An extraordinary exploration of Latinas in the United States from the 1800s to the present, this collection of narrative biographies documents the lives of fifteen remarkable individuals who witnessed, defined, defied, and wrote about the forces that shaped their lives. Since the earliest
periods of Spanish American colonization, women have claimed public space and built communities, both as physical places and as cultural realms. As entrepreneurs, community activists, mystics, educators, feminists, labor organizers, artists and entertainers, many Latinas used the power of the pen
to traverse and transgress the social boundaries and cultural conventions of their time. Their diverse histories span two centuries and encompass a past of multiple conquests and migrations, taking into account race, region, gender, culture, and social location. Blending insights from history,
literary criticism, and cultural studies, this interdisciplinary anthology re-envisions Latina history taking into consideration gendered genealogies of power as charted through grassroots' activism, literature, education, and economic enterprise. Their legacies rest on the production and
dissemination of knowledge, which in turn reveals much about their own worldviews and historical agency. This anthology profiles Victoria Reid, Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Maria Gertrudis Barcelo, Loreta Janeta Velazquez, Luisa Capetillo, Lola Rodriguez de Tio, Teresa Urrea, Adelina Otero Warren,
Jovita Gonzalez Mireles, Pura Belpre, Luisa Moreno, Carmen Miranda, Antonia Pantoja, Ana Mendieta, and Dolores Huerta.

Spanning two centuries, this collection documents the lives of fifteen remarkable Latinas who witnessed, defined, defied, and wrote about the forces that shaped their lives. As entrepreneurs, community activists, mystics, educators, feminists, labor organizers, artists and entertainers, Latinas used the power of the pen to traverse and transgress cultural conventions.