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This post is more than two years old. Read it with that in mind. Thank you.
Oct 13 2017

25 for 25: Ernest Rodriguez and Estefania Rodriguez

Posted on October 13, 2017January 18, 2021 by Anna Tunnicliff
A few of the Rodriguez children.

Ernest and Estefania Rodriguez’s father, Norberto, migrated to the United States from the state of Jalisco, Mexico in 1910. He met their mother, Muggie Adams, an African-American woman from Alabama in Iowa. The Rodriguez family lived in Holy City, a box car community in Bettendorf, Iowa for several years, and Ernest and Estefania both worked in the onion fields in nearby Pleasant Valley. As adults, both siblings were active in the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council 10 in Davenport and Ernest promoted civil rights through his work with the Davenport Human Relations Commission and the Quad City Grape Boycott Committee.

Maritza Lopez-Campos is a senior at the University of Iowa majoring in social work. She began working at the Iowa Women’s Archives last spring. Since then, she has read oral history interviews and delved into the collections that make up the Mujeres Latinas project. She connected with the stories of immigrants and their families that she found and recently shared some of these in a presentation at Muscatine Community College. Here, Lopez-Campos explains what working with the Mujeres Latinas project has meant to her:

As a student worker at the Iowa Women’s Archives, I have had the pleasure of working on a project that speaks to me, the Mujeres Latinas in Iowa. Through this, I have realized the

Maritza Lopez-Campos, senior, University of Iowa

commonalities I have with the women who contributed their oral interviews. The celebrations of la Virgen de Guadalupe, strict parents, not knowing English when beginning school, and the experience of discrimination told within them, I have also experienced. Perhaps the stories that most inspire me are the ones of growing up with non-English speaking, immigrant parents who spend their entire lives working so their children can have better lives. As a daughter of immigrant parents, their resiliency (perhaps the most common theme of the Mujeres Latinas project) is contagious; this makes me able to navigate being a proud Latina in the United States. These are not only stories of Latinx people immigrating to Iowa, but of living lives worthy of admiration, respect, and celebration.

– Maritza Campos-Lopez, University of Iowa 2017

This post is a part of the Iowa Women’s Archives’ 25th anniversary exhibit: 25 Collections for 25 Years: Selections from the Iowa Women’s Archives on display until December 29th at the Main Library Gallery. Gallery hours are available on the Main Library website. 

Posted in 25th Anniversary, Exhibits, From the collections, In the news, IWA Update, UncategorizedTagged 25 for 25, 25th anniversary, Ernest Rodriguez, Estefania Joyce Rodriguez, Maritza Lopez-Campos, Muggie Belva Adams Rodriguez, mujeres latinas, myiwa

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25 for 25: Evelyn Birkby
25 for 25: Lenabelle Bock

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