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Dorinda Moreno is an American Chicana activist, feminist and writer.

Early life and education

Third oldest of eight brothers and sisters, Moreno aided her parents in raising her other siblings. Her parents worked as migrant farmers until she turned twelve. Her father became a gardener in San Francisco, California.

During her adulthood Moreno became a single mother of three and chose to leave the work force and return to education. She attended college at San Francisco State University, and Stanford University.

Career

At Napa College, Ohlone College, San Francisco State University and DQ University, she taught several different courses such as history, journalism, theater writing, philosophy, and Chicana studies. At San Francisco State University Moreno served as an original first-tier student-led and directed La Raza Studies Department, and founded the La Raza Women's Class. Moreno also directed and founded different cultural groups including Las Cucarachas-Mexcla Teatral and Concilio Mujeres. In 1974, the group took part in the Quinto Festival de los Teatros Chicanos, Teatro Nacional de Aztlan (TENAZ) performed in Mexico City at the Teatro Jorge Negrete, Teotihuacan, Tajin, and Vera Cruz. In 1975, Dorinda attended the International Year of Women in the GDR (German Democratic Republic) which followed by the launching of the Decade of Women, where she presented her signature piece 'La Llorona' to the women of Cuba, South Africa, and Palestine. Concilio Mujeres targeted Chicana's in higher education. The group advocated for Chicana people to participate in higher education and pursue careers. Concilio Mujeres opened an office in the San Francisco Mission District, where Moreno acted as a director in 1974 and 1975. The organization collected material and distributed in an attempt to inform people about the lives of Raza women. The organization received its seed grant from the Catholic Charities with support from Mrs. S. Castaneda, and struggled to find funding and ultimately disbanded by 1980.

Writing and activism

Moreno contributed to Chicana activism when she edited an anthology in 1973 entitled La Mujer: En pie de lucha, y la hora es ya. The anthology contains a series of poems, articles, and essays concerning issues experienced by third world women. Routledge's Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature has credited the anthology, along with five other Chicano works, as " the articulation of a repressed feminist consciousness with regard to the issue of women's oppression within the ethnic group" as well as " in a period in which hitherto unaccommodated literary voices flourished in all genres."

Moreno joined the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP) shortly after Donna Allen founded WIFP, in 1977. She became one of the first four associates to contribute to the institute.

References

1. "San Diego Mexican and Chicana History: Chapter 11.8: San Diego Chicano History". San Diego State University. Retrieved 2018-04-11.
2. Summers Sandoval, Tomás F. Jr. (2013-08-01). Latinos at the Golden Gate: Creating Community and Identity in San Francisco. UNC Press Books. pp. 100, 105, 171–174. ISBN 978-1469607672.
3. ^ Allen, Martha (Summer 2012). "Associate Highlight: Dorinda Moreno" (PDF). Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press: 5–6. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
4. Roth, Benita (2004). Separate Roads to Feminism: Black, Chicana, and White Feminist Movements in America's Second Wave. Cambridge University Press. pp. 142–145, 156, 178, 227, 229. ISBN 9780521529723. Dorinda Moreno.
5. Canning, Charlotte (1996). Feminist Theaters in the U.S.A.: Staging Women's Experience. Psychology Press. p. 136. ISBN 9780415098052.
6. ^ Blackwell, Maylei (2011). Chicana Power: Contested Histories of Feminism in the Chicana Movement. University of Texas Press. p. 155. ISBN 9781477312667.
7. Hill Collins, Patricia (2016). Intersectionality. Cambridge Polity Press.
8. "Review of La Mujer: En Pie De Lucha". Women's Studies Newsletter. 1 (5): 5. 1973. JSTOR 40041922.
9. Mariscal, George (March 1999). Aztlán and Viet Nam: Chicano and Chicana Experiences of the War. University of California Press. p. 309. ISBN 9780520214057.
10. Smith, Verity (1997-03-26). Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature. Routledge. p. 360. ISBN 9781135314255.

• 20th-century American women writers
• American feminists
• Living people
• 1939 births
• 20th-century American writers
• Stanford University alumni
• 21st-century American women