Sara Estela Ramírez

Mexican-born playwright; activist; writer

• Born: 1881
• Birthplace: Villa de Progreso, Coahuila, Mexico
• Died: August 21, 1910
• Place of death: Laredo, Texas

Known as the Texan Muse, Ramírez tapped into the changing political and literary landscape of life along the Mexico-United States border. Her literary emphasis on women’s experiences illuminated the social inequities inherent in a woman’s lot at the dawn of the twentieth century. Ramirez’s work gave voice to a group historically marginalized by a patriarchal culture, and her impact on Chicano literature is significant.

Early Life

Sara Estela Ramírez (SAR-ah eh-STEHL-ah rah-MEER-ehz) was born in Villa de Progreso, within the state of Coahuila, Mexico, in 1881. Her mother died when Ramírez was in her adolescence, leaving Ramírez to care for her younger sister and father. While running the household, Ramírez found opportunities for education. She attended public school in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, and then pursued her teacher’s credentials from Ateneo Fuentes, a teaching institution located in Saltillo, Coahuila.

At the age of seventeen, Ramírez moved to Laredo, Texas, where she took a position as a Spanish teacher at the Seminario Laredo. Ramírez soon joined the Partido Liberal Mexicano, the most progressive political party of the time, and one that would eventually help foment the Mexican Revolution.

Life’s Work

A prominent supporter of the Partido Liberal Mexicano, Ramírez was considered a leader within the party and a representative of the party to the public. The party was formed in 1906, by Ricardo Flores Magón (a self-identified anarchist), and welcomed women into its ranks. The party faced opposition from Porfirio Díaz, the president of Mexico from 1876 to 1911. Though Díaz’s title was “president,” with the implied executive limits and political responsibilities, most historians consider Díaz a dictator. His rule, which lasted more than two decades, did create national stability and economic growth. However, Díaz’s continued leadership—under the well-known mandate “Pan, o Palo” (“Bread, or a Beating”)—resulted in his unpopularity by the dawn of the twentieth century. It was in these times that Ramírez continued her activism on behalf of the Partido Liberal Mexicano.

However, politics were not the extent of Ramírez’s activities. A writer, playwright, and poet, Ramírez enjoyed immense popularity with Mexican Americans throughout the region. She published the majority of her essays and poetry in the Spanish-language periodicals El democrata fronterizo and La cronica, both of which enjoyed large circulation numbers throughout southern Texas. In June, 1901, Ramirez began self-publishing two periodicals entitled La corregidora and Aurora. The former publication featured literature and poetry and, though published in Mexico City, was distributed to Laredo and San Antonio. The latter publication was prepared and published in Laredo.

In addition to her literary and publishing efforts, Ramírez collaborated with other Mexican American women through feminist organizations. Ramírez worked with Juana Gutiérrez B. de Mendoza on a newspaper for women and the Mexican working-class newspaper Vesper: Justicia y libertad. Ramírez’s work on Vesper was part of her association with the feminist organization Regeneración y Concordia, which sought to raise awareness about women’s issues and civil rights of the era. Because of her extensive work on Vesper and with Regeneración y Concordia, Ramírez is considered one of the founding mothers of the Mexican feminist movement.

Despite her extensive record of newspaper publication—none of which remain in publication today—Ramírez’s collected literary works amount to twenty-one poems and essays and one play, Noema. The majority of these publications appeared in various venues between 1908 and 1910 and offered insights on women’s experiences in Mexico and the United States. Indeed, the majority of Ramírez’s literature focused on politics, female-male sociocultural dynamics, and sisterhood. In one of her well-known poems, entitled “Rise Up!” and published in La Cronica in 1910, she addresses Mexicana and Tejana (women of Mexican-Texan ethnic heritage) as queens and goddesses—defying the Anglo perception of women, regardless of cultural background, as passive figures, as mere vessels for men’s needs. Ramírez’s death from illness at the age of twenty-nine in 1910 cut short a rich legacy of literature and activism.

Significance

In Ramírez’s eulogy, published in the periodical La cronica, Jovita Idar praised Ramírez’s efforts in every aspect of her life. Idar called Ramírez “La Musa Tejana”: the Texan Muse, a name that remained with Ramírez. An appropriate title, the Texan Muse had tapped into the changing political and literary landscape of life along the Mexico-United States border. Her literary emphasis on women’s experiences illuminated the social inequities inherent to a woman’s lot at the dawn of the twentieth century. Indeed, Ramírez’s work gave voice to a group historically marginalized by a patriarchal culture, and her impact on Chicano literature is significant.

Bibliography

Anderson, Greta. More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Texas Women. Guilford, Conn.: TwoDot, 2002. Text devotes a chapter to Ramírez’s feminist, literary, and political legacy to Texas and to the United States.

Freedman, Estelle. The Essential Feminist Reader. New York: Modern Library, 2007. Text examines Ramírez’s poetry through a feminist lens and offers commentary about her legacy.

Hernandez, Ines, and Sara Estela Ramírez. “Sara Estela Ramírez: Sembradora.” Legacy 6, no. 1 (Spring, 1989): 13-26. Thoughtful and richly detailed overview of Ramírez’s life and work.

Mendoza, Louis Gerard. Historia: The Literary Making of Chicana and Chicano History. College Station, Tex.: A and M University Press, 2001. Text devotes a chapter to Ramírez’s literary legacy and its subsequent impact upon Chicano literature everywhere.