The National Hispanic Cultural Center’s History and Literary Arts Program presents a new exhibit, “El voto femenino: Sufragistas Latinas luchando por el derecho al voto/The Women’s Vote: Latina Suffragists who Fought for the Right to Vote” which opens on Friday, January 24, 2020, and runs through June 30, 2020.
There will be a free opening reception on Friday, January 24, 2020, from 6-8 pm in the historic History and Literary Arts (HLA) Building on the NHCC campus, where the exhibit is on display.
The exhibit features women from 24 countries in the international Hispanic diaspora who were instrumental in women’s suffrage, including Nina Otero Warren (New Mexico, US), Bertha Lutz (Brazil), Mathilde Hidalgo de Procel (Ecuador), Elvia Carrillo Puerto (Mexico), Ofelia Domínguez Navarro (Cuba), Elena Caffarena (Chile), Josefa Llanes Escoda (Philippines) and Jovita Idar (Texas, US).
Organized by decade and countries, the exhibit features photographs, narrative, objects (including household items), books and documents that illuminate the fight for suffrage by Latinas worldwide.
The exhibit also features a companion piece, “Pan American Unity,” a mural in woodblock by Albuquerque artist Julianna Kirwin. Kirwin replaced Diego Rivera’s Founding Fathers (in one of the panels of his 1940 “Pan American Unity” mural in San Francisco) with powerful women in the Americas who have shaped its destiny: Berta Cáceres, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Dolores Huerta, Michelle Bachelet, Joy Harjo, Deb Haaland, Isabel Allende, Helen Cordero, Emma Gonzalez and María Martínez.
The exhibit is free and open to the public during hours of operation in the HLA building: Tuesday-Friday from 8:30 am – 5:30 pm and the first Saturday of the month from 1-5 pm.
“El voto femenino” also commemorates the centennial of the U.S. women’s vote which is being celebrated nationwide in 2020. Programming related to both to the exhibit and the centennial will take place in History and Literary Arts through June 30, 2020.