Five Hundred Years of Latina Role Models
Celebrating Seven Inspiring Latina Women Who Changed History Across Five Centuries
Five Hundred Years of Latina Role Models
By Irma Orozco
Growing up, every girl needs a role model she can admire. Albert Bandura substantiated this in his book Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. In Chapter 3, “Sources of Self-Efficacy,” he outlines how vicarious experiences—in which one sees similar people succeed through sustained effort—raise the observer's belief that he or she also possesses the capabilities to master comparable activities. Bandura argues that people develop their sense of “I can do this” through enactive mastery experiences, which he identifies as the most powerful source from which to derive an “I’ve done it before” feeling.
Personally, I was lucky to have had a great role model in my mother, Aurora Estrada Orozco, who was a bilingual civil rights and community leader, author, and mother to six children, all of whom graduated from college. This year, I will be publishing the book To Saint Michael’s Circle / A la rueda de San Miguel, which showcases her poems, short stories, and essays.
Unfortunately, many girls do not have such a role model. For this reason, I am providing brief profiles of Latina role models who have led productive lives and achieved incredible things. While there are many deserving women of all cultures, I chose to highlight Latina women because they do not often receive the spotlight. Looking back over the last 500 years, girls can find inspiration in 15th-century Spanish Queen Isabella I, who unified her country; 16th-century Mesoamerican interpreter and strategist Doña Marina; 17th-century feminist and scholar Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz; 18th-century rancher Rosa María Hinojosa de Ballí; 19th-century insurrectionist Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez; 20th-century Mexican Revolution leader María del Carmen Serdán Alatriste; and 21st-century labor organizer Dolores Huerta.
15th Century: Isabella I (1451–1504)
Isabella I, often called Isabella the Catholic, was one of the most powerful queens in history. Together with her husband, Ferdinand II of Aragon, she is credited with uniting Spain, lowering the crime rate, conquering Granada, and modernizing the government. Their reign changed the map of the world, setting the stage for Spain to become a global superpower.
Isabella is famously credited with financing Christopher Columbus in 1492, laying claim to the Americas. Consequently, Spain experienced three centuries of dominance that fostered the Spanish Golden Age. She encouraged colonization while also dictating the humane treatment of Indigenous peoples, decreeing them subjects of the Crown.
16th Century: Malintzin / Doña Marina (c. 1500–1527)
Malintzin, or Doña Marina, rose from slavery to become an interpreter and strategist during the conquest of the Aztecs and later a wealthy landowner. Commonly referred to as “La Malinche,” she was born near Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz. Sold into slavery at a young age to the Tabasco people, she was later given to the Spanish to seal a peace pact.
Because she spoke both Mayan and Nahuatl, she became the indispensable interpreter for Hernán Cortés. An astute advisor, she warned Cortés of plots against the Spaniards. She is considered the mother of the mestizos—people of mixed heritage—having given birth to Cortés’ son, Martín.
After marrying Captain Juan Jaramillo in 1524, the couple received a large land grant and settled in Jilotepec. Shortly afterward, they welcomed a daughter, María. She died in 1527 in Mexico City, possibly from smallpox. While once labeled a traitor in popular culture, modern scholars have reconsidered her role, noting that she owed no allegiance to the Aztecs, who had subjugated her people.
17th Century: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651–1695)
A child prodigy, Juana Inés de Asbaje—later known as Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz—learned to read at age three. Although of humble origins and born out of wedlock, she became one of the most revered 17th-century authors in both Spain and New Spain.
After serving as a lady-in-waiting in the viceregal court, she entered the Order of Saint Jerome in 1669 to dedicate her life to study. A leading exponent of the Baroque movement, her work First Dream (El Primer Sueño) explores the soul’s quest for universal wisdom.
Her famous poem “You Foolish Men” (Hombres necios) criticized the double standards of men, while her essay Response to Sister Philotea (Respuesta a Sor Filotea) defended a woman’s right to an education. Beyond literature, she studied astronomy, music, and science. She died in 1695 while caring for those afflicted during a plague epidemic in Mexico City.
18th Century: Rosa María Hinojosa de Ballí (1752–1803)
Rosa María Hinojosa de Ballí was a titan of the ranching industry in New Spain. Benefiting from Spanish colonial laws regarding female property ownership, she took over her family’s interests in 1788 after the deaths of her husband and father.
Utilizing her legal acumen, she expanded her holdings to nearly one million acres, encompassing parts of Tamaulipas, Mexico, and a large portion of what is today the Texas Lower Rio Grande Valley. She personally administered tens of thousands of livestock and was instrumental in developing the infrastructure for what is now Port Isabel and Padre Island.
Known as “La Patrona,” she was a major philanthropist who financed the first stone church in Reynosa and supported smaller ranching families with tools and livestock.
19th Century: Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez (1768–1829)
Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez was a key conspirator in the movement to liberate Mexico from Spanish rule. Although she was the wife of Querétaro mayor Miguel Domínguez under New Spain, she bravely hosted secret meetings in her home with Priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and Captain Ignacio Allende.
When the plot was discovered in September 1810, she managed to send a warning to Father Hidalgo, triggering the “Grito de Dolores” and the start of the War of Independence. Despite being imprisoned for several years because of her convictions, she remained defiant, famously stating:
“One must not punish those who serve the homeland, but rather those who serve themselves at its expense.”
She died of pleurisy in Mexico City on March 2, 1829, at the age of sixty-one.
20th Century: María del Carmen Serdán Alatriste (1873–1948)
A native of Puebla, Carmen Serdán was a vital leader of the Mexican Revolution, which sought to end the 30-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. Using the pseudonym “Marcos Serrato,” she wrote for newspapers to spread Francisco I. Madero’s anti-reelectionist ideals.
She and her brother, Aquiles, turned their home into an armory. When government troops attacked in November 1910, she bravely defended the house from the balcony. After the revolution, she served as a nurse in military hospitals and worked in diplomatic delegations. She spent her later years preserving the legacy of her family’s revolutionary sacrifice.
21st Century: Dolores Huerta (b. 1930)
Co-founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW) alongside César Chávez, Dolores Huerta has spent her life fighting for the rights of migrant workers. Through her work as a labor leader and organizer, she has helped thousands of farmworkers obtain better wages and living conditions.
From 1962 to 1999, she served as first vice president of the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the UFW. During this time, she helped establish the Farm Workers Service Center, which included a credit union, health clinics, and death benefits for laborers.
A skilled negotiator, she was instrumental in the 1970 Delano grape strike contracts and the 1975 Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which gave California farmworkers the right to collective bargaining. In 2002, she established the Dolores Huerta Foundation to develop community leaders. Her work has earned her the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
During the last 500 years, Latina women have championed human rights, civil rights, women’s rights, sovereignty, and better living conditions—helping to improve continents, countries, communities, and lives. Such exceptional women include Spanish Queen Isabella I, Mesoamerican interpreter and strategist Doña Marina, Baroque author Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, cattle baroness Rosa María Hinojosa de Ballí, Mexican Independence heroine Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, Mexican Revolution leader María del Carmen Serdán Alatriste, and union leader Dolores Huerta.
Their legacy proves that women are invaluable contributors to society, and their stories can—and should—inspire girls and young women to continue improving the world for generations to come.
