Martha Cotera

Writer and political activist, Martha Cotera, was born Martha Piña in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1938. She came to the United States in the late 1940s, settling in El Paso, Texas, with her family. In 1962, she received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas, El Paso.  In 1963, she married her husband Juan Cotera. She earned a Masters of Education from Antioch College in 1971. Martha played a large role in founding numerous Latino organizations. Cotera is a founding member of the Raza Unida Party in Texas, Mujeres Por Raza Unida Caucus, the Texas Women’s Political Caucus and the National Women’s Political Caucus. She has worked for the University of Texas-Austin for three decades and was very influential in creating the Mexican American Program of the Benson Latin American Collection. According to the Voces Primeras website, Cotera is currently working with Latino students who are attempting to become environmentalists and is working with the Texas Women’s Political Caucus to get more Latina women elected to political offices. Martha Cotera is featured in a film titled Las Mujeres de la Caucus Chicana, which is a documentary about six women who participated in the 1977 National Women’s Conference in Houston, Texas. Martha Cotera has worked as a librarian and is a noted historian of Chicana history. She founded Information Systems Development, an independent research and publishing company. Cotera wanted to give an outlet to publications by, for, or about Mexican Americans. In 1976, she published Diosa y Hembra, which was the first survey of Chicana history. And in 1977, she published The Chicana Feminist.