming a Folk Artist

After she retired, Alicia Montemayor became a folk artist. In 1973, she started growing gourds and then painted them. By 1976, she was painting with acrylics on tin and masonite.

Her art was shown in several places:

• In August 1978, she had a solo art show at Juarez–Lincoln University.
• In November 1979, she exhibited at Instituto Cultural Mexicano.
• Her work was also shown in Chicago, Mission, Texas, and Riverside, California.

She signed her artworks "Mom" or "Admonty." Her paintings often showed women, nature, and Mexican family life. She used bright colors, common in Mexican folk art. She also painted still lifes, landscapes, and portraits. Alicia Montemayor was one of several Texan women of Mexican descent who became known as folk artists. A children's reading book, Stories to Treasure/Cuentos para atesorar, featured some of her art.

In 1988, Montemayor was a special focus at the 59th Annual LULAC Convention at the Smithsonian Institution. She passed away the next year, in 1989. She is buried at the Laredo Catholic Cemetery.

Legacy

Alicia Montemayor's writings and records are kept at the University of Texas at Austin. They are part of the Benson Latin American Collection in the university library.

Her Role as a Feminist

Alicia Montemayor wrote more articles for LULAC than any other woman in its history. In her writings, she emphasized how important it was for adults and young people to think for themselves. Her first article was "We Need More Ladies Councils." In it, she asked women to take action and help inactive LULAC councils.

She called her fellow female LULAC members "sisters." She pointed out that at one annual meeting, there were 71 men's councils but only 15 women's councils. Even worse, only 26 men's councils and 4 women's councils actually attended. She believed that men created a competition between the councils. They claimed men were better than women. However, Montemayor argued that women were superior to men.

She publicly asked women to join LULAC to gain power and help close the gender gap. She believed women had "common sense." She said they could "see at a glance and penetrate into, in a second, what most men would not see with a searchlight or a telescope in an eternity." She thought women had a "super logic" and were better at finding the truth than men. She believed LULAC would not fully succeed until women helped men. She supported women taking a lead in LULAC. But she also stressed that women were important as caretakers of children.

Montemayor's time in LULAC was not always easy. In 1937, LULAC News mentioned problems with the Laredo chapters. It was reported that the Laredo LULAC men did not want the women's chapter to exist. Ezequiel D. Salinas, a judge and LULAC president from 1939 to 1940, reportedly disliked Montemayor. According to Montemayor, Salinas and the local men's groups refused to vote for her at national meetings. She wondered if their dislike was because of her as a person or because she was a woman. However, Montemayor said that other men's groups and members supported her work. She had good working relationships with many well-traveled and college-educated men in LULAC.

Images for kids

• 

  Alicia Dickerson Montemayor