Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff
Speaker 1: I've never told you auction. I heart radio. It's time
Speaker 1: for another female first, which means we were once again
Speaker 1: so lucky to be joined by our good friend Eaves
Speaker 1: High Eaves. Hey, y'all, what's up. We're so excited to
Speaker 1: see you as always. You've been doing some traveling, haven't you.
Speaker 1: I have just a little bit spreading my wings a little. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got to spread those wings eventually my mom. I
Speaker 1: talked to my mom yesterday and she was like, are
Speaker 1: you still like a hermit in your apartment? And I
Speaker 1: said absolutely as I am. Nothing ex changed on my end,
Speaker 1: but I am feeling, especially now, like the weather. It's spring,
Speaker 1: it's nice outside, and I've been feeling that want to
Speaker 1: go and yeah, spread my wings. Yeah. I don't know
Speaker 1: why I went like nineties or early two thousands popped
Speaker 1: with the reference of spreading the wings, but I like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the weather that gets me in the mood. I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, ready to take the top off on the
Speaker 1: well that too, because but clear and you know, get
Speaker 1: a little bit of sunlight and fresh air on the skin,
Speaker 1: a little bit of hammock time. My birthday is coming up,
Speaker 1: so it's a lot of things that makes me a
Speaker 1: little you know, more rejuvenated around this time of a year.
Speaker 1: So it was good to start this time with a
Speaker 1: little bit of a little bit of travel. Nice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the sun has finally come out. We are now we
Speaker 1: are now spring forward, so we have a little more daylight.
Speaker 1: So that feels nice, except at the same time awful
Speaker 1: because I want to sleep. But yes, that's that sun
Speaker 1: and warmth. Actually was on a rooftop this weekend. Acting
Speaker 1: like these were normal threw me off and I realized
Speaker 1: I don't know how to behave Yeah, the sun was nice, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: And Eves, I was gonna ask, because your birthday is
Speaker 1: coming up as we record this, did you do you
Speaker 1: have any plans anything you're excited about? Um? Not really, honestly.
Speaker 1: I mean I think the travel did kind of wear
Speaker 1: me out, Like I want to chill at home for
Speaker 1: a little bit, so I will, you know, probably do
Speaker 1: a little dancing, but um, listening to music, you know,
Speaker 1: being celebratory in those ways. But I don't have any
Speaker 1: plans to go anywhere, to go anywhere or anything, just
Speaker 1: the usual being at home. Feels nice, you know, even
Speaker 1: though I've been at home for a long time. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just being settled. Yeah, that's all. Yeah. I think
Speaker 1: there's a difference between like being home and then being
Speaker 1: home and intentionally doing something you want, like relaxing, especially
Speaker 1: now since a lot of us in this business anyway,
Speaker 1: I'm working from home all the time, so I think
Speaker 1: like taking that time intentionally of being I'm not working.
Speaker 1: This is my my time to relax and be me
Speaker 1: and do what I want. It's important, Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1: I'm going to um do a half day meditation sit
Speaker 1: this weekend that Reverend angel Kioto Williams um. I don't
Speaker 1: know if people are familiar with her, but she does
Speaker 1: half day sit sometimes, so I have. It's been a
Speaker 1: while since I've done one of those, and I'm just like,
Speaker 1: I really need to get back into my longer meditation
Speaker 1: practices because typically I keep them pretty short as a
Speaker 1: matter of convenience, because I'm like, I know that this
Speaker 1: is a thing that you know, if you have five minutes,
Speaker 1: take the five minutes. And I do that a lot,
Speaker 1: and I used to have kind of because you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of gotten used to that telling myself.
Speaker 1: I know I'm in my practice because I'm doing the
Speaker 1: five minutes and I'm just like, the longer practices have
Speaker 1: kind of gone by the wayside, so i want to
Speaker 1: get back into that. So I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1: That's I think recentering, like my birthday, the start of
Speaker 1: a new year personal year is a good time to
Speaker 1: think about recentering and grounded myself again and like what
Speaker 1: I want in the upcoming my upcoming personal year. And
Speaker 1: that's one of those things. So that's not the most
Speaker 1: flashy thing to do to celebrate your person. It's a
Speaker 1: lot of discipline, Like, like to actually do that length
Speaker 1: of meditation, I'm not gonna lie, makes me a little
Speaker 1: anxious think about it. I'm like, wow, that, I mean,
Speaker 1: it takes a lot of discipline. Like the most I
Speaker 1: can do is ten minutes, and even then I'm like,
Speaker 1: maybe I just maybe I can find the two minute one,
Speaker 1: and I find a two minute one. What's the two
Speaker 1: minute one? Which still feels like uh yeah, And to
Speaker 1: be clear, you get up. Usually there's time for walking
Speaker 1: meditation in between periods of seated meditating, because I mean,
Speaker 1: the bones aren't like they used to be the bones. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but seriously, you know it's it can be a lot
Speaker 1: to sit for. You know, you can really cater cater
Speaker 1: it to what you need for your own body and
Speaker 1: your own personal practice. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Well,
Speaker 1: Happy happy early birthday from us here. It's I'm sure
Speaker 1: all listeners are sending you birthday wishes. Maybe there's more
Speaker 1: champagne and cheesecake in our future, but yes, uh, for now,
Speaker 1: why don't we jump in? Who did you bring for us?
Speaker 1: Today's So I just want to give a content warning
Speaker 1: at the top of this episode because there is mention
Speaker 1: of racial violence. So if that is something that you're
Speaker 1: sensitive to, please skip this episode or come back to
Speaker 1: it at a time when you feel like you're more
Speaker 1: ready to listen to it. So today we're gonna be
Speaker 1: talking about Hevida Dar and her first was she was
Speaker 1: the founder and the first president of the Liga Feminial Mexicanista,
Speaker 1: so that is her first um and she has a
Speaker 1: super interesting history. And I think Spanish has just been
Speaker 1: on the brain because we have been traveling, they have
Speaker 1: been Spanish speaking countries, so maybe that's why I also
Speaker 1: feel like we haven't touched on a lot of I've
Speaker 1: been trying to bring people from countries that we haven't
Speaker 1: touched on before. And I don't think we've talked about
Speaker 1: Mexican history, and even if we have, it definitely hasn't
Speaker 1: been a lot. So as you can tell by the
Speaker 1: title Liga feminial Mexicanista Um, she was of Mexican descent um.
Speaker 1: She was born on September seven, eight five in Laredo, Texas.
Speaker 1: She had seven siblings and her parents were Hevida and
Speaker 1: Nicasio dar Her family had she did girl getting an education,
Speaker 1: so there were Education was a big topic of concern
Speaker 1: for her later in her life as we get into
Speaker 1: the things that she was active around, but it was
Speaker 1: also something that a lot of people of Mexican descent
Speaker 1: in Texas did not have access to, and when they did,
Speaker 1: it wasn't it was education in the many forms that
Speaker 1: we know. So when we think of our education in
Speaker 1: the United States, it's specifically when it comes to history
Speaker 1: and when it comes to people who are of marginalized identities.
Speaker 1: The history is told from a singular perspective. A lot
Speaker 1: of times it's anglocentric, it can be propagandistic when it
Speaker 1: comes to the way that it speaks about wars, so
Speaker 1: it was then and it is today, it is today still,
Speaker 1: as we often say, something that people were aware of
Speaker 1: and conscious of and really against the way that education
Speaker 1: was posed to children who were in school. But yeah,
Speaker 1: she did have access to education. She attended the Holding Institute,
Speaker 1: which was a Methodist school in Laredo, and she earned
Speaker 1: a teaching certificate from the school in nineteen o three,
Speaker 1: and after that she went on to teach at a
Speaker 1: school in a Jolos in southern Texas, but she soon
Speaker 1: left and went to work with her brothers and fathers.
Speaker 1: Is told that the way that the conditions were in
Speaker 1: the school and what she cared about and the values
Speaker 1: that she had drove her to leave the school. Her father, Nicasio,
Speaker 1: was a newspaper editor and a publisher and an activist.
Speaker 1: He was also a Laredo City marshal and a Justice
Speaker 1: of the Peace. So their family was heavily involved in
Speaker 1: the community activism spaces and political spaces as well. It's
Speaker 1: something that they worked on separately and as a family.
Speaker 1: So it's definitely like a family venture to be engaged
Speaker 1: and actually active even the things that they cared about,
Speaker 1: whether that was in the form of communication through newspapers
Speaker 1: or activism in political circles. So the name of the
Speaker 1: paper that her father was an editor of was La
Speaker 1: cronica Um, which would be like the Chronicle in English.
Speaker 1: It covered those issues that they cared about that were
Speaker 1: important to many Mexican Americans in Texas. A little background
Speaker 1: on what Mexican Americans were dealing with at the time.
Speaker 1: They faced discrimination in the nineteenth century as there was
Speaker 1: that the Mexican American War ended in eighteen forty eight,
Speaker 1: and then white Americans continued to move to the west.
Speaker 1: This history of manifest destiny and like kind of quote
Speaker 1: unquote conquering them lands. As white Americans moved westward in
Speaker 1: the country, there were a lot of conflicts between white
Speaker 1: Americans and Mexican Americans, and this continued into the twentieth century.
Speaker 1: There were lots of disputes that included violence. White Americans
Speaker 1: who weren't of Mexican descent were acquiring land off of
Speaker 1: people in Texas who were of Mexican descent, and segregation
Speaker 1: and disenfranchisement were a big part of that history as well.
Speaker 1: They used those tactics to gain power in Texas and
Speaker 1: particularly on the Mexico Texas border, there was violence. So
Speaker 1: Texas had the most instances of violence against Mexican Americans,
Speaker 1: and there is a huge history of lynchings on Mexican
Speaker 1: Americans in Texas. As with other lynchings, the purported causes
Speaker 1: could be. They could range anywhere from like this person
Speaker 1: committed murder against an Anglo American or some thing super insignificant,
Speaker 1: like they cheated in a card game. So as we
Speaker 1: know the history of well, I don't know. I can't
Speaker 1: assume that everybody knows the history of lynchings. But a
Speaker 1: lot of times mob violence murder like gruesome murder, and
Speaker 1: then in the aftermath of that murder grewsome gruesome displays
Speaker 1: of that murder were meeted out against people who were
Speaker 1: deemed to have done something wrong in their eyes, whether
Speaker 1: that thing was actually happened or didn't actually happen. So
Speaker 1: there was a huge history of lynchings against Mexican Americans
Speaker 1: at the time. And you can learn a lot more
Speaker 1: about that history at Refusing to Forget dot org, which
Speaker 1: has talked about a lot of it. But just know
Speaker 1: that in the early nineteen hundreds they faced this physical
Speaker 1: violence as well as voter suppression tactics and there was
Speaker 1: this mythologizing of people of Mexican descent in the United
Speaker 1: States around them being threats and that they needed to
Speaker 1: be feared because they were going to link up with
Speaker 1: black folks and start revolts. A lot of propagandizing around
Speaker 1: Mexican Americans being dangerous people based on their color, based
Speaker 1: on their race, so they were treated as lower class,
Speaker 1: as inferior as people, as was shown through those lynchings,
Speaker 1: who many white Americans would prefer did. But moving on
Speaker 1: from that history and back to how Vida EIDs history
Speaker 1: is related to it. Latronica, the newspaper that I mentioned
Speaker 1: earlier that her father edited, was invested in documenting the
Speaker 1: civil rights issues that their family cared about that and
Speaker 1: that Mexican Americans and Texas faced. So Hovida was exposed
Speaker 1: to these political, economic, and social issues early on and
Speaker 1: all the activist an advocacy that her family was involved
Speaker 1: with against these injustices. She wrote articles criticizing the conditions
Speaker 1: that they Hano's or Texans of Mexican descent, using the
Speaker 1: pseudonym yesterdaya so she could keep her image quote unquote clean,
Speaker 1: you know, because she was still a woman writing about
Speaker 1: these things that she was very impassionate about, so it
Speaker 1: was hopeful for her to write under a pseudonym. Vida
Speaker 1: Dar also wanted schools to focus on teaching the children
Speaker 1: Spanish and English, and she wanted them to teach Mexican
Speaker 1: and Mexican American history in addition to the history that
Speaker 1: they usually taught, which was very anglocentric. So she also
Speaker 1: wrote about racism and anti Mexican discrimination and poverty and
Speaker 1: a lot of the issues that Mexican Americans were facing
Speaker 1: in Texas at the time. And beyond the news and
Speaker 1: essays that were in the newspaper, Lacronica also published literary
Speaker 1: works like poetry, and in the September of nineteen eleven,
Speaker 1: the Dad family organized a conference that was called the
Speaker 1: Congresso Mexicanista in response to the racism and discrimination and
Speaker 1: violence that people were facing at the time. There were
Speaker 1: leaders from the US and from Mexico who joined the conference,
Speaker 1: and just after that congress, Dad established La Liga Feminale Mexicanista,
Speaker 1: the League of Mexican Women. Members were mostly of the
Speaker 1: working class, which was something that was important because a
Speaker 1: lot of the time, people who were of the working
Speaker 1: class didn't have as much of a voice and a
Speaker 1: lot of the political goings on. The LEAGA focused on
Speaker 1: providing education for impoverished Mexican American children and it also
Speaker 1: provided food and clothing to people. They did events to
Speaker 1: raise funds for their charity work, and she advocated for
Speaker 1: women's suffrage and she wrote about it in Lacronica. Dar
Speaker 1: was also involved in nursing, so she during the Mexican
Speaker 1: Revolution in nineteen thirteen, after the attack on Nuevo Laredo,
Speaker 1: which is just on the other side of the Mexican
Speaker 1: American border, right across from Laredo on the U S side,
Speaker 1: Holda went to Mexico to help care for the injured there,
Speaker 1: and later she joined La Cruz Blanca or the White Cross,
Speaker 1: and she traveled in northern Mexico volunteering as a nurse.
Speaker 1: And a little on the history of La Cruz Blanca
Speaker 1: what it was a volunteer service that was similar to
Speaker 1: the Red Cross. It was created to help people who
Speaker 1: have been hurt in the conflict, but the Red Cross
Speaker 1: itself didn't help insurgents, so the people who were in
Speaker 1: the forces who were opposed to the dictator ship of
Speaker 1: Portfrario Diaz, the Red Cross did not help them, so
Speaker 1: La cruz Blanca did. A brigade of La Cruz Blanca
Speaker 1: was founded by Leonard Viegas de Magnone, who was friends
Speaker 1: with Jovia Dar, and she also wrote for Lacronka. So
Speaker 1: eventually Dar went back to Texas. She joined the editorial
Speaker 1: staff of a newspaper called El Progresso, and when it
Speaker 1: published a piece criticizing US involvement in the Mexican Revolution,
Speaker 1: the governor of Texas ordered Texas Rangers to destroy the paper.
Speaker 1: So Texas Rangers were also a part of committing the
Speaker 1: violence that was inflicted upon Mexicans and Mexican Americans that
Speaker 1: I spoke about earlier around the lynchings. But yeah, so
Speaker 1: they came to destroy the paper. She tried to block
Speaker 1: them from doing so. And I feel like this is
Speaker 1: one of those stories that it is so good at
Speaker 1: like mythologizing a person because it's her being an upstanding
Speaker 1: being and you know, standing in the way like to
Speaker 1: to demand justice in a way because you can kind
Speaker 1: of imagine her in the power post saying do not
Speaker 1: come here, you will not destroy this free press. So
Speaker 1: but yeah, it was one of those those moments and
Speaker 1: she tried to block them from doing so they left
Speaker 1: and then came back and it was destroyed. But her
Speaker 1: brother Eduardo, like I said, her family was also super
Speaker 1: involved in activism and her brothers. One of her brothers
Speaker 1: is Eduardo. He was invested in the causes that she
Speaker 1: cared about, including women's rights. She and Eduardo established another
Speaker 1: newspaper called Evolution, and in nineteen seventeen she married Bartelo
Speaker 1: horror Is. She and her husband moved to San Antonio
Speaker 1: in Texas, and according to author Nancy Baker Jones, she
Speaker 1: was an active member of the Democratic Party. When she
Speaker 1: was there, she established a kindergarten um, she worked as
Speaker 1: an interpreter for Spanish speaking patients in a hospital, and
Speaker 1: she was editor of a publication of the Methodist Church.
Speaker 1: And so she continued to do a lot of the
Speaker 1: similar types of work that she was involved in when
Speaker 1: she was in Laredo. Dar died in San Antonio in
Speaker 1: June of nineteen and the Federico idar And and and dar
Speaker 1: family papers are located in the Nettie Lee Vinson Latin
Speaker 1: American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin, and
Speaker 1: it has photos and documents of the family and yeah,
Speaker 1: so her history has been acknowledged and celebrated in certain
Speaker 1: ways in the work that she did in some of
Speaker 1: the early feminist organizing and for Mexican American people is acknowledged.
Speaker 1: Her story was really amazing and she was involved in
Speaker 1: so much different things. I was reading It's like, oh, wow,
Speaker 1: she did this newspaper that, oh well, she was a nurse,
Speaker 1: was there was a teacher like just very you can tell,
Speaker 1: cared about people and cared about these issues and wanted
Speaker 1: to make the most impact and too connect with the
Speaker 1: most people. And very very inspiring all that she did.
Speaker 1: I love that we talk about people who are missing
Speaker 1: in the conversation of the suff ragette movement and the
Speaker 1: big names that we know, and here was one who
Speaker 1: was iconically doing something that was beyond and it seems
Speaker 1: alone she was doing it. I don't know, it's because
Speaker 1: I'm just learning about her, because you're bringing her to us,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what this is in Texas? And yeah,
Speaker 1: you can't help but like play the fact that this
Speaker 1: is like the West, the bad you know, like the
Speaker 1: big bad West area where it does feel like it's
Speaker 1: a little more free for all. In my head, I've
Speaker 1: watched way too many Westerns, But in my mind, like
Speaker 1: and she was out there really bringing out some big
Speaker 1: conversations about what it is to have the women's right
Speaker 1: to vote and the fact that women should be educated
Speaker 1: and if a woman is educated, then that means it's
Speaker 1: going to help everyone overall, and having these like amazing
Speaker 1: breakthrough ideas that seems so bit like, actually it doesn't
Speaker 1: because again kind of saying conversations I've had before as
Speaker 1: the pessim is was like, oh, look we're here, You're
Speaker 1: still We're still here. Okay, cool, But the fact that
Speaker 1: she was there and standing tall, yes, and in my
Speaker 1: head she's also standing tall and from that door, blocking
Speaker 1: whom ever trying to get in the way to destroy
Speaker 1: her work. Like that, that is like an iconic picture
Speaker 1: in my head. Now I don't want to rouined ever,
Speaker 1: but like that that she was doing this and seemingly
Speaker 1: well one movement, the same movement was happening so far away.
Speaker 1: She was doing it for her area and really truly
Speaker 1: fighting as a voice, as a Mexican American voice who yes,
Speaker 1: has relative privilege, but at the same time she's still
Speaker 1: a Mexican woman who was not white. So that in
Speaker 1: itself wasn't barrier for her, but she was standing strongest
Speaker 1: phenomenal I think so, and and a lot of the
Speaker 1: histories that she was connected to also are super interesting
Speaker 1: to dive into because La Cruz Blanca an organization that
Speaker 1: was started by women as well, you know, they have
Speaker 1: their own histories of the work that they did that
Speaker 1: was also super important at the time. And just knowing
Speaker 1: that her family was so established in in the work
Speaker 1: that they did was also just like, it seems like
Speaker 1: she was linked to so many different kind of circles
Speaker 1: of people who have fascinating histories as well, which is
Speaker 1: like a love that I love when that happens when
Speaker 1: we're doing these female first because it just gives you
Speaker 1: more room to fall into the rabbit hole like ones
Speaker 1: you didn't know about. So yeah, I think it's pretty
Speaker 1: I love that too. In this story, there's multiple instances
Speaker 1: of oh that doesn't exist, I'll do it then, of
Speaker 1: like women being like, oh wait what then I'll start it.
Speaker 1: That's always that's always fun. I did get to see
Speaker 1: this picture of her and her family at the press
Speaker 1: um and she's the only woman standing aligned and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, Like she really they they as a
Speaker 1: family unit was seemed to be a powerhouse. And that's
Speaker 1: phenomenal in itself, because not too often our stories share
Speaker 1: the fact that you have that support. And not only that,
Speaker 1: like having that support in her being a leader. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if she was seeing as a leader then,
Speaker 1: but the fact that she had so much support and
Speaker 1: now today at least when we talk about her, we
Speaker 1: talk about her as a leader at that point in time,
Speaker 1: but having that background support of whether Eduardo was right there, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's talk about voting Rice, but let's talk about women's rights.
Speaker 1: I'm with you, let's go sis. You know, like it
Speaker 1: seems like such a great story. Maybe again, I'm idealizing it.
Speaker 1: I've been watching too many Disney movies in my head.
Speaker 1: But that's okay. Like that, it's also very encouraging to
Speaker 1: know that she did have that support, even talking about
Speaker 1: the fact that she took care of her sister's children
Speaker 1: after her sister died, like all of that support. Familial
Speaker 1: support seems also very important to her and why she's
Speaker 1: doing it was very evident because of the large family
Speaker 1: she had and who she was supposed to represent and
Speaker 1: who she wanted better for better uh in her life.
Speaker 1: So it's yeah, this feels like a Disney movie. Maybe.
Speaker 1: I think every episode of Fremale first, Evantha, you have
Speaker 1: a movie tong? Is it embellished? Yes? But in my
Speaker 1: head like could it be? Yes? I love it. I
Speaker 1: think we could get together make a whole like series
Speaker 1: about this, maybe a PBS documentary. Come on, come on, well,
Speaker 1: anything else you want to add before we wrap up? Eves? No,
Speaker 1: I think that is all I got for today. All right, well,
Speaker 1: thanks as I always for bringing these amazing stories to us.
Speaker 1: Happy early birthday again, thank you. Where can the good
Speaker 1: listeners send their birthday messages? Send them to at not
Speaker 1: Apologizing on Instagram, at Eves Jeff co on Twitter. And
Speaker 1: you can also hear me on many other episodes of
Speaker 1: Female First right here on Smithy. And that's all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's it. We're coming up on our fiftieth. I think
Speaker 1: we'll have to do something else another Do we actually
Speaker 1: counted this time? But I feel there the instinct is
Speaker 1: telling me it's time for another celebration. Okay, over that alright, perfect, perfect, perfect? Well,
Speaker 1: thanks it's always for joining us, Eaves. We look forward
Speaker 1: to doing another one in the coming month. In the meantime, listeners,
Speaker 1: if you would like to email us, you can our
Speaker 1: email stuff Adia mom Stuff at I heeart mea dot com.
Speaker 1: You can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast
Speaker 1: or Instagram and Stuff I Never told you. Thanks, it's
Speaker 1: always your super producer Christina. Thank you and thanks see
Speaker 1: you for listening stuff and told me the protection to
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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows