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 Founded in 1983 in San Antonio, Texas, by then San Antonio City Councilwoman Maria Antonietta Berriozabal, the all-volunteer Hispanas Unidas organization is dedicated to the education, empowerment, and advancement of minority women. Hispanas Unidas’ mission of education, opportunity, and inclusion was founded on educational conferences held bi-annually focusing on topics of concern to Latinas. Local businesses and individuals contributed the funding necessary to hold the conferences. The conferences attracted up to 1,000 Hispanic women from the San Antonio area. For many of the participants, who came from economically depressed neighborhoods, the conferences were the first events directed specifically to them where critical issues that affected their families and culture were examined.
The conference workshops focused on self, family, work and community. Set in an empowering environment, the conferences sparked hope, energized the women to action, and gave impetus to networking and personal collaborations that lasted beyond the workshop events. The most enduring result of the conferences has been the impact of former attendees who have evolved as local, state and national leaders. The skills and expertise gained at the conferences have produced policy and social action changes at the local and state level that promotes the progress of all women, Hispanic women, in particular.
In 1995, with generous support from the SBC Corporation, the Hispanas Unidas Board of Directors completed a comprehensive survey of Hispanic women that identified their needs and concerns. High on their list of concerns was the problem of teen pregnancy. Local and national demographic data supported their concern. San Antonio has the tragic distinction of leading the nation in the rate of teen pregnancy among girls, ages 15 and younger. The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District and the Texas Department of Health statistically document the reality of this staggering statistic.
Hispanas Unidas recognized the long-term impact of this statistic: girls who become pregnant as teenagers are more likely to live a life of poverty. By extension, the children of teenage mothers share the same destiny of poverty and higher risk of substance abuse, teen pregnancy, entering relationships that are characterized by domestic violence and referral to the juvenile justice system. In short, they are at risk for all the social woes that accompany life at the lowest end of the economic scale.
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