Women were always among those who took to the streets in support of the civil rights movement alongside iconic figures like Cesar Chavez.
To honor them, the city of Phoenix is now ceremoniously renaming one of those streets — right in front of Santa Rita Hall, where activists gathered to plan events and speak their minds.
After Saturday morning, it’ll be known as Avenida Mujeres del Movimiento.
City councilman Carlos Galindo-Elvira said that they’re gathering a group of those women to honor it for the first time since 2007.
“It's been 18 years since we've been able to, as a community, say ‘thank you,’” he said. “And many are now. In, you know, the sunset of their lives, but we can't let the sun go down without saying thank you. ‘Thank you for being there.’ ‘Thank you for sustaining the movement.’ And ‘thank you for standing up for people who were voiceless and undefended.’”
Galindo-Elvira said that with a female-led city council, it’s especially important for Phoenix to recognize women’s contributions to local history.
“Women are not always given their moment, or given that honor,” said District 8 Councilwoman Kesha Hodge Washington. “We just wanted to recognize, you know, that they were seen and they were appreciated and they were valued.”
“And their courage is not forgotten,” added Galindo-Elvira, to which Hodge Washington agreed.
Hodge Washington said those who kept prayer vigils going, organized protest efforts or even came up with iconic rallying cries like Dolores Huerta’s ‘Si, se puede,’ may not have always been recognized.
Without them, she pointed out, “maybe we would not have seen the progress. But we also know that women were the organizers also in the field. They were the ones leading the strike. They were still doing the thing to move this forward.”
Irma Payan is a community archivist with Arizona Barrio Stories. She said ‘Avenida Mujeres del Movimiento’ is a proud symbol of how Latinos — and women especially — have undeniably contributed to Phoenix history.
“When I taught social studies, there is a little paragraph for Cesar Chavez, there’s a smaller paragraph of Dolores Huerta, and it’s like they’re– to me, they’re worthy of a lot more,” said Payan.
Hodge Washington said she hopes the new sign will serve as a thank-you gesture that inspires young women in the city to make their own mark on history.
