Google Doodle celebrates María Rebecca Latigo de Hernández 122nd Birthday

Maria published her essay "México y Los Cuatro Poderes Que Dirigén al Pueblo," in 1945. In her essay, she stated that the domestic sphere was the foundation of the society and mothers were the authority figures who shaped nations.

María Rebecca Latigo de Hernández was a Mexican-American rights activist. Maria along with her husband, Pedro Hernandez Barrera, founded Orden Caballeros de America on January 10, 1929.

She spoke publicly and demonstrated on behalf of Mexican Americans about their education in the United States in the 1930s. Google Doodle celebrates María Rebecca Latigo de Hernández’s 122nd Birthday.

Maria was born in San Pedro Garza García, Mexico. She taught in elementary school in Monterrey, Mexico. During the chaos of the Mexican Revolution, she immigrated to Texas along with thousands of other Mexicans.

In 1915, she married Pedro Hernandez Barrera in Hebbronville, Texas. Both moved to San Antonio in 1918, where they opened a grocery store and bakery, and set about raising their own family.

The couple was quite active in their fight for community rights and eventually became politically active.

In 1929, Along with her husband Pedro, she founded “The Orden Caballeros de América” (The Order of Knights of America), an organization dedicated to civic and political activities to benefit Mexican living in America and Mexican immigrants in educational matters.

Maria published her essay "México y Los Cuatro Poderes Que Dirigén al Pueblo," in 1945. In her essay, she stated that the domestic sphere was the foundation of the society and mothers were the authority figures who shaped nations.

Maria was also a talented orator, and she became San Antonio’s first Mexican American female radio announcer and spent much of the rest of her life speaking up against injustice and inequality across both the Mexican and African American communities.

She died from pneumonia on January 8, 1986. She was buried in the plot of the Orden Caballeros de América outside of Elmendorf, Texas.