Gloria Graciela Gallardo (October 16, 1938 - February 14, 2012)
was a
Chicana
Chicano (masculine form) or Chicana (feminine form) is an ethnic identity for Mexican Americans that emerged from the Chicano Movement.
In the 1960s, ''Chicano'' was widely reclaimed among Hispanics in the building of a movement toward politic ...
activist and former
religious sister
A religious sister (abbreviated: Sr.) in the Catholic Church is a woman who has taken public vows in a religious institute dedicated to apostolic works, as distinguished from a nun who lives a cloistered monastic life dedicated to prayer and ...
. She is best known for her involvement in the 1970 student boycotts in
Houston
Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
, coordinating the huelga schools and for co-founding
Las Hermanas.
Biography
Gallardo was born in
San Antonio
San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
. She became a member of the
Sisters of the Holy Ghost. After taking
vow
A vow ( Lat. ''votum'', vow, promise; see vote) is a promise or oath. A vow is used as a promise that is solemn rather than casual.
Marriage vows
Marriage vows are binding promises each partner in a couple makes to the other during a weddin ...
s, Gallardo began to work what was considered a "rough" part of town,
Alazán-Apache Courts in San Antonio. She worked for several years in
barrio
''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city delimited by functional (e.g. residential, comm ...
s in San Antonio.
In 1969, she was asked to come to Houston to work as the interim director of the
Mexican American Education Council (MAEC). In this capacity, she helped support student boycotts against unfair policies, protested and spoke publicly for MAEC. Gallardo was a leader in the Mexican American
boycott
A boycott is an act of nonviolent resistance, nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for Morality, moral, society, social, politics, political, or Environmenta ...
of the Houston public schools in the early 1970s. In September 1970, she set up special schools, called strike or
huelga schools, for students to get an education while they were boycotting the school district.
Gallardo met Sister
Gregoria Ortega through a friend, Father Edmundo Rodriguez in 1970.
Together, they worked to identify Hispanic nuns in the United States and invited them to join a group. While they were working on the project, Ortega, who had recently been fired from her diocese had no income, and Gallardo shared her salary from her work with the Galveston-Houston diocese.
Gallardo and Ortega then worked together to invite Mexican American nuns to create an organization for Spanish speaking religious women in April 1971.
The group was formed and called
Las Hermanas. Gallardo was elected to be the first president of Las Hermanas at this first meeting. Gallardo also edited their newsletter, Informes, which was first sent out on September 19, 1971.
In 1972, Gallardo resigned from the leadership team of Las Hermanas. She didn't like the change in direction the organization was taking.
Eventually Gallardo left religious life and was married. She had a son, Ervey Longoria, in 1977.
Gallardo died in 2012.
References
Citations
Sources
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External links
Gloria Gallardo Longoria(gravestone)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallardo, Gloria
1938 births
2012 deaths
Activists from San Antonio
20th-century American Roman Catholic nuns
Activists from Houston
Catholics from Texas
21st-century American Roman Catholic nuns