Overview

This work probes into the socio-political and cultural setting in South Texas (1915-1992) via data found in the private archival collection of Adela Sloss-Vento; it focuses on her role as an activist, writer and civil/human rights pioneer. It is only through this archive that documentation becomes available of her participation in this unknown and unpublicized civil rights movement. It is a realistic portrayal of an exclusionist semi-colonial society that the reader discovers; a Jim Crow type of political and racial existence against all people of Mexican descent. It represents Sloss-Vento’s lifelong struggle for economic and social equality. Adela Sloss-Vento’s role as a Civil Rights pioneer antedates Dr. Anna Pauline Murray by eight years and Martin Luther King by twenty-eight years. She places her mark in history as a leader, not only for the first seminal Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement of Texas but the first woman and voice in an early, if not the earliest Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

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9780761869139

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Reviews

A veritable goldmine of new material and multifaceted contributions of pioneer activist, Adela Sloss-Vento who targeted the whole gamut of Civil Rights issues, decades before they rose to national prominence in the 1960s. She literally laid the groundwork at the grass roots level, placed the foundation stones of what became a full-scale Movement. The reader can appreciate the estimable labor of an authentic pioneer in La Lucha, the centuries-long struggle for equality and the recognition of a valuable component of American Society. -- Dr. W. Arthur Mullies, Literary Critic and Historian This work projects with its rich content and uniquely multilayered view, an activist, intellectual and courageous feminist, whose contributions and writings on civil rights, human rights, feminism, international relations, socio-politics, education, border and immigration issues from 1920-1992 raise multiple curtains, especially as an early voice in Chicana/o Studies, Border Studies and scholarship; Adela Sloss Vento in her time was a respected colleague of prominent leaders Alonso Perales, J. Luz Saenz, J.T. Canales, and an outspoken critic of Presidents, Governors, Legislators, and Scholars on both sides of the U.S. and Mexican Border on issues of racism and human rights. Her honest and candid approach delivered an eyes wide open critique on women's liberation. Moreover, her moral and ethical principles provided a structure and a meaningful base for future liberationist/consciousness discourse. -- Martha Cotera

In this work [Arnoldo Carlos Vento] contributes to our knowledge of key women in Mexican American history. . . . Mr. Vento has written a book that will help shed some light into the very important life of this civil rights activist. * Southwestern Historical Quarterly * A veritable goldmine of new material and multifaceted contributions of pioneer activist, Adela Sloss-Vento who targeted the whole gamut of Civil Rights issues, decades before they rose to national prominence in the 1960s. She literally laid the groundwork at the grass roots level, placed the foundation stones of what became a full-scale Movement. The reader can appreciate the estimable labor of an authentic pioneer in La Lucha, the centuries-long struggle for equality and the recognition of a valuable component of American Society. -- Dr. W. Arthur Mullies, Literary Critic and Historian This work projects with its rich content and uniquely multilayered view, an activist, intellectual and courageous feminist, whose contributions and writings on civil rights, human rights, feminism, international relations, socio-politics, education, border and immigration issues from 1920-1992 raise multiple curtains, especially as an early voice in Chicana/o Studies, Border Studies and scholarship; Adela Sloss Vento in her time was a respected colleague of prominent leaders Alonso Perales, J. Luz Saenz, J.T. Canales, and an outspoken critic of Presidents, Governors, Legislators, and Scholars on both sides of the U.S. and Mexican Border on issues of racism and human rights. Her honest and candid approach delivered an “eyes wide open” critique on women’s liberation. Moreover, her moral and ethical principles provided a structure and a meaningful base for future liberationist/consciousness discourse. -- Martha Cotera

Author Information

Arnoldo Carlos Vento, PhD, is a bi-lingual, bi-cultural scholar who experienced early the humiliation of segregation. Fortunate to have had the guidance and wisdom of activist Adela Sloss-Vento, he has followed her example to become an international multi-disciplinary scholar and author in multiple areas covering themes and issues relevant to society and its evolution.

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