Frances Sandoval Melendez was born in 1953 in the Trumbull Park area of Chicago, Illinois. She lived with her parents and three sisters, who were “the first Mexicans” to own a house in a mostly Jewish and Polish community. Frances grew up going to Catholic school and attended Saint Casimir’s, now known as Our Lady of Tepeyac. She started noticing inequality as young as at eight years old, when the nuns at her school called on and gave more positive attention to the white students than to her. Thus, Frances became aware of racism and inequality from an early age.

Virginia Gomez Oviedo was born in 1945 on the Southeast side of Chicago. Her family first lived in the Maxwell Street area, a diverse port of entry for many of Chicago’s immigrants.  When her family moved to the South Shore neighborhood, however, her community and school were not very diverse and the family faced racism.  Facing this discrimination at a very young age fostered her political consciousness and activism.

Rose Mary Bombela-Tobias was born in East Chicago, Indiana to Mexican migrants. After her father’s retirement from working in a steel mill while she was in grammar school, her family relocated to El Paso, Texas. There, she attended a Lithuanian school where she was one of the few Latinas.  It was when she attended Urban High School, whose population was predominantly children of white military families, that she began noticing social politics.  For example, she noted that as more Latino students enrolled in the high school, most were being placed in remedial courses. 

Dr. Elena Mulcahy was born on the South side of Chicago, Illinois on May 24, 1937 as Elena Berezaluce.  Her parents were immigrants from Tabasco, Mexico.  Although she grew up with her cousins on Chicago’s South side, her family lived in an area where there were few other Mexicans. Growing up bilingual, at an early age Elena not only helped translate for her primarily Spanish-speaking parents, but also for other community members and her fellow students and teachers.

Blanca Vargas was born in Durango, Mexico on a rare snowy day; this inspired her name. Blanca spent her childhood in Durango, where she was competitive in sports, danced ballet folkorico and helped her father at his pharmacy. From him she learned the concept of helping others, as he often helped his clients that couldn’t afford badly needed medications.  Blanca also learned British English from a private teacher at Escuela America during her youth.