Juana Gonzales

Juana Maria Gonzales’s involvement with the Chicana movement started in her hometown of Mercedes, Texas. Born in 1948, Gonzales was the second oldest of eleven children raised in a strict Catholic family in south Texas. From an early age, her family dynamics made her aware of gender disparities and how her identity as a woman changed the way she moved in the world. This realization propelled Gonzales to become interested in women’s issues such as the concept of autonomy and rape culture.