The History of Club Femenino Chapultepec: Empowering Mexican American Women

Club Femenino Chapultepec, an organization for Mexican American women, was formed in Houston in 1931. The group first met informally in 1928 for socialization and recreation purposes. The women, frustrated that their attempts to rent downtown halls to host dances were met with refusals by Euromerican owners, organized the club at the White branch of the Houston Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). Chapultepec was the site of a famous battle in the Mexican War. Another name considered for the club was Azteca. Both names evoked the women’s Mexican heritage. Weekly meetings were held alternatingly in English and Spanish.

Club Chapultepec formed with roughly twenty members. The women were in their late teens and early twenties and largely all belonged to Houston’s small Mexican American middle-class. Around half of them were born in Texas, and the other half had come to the United States with their parents during the Mexican Revolution. Most women left the club after they married, and new members were recruited among recent high school graduates and by word of mouth. Dues were set at twenty-five cents per month. The club held fundraisers, usually in the form of dinners for Mexican American families, and organized such festivities as art exhibits and celebrations of Mexican holidays.

The young women also discussed issues facing the Mexican American community in Houston. The group eventually wrote a letter with a ten-point list of grievances to Leona B. Hendrix of the YWCA’s National Business and Professional Girls’ Council. The letter was drafted by the club’s secretary Estella Gómez (she signed the letter as Stella Quintenella, an anglicization of her birth name), and treasurer Carmen Cortez (who later became president of the Ladies Council No. 22 of the League of United Latin American Citizens). It was also signed by Olive Lewis, the club’s sponsor at the YWCA. The letter was dated June 11, 1937, one week after two Houston police officers, both Anglo, were acquitted in the shooting death of Mexican national Elpidio Cortez. The ten points discussed Anglo racism toward the Mexican American community in Houston and Texas, but the letter noted that minority groups across the United States faced similar challenges. The letter charged, among other points, that it was difficult for Mexican Americans in Houston find decent employment and housing; that they were falsely accused and convicted of crimes; that young Mexican Americans faced rejection from White parks and harassment in schools; that Anglo-centric narratives of the Texas Revolution propagated in schools and by civic and patriotic groups enflamed anti-Mexican discrimination; that many Mexican Americans had been driven to deny their Mexican heritage to avoid discrimination; and that, as they were legally recognized as White under Jim Crow laws, they desired to be acknowledged as such.

With permission from the club, the “Letter from Chapultepec,” was published in the newsletter of the YWCA’s Black branches. YWCA administrators argued that the letter was inappropriate for a social club. Olive Lewis was fired from her position and barred from contacting members of the Mexican American organization. The club’s replacement sponsor discouraged the women from continuing to speak out on political issues. The letter was also accused of containing communist sentiments, and women in the club faced censorship. Estella Gómez was repeatedly questioned and harassed by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents over several years. Gómez was invited to speak on “Mexican problems” before the Confederación de Organizaciones Mexicanas y Latino Americanas del Estado de Texas at its convention in Galveston in 1941. She was dissuaded from giving her speech, however, by Mexican Consul Luis L. Duplán, who feared inciting conflict with the United States government.

Club life was disrupted by World War II, and although Club Chapultepec stayed active by selling war bonds, declining membership led the club to dissolve in 1945. Club Terpsicore, another social club for Mexican American women in Houston, similarly disbanded due to wartime pressures.