By Brianna Green
It’s astonishing how many people, how many women, get left out of history and important movements. Throughout high school and some college courses, I’ve learned about the Women’s Suffrage Movement. However, I have never heard of Maria Guadalupe Evangelina de Lopez until I was assigned to write a blog about her. I’m so happy I was
assigned to her though. De Lopez was an incredible woman in the Women’s Suffrage Movement, especially within the Hispanic and Spanish communities.
According to the National Women’s History Museum, de Lopez was born in Los Angeles, California in 1881. She was born to immigrant parents; her father having been born in Mexico (Brandman). Being that one of her parents came from Mexico, de Lopez grew up bilingual. This fact is very important because it later assists her suffrage work, but it also influenced her career choice. She attended college to become a teacher. After college, de Lopez taught English as a second language and later, with her sister, ran her own Spanish-language school out of her home (Brandman). In addition to this, de Lopez was also doing translation work on the side and eventually became an instructor at the University of California (Brandman).
According to the article “Suffragists You Need to Meet: Maria Guadalupe Evangelina Lopez,” in 1911, de Lopez was active in Los Angeles Votes for Women Club; she organized rallies and spoke about women’s right to vote in English and in Spanish. Also according to this article, de Lopez is typically accredited with “being the first in the state to deliver suffrage speeches in Spanish” (MyLO). In October of 1922, the suffrage proposition passed in California and de Lopez was considered a leading suffragist in Los Angeles (Brandman).
However, this incredible woman didn’t just help during the Women’s Suffrage Movement, but also during the first World War! Noted in “Suffragists You Need to Meet: Maria Guadalupe Evangelina Lopez,” when the US entered the war, she became an ambulance driver In New York City and traveled to France to do the same. Over a decade later, from 1937 until 1938, she became the president of the UCLA’s Faculty Women’s Club (Brandman). De Lopez died in 1977 on November 20 and is buried at San Gabriel Christian Church in Los Angeles (Brandman).
I hope you enjoyed learning about this wonderful woman in history, I know I did!
Resources
Brandman, By: Mariana. “Maria Guadalupe Evangelina De Lopez.” National Women’s History Museum, www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/maria-guadalupe-evangelina-de-lopez.
“Suffragists You Need to Meet: Maria Guadalupe Evangelina Lopéz.” MyLO, 30 Apr. 2020, my.lwv.org/california/diablo-valley/article/suffragists-you-need-meet-maria-guadalupe-evangelina-lop%C3%A9z.