© Latinas in History 2008
Josefina
Fierro was born into a heritage of revolutionary activism in Mexicali,
Baja California. Following high school graduation Fierro moved to California
and became politically involved defending immigrants and Mexican American
civil rights. Along with other Latino leaders, she soon led a broad
based movement to end discrimination against Mexican Americans. Fierro
participated in the founding of the civil rights group, el Congreso
de Pueblos de Hablan Española, and played a key role on the defense
committee of the Sleepy Lagoon case. By the mid-1940s, Fierro’s
intervention in Washington, D.C. virtually ended unprovoked assaults
on Mexican American in East L.A. and downtown Los Angeles in the Zoot
Suit Riots, but she was labeled a Communist by the California Committee
on Un-American Activities in 1948. Hounded by the FBI, and on the verge
of deportation, Fierro decided to leave the U.S. to live in the city
of Guaymas in Mexico where she stayed for the rest of her life.
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