As a Mexican-American journalist, activist, and suffragist, Jovita Idár often faced dangerous situations. However, she never backed down from a challenge. She single-handedly protected her newspaper headquarters when the Texas Rangers came to shut it down, and crossed the border to serve as a nurse during the Mexican Revolution. Idár bravely fought the injustices in her time.
Ximena Cuevas is a Mexican video performance artist, whose work often explores the social and gender issues that lesbians face in Mexico. She is one of Mexico’s first video artists to be recognised by major American cultural institutions. Her videos and films have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and the touring film series, Mexperimental Cinema, as well as New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum, Berkeley Art Museum, Contemporary Art Museum of San Diego, and the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo de la Ciudad de México. In 2001, MoMA acquired nine of Cuevas’ videos for the museum’s permanent collection, which was the first time a Mexican video artist’s work had been included in MoMA’s collection; 24 of her videos are in now in the collection.
Cuevas has been recognized by the Mexican government as a significant contributor to videography. Many of her films offer social commentary on corruption and its impact on culture, society and politics, and explore from a feminist perspective the place of women in society, particularly lesbians.
After becoming disillusioned with traditional films being made in Mexico and internationally, Cuevas purchased a camera and began producing her own films in 1990. Her work is known for its subtle irony of evaluating contemporary society and exposing the disconnect between social customs and beliefs versus the reality of living using a combination of truth and fiction. She deconstructs myths of the “typical middle-class Mexican family”, heteronormative relationships and concepts of beauty, by parodying the ridiculousness of their traditional portrayal in popular culture. In her own words, her films reveal the “half lies” of the collective Mexican imagination. Among her noted works is the 1993 video clip entitled “Corazon Sangrante”.
Teresa Villarreal González was a feminist, labor organizer, and political activist who supported the Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM) and the Mexican Revolution (1910–17).
Maria Gertrudis “Tules” Barceló was a saloon owner and master gambler in Santa Fe in the Territory of New Mexico in the 1830s-1850s.
Andrea Villarreal was a teacher, poet, feminist, labor organizer, and revolutionary.
A Mexican politician and member of the National Action Party (PAN), Martha Érika Alonso served as the first female governor of Puebla from 14 December 2018 until her death ten days later in a helicopter crash. As the wife of her predecessor, she had served as the state’s first lady from Februray 2011 to February 2017.