Moreno, Luisa (1907-1992), was a Guatemalan-born labor leader and civil rights activist. During the 1930’s and 1940’s, she campaigned for the rights of women, workers, and Hispanic people in the United States.
Moreno was born Blanca Rosa Rodriguez Lopez in Guatemala City, Guatemala, on Aug. 30, 1907. She later took the name Luisa Moreno. As a teen-ager, Moreno organized a group that lobbied for the right of women to attend Guatemalan universities.
In 1928, Moreno moved to the United States and worked in a New York City sweatshop—a factory where people work long hours for low pay. After seeing the terrible conditions that many workers endured, Moreno founded a garment workers’ union. In 1935, she became a professional labor organizer. She worked to build and strengthen labor unions for food processing workers, farmworkers, and workers in a number of other industries. In 1938, she was the main organizer of the National Congress of Spanish-Speaking Peoples, the first national conference of Spanish speakers in the United States. During the 1940’s, Moreno helped bring attention to violence and injustice against Hispanics.
Around 1949, Moreno was forced to leave the United States. The U.S. government was threatening to deport her because she reportedly had once been a member of the Communist Party. Moreno lived the rest of her life in Mexico, Cuba, and Guatemala. She died on Nov. 4, 1992.
