In honor of International Women’s Day, Esperanza Community Housing and Mercado La Paloma present Women Who Fight: A Charcoal Portraits Exhibition, which celebrates the lives, work, and transformative power of women from the United States and Latin America. This exhibition features a collection of twelve charcoal portraits, each capturing the strength, courage, and legacy of extraordinary women who have contributed to social change in their countries through activism, leadership, and a vision for a better world.
From Dolores Huerta’s tireless advocacy for labor rights to Angela Davis’s fight for racial justice, from Madonna Thunder Hawk’s fierce defense of Indigenous sovereignty to Bertha Cáceres’s profound commitment to environmental justice, these women have stood as pillars of resistance and struggle.
The exhibition also honors voices such as Rigoberta Menchú and María de Jesús Patricio “Marichuy,” who have amplified Indigenous struggles, and the words of Rosario Castellanos and Alaíde Foppa, who used literature as a tool for social transformation. Prudencia Ayala, Morena Herrera, and Miriam Miranda exemplify the perseverance of women in the face of political oppression, while Elvia Carrillo Puerto’s early fight for women’s suffrage and rights in Mexico echoes the suffragist battles of 20th-century women around the world.
Through the raw intensity of charcoal, these portraits come to life—each stroke telling a story of resilience, defiance, and an unwavering commitment to justice.