{{short description|American social justice activist}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Graciela Sanchez | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1960|4|24}} | birth_place = San Antonio, Texas | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (death date then birth date) --> | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | other_names = | citizenship = | alma_mater = | education = Yale University | occupation = Social activist, executive director | organisation = | years_active = | employer = | agent = | known_for = Founder of Esperanza Peace and Justice Center | notable_works = | style = | title = | party = | movement = | boards = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | awards = | website = | signature = | signature_size = | signature_alt = | footnotes = }}
'''Graciela Sanchez''' (born April 24, 1960) is an American community organizer and social justice activist based out of San Antonio, Texas. She is the founder and executive director of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, known for being a long-time organizer in the queer community.
== Early life and education ==
Sanchez was born April 24, 1960 in San Antonio, Texas.<ref name="Ross2005">{{cite interview |last=Sanchez |first=Graciela |interviewer-last=Ross |interviewer-first=Loretta |date=February 22, 2005 |title=Graciela Sanchez |url=https://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/ssc/vof/transcripts/Sanchez.pdf |work=Voices of Feminism Oral History Project |location=San Antonia, Texas |publisher=Smith College |access-date=March 15, 2025}}</ref> While in junior high school, Sanchez joined with her classmates to organize a protest over the quality of the cafeteria food. She cites their successful results in collectively organizing as teaching her the value of advocating for a cause.<ref name="Simón2024">{{Cite web |title="This Work Should Also Be Jubilant": Graciela Sánchez on Organizing in San Antonio |url=https://www.latinxproject.nyu.edu/intervenxions/graciela-sanchez-san-antonio-interview |last=Simón |first=Yara |website=New York University |date=September 6, 2024 |access-date=March 15, 2025 |language=en}}</ref> Sanchez also was influenced by her parents' involvement in the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s.<ref name="Ross2005" />
Sanchez attended Yale University.<ref name="Degollado2021">{{Cite web |title=Yale-educated Graciela Sanchez has family legacy of activism |url=https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/10/11/yale-educated-graciela-sanchez-has-family-legacy-of-activism/ |last=Degollado |first=Jessie |website=KSAT-TV |date=October 10, 2021 |access-date=March 16, 2025 |language=en}}</ref> While at school, Sanchez recounts finding inspiration in the feminist anthology ''This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color''.<ref name="Estrada2018">{{Cite magazine |title=Sitting Down with Unerasable Graciela Sanchez |url=https://outinsa.com/sitting-down-with-unerasable-graciela-sanchez/ |last=Estrada |first=Jade Esteban |magazine=Out in SA |date=July 12, 2018 |access-date=March 15, 2025 |language=en}}</ref>
== Career and activism ==
Sanchez started her career working for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.<ref name="Simón2024" /> She also worked with activist Willie Velasquez on the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.<ref name="Degollado2021" /> 1986, Sanchez became the first American accepted to Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión, a film school in Cuba.<ref name="Alliance2019">{{Cite magazine |title=Graciela Sanchez: Community Peace & Justice Activist |url=https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2019_gazette.pdf |magazine=Women's History 2019 Gazette |publisher=National Women's History Alliance |volume=11 |page=11 |date=2019 |access-date=March 15, 2025 |language=en}}</ref> Interested in how America's policies at the time impacted people throughout the world, Sanchez made a documentary called ''Testimonios de Nicaragua'' on the Sandinista revolution.<ref name="Simón2024" /> She produced another film in 1988 about queer rights in Cuba entitled ''No porque lo diga Fidel Castro''.<ref name="Simón2024" />
In 1987, Sanchez founded the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center.<ref name="Shilcutt2021">{{Cite web |title=Graciela Sanchez, founder of San Antonio's Esperanza Center, will deliver keynote address |url=https://news.rice.edu/news/2021/graciela-sanchez-founder-san-antonios-esperanza-center-will-deliver-keynote-address |last=Shilcutt |first=Katharine |website=Rice University |date=April 5, 2021 |access-date=March 16, 2025 |language=en}}</ref> The center was established to advocate for LGBTQ rights, basic civil rights, and economic justice.<ref name="Milligan2019">{{cite book |title=Literary San Antonio |publisher=TCU Press |last=Milligan |first=Bryce |date=April 18, 2019 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oEqTDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Graciela+Sanchez%22&pg=PT40 |isbn=9780875656939 |access-date=March 16, 2025}}</ref> The center also works to preserve historic buildings in San Antonio’s West Side.<ref name="Architect2021">{{Cite magazine |title=San Antonio's Graciela Sanchez Named 2021 Cornerstone Honoree |url=https://magazine.texasarchitects.org/2021/11/01/san-antonios-graciela-sanchez-named-2021-cornerstone-honoree/ |magazine=Texas Architect Magazine |volume=72 |issue=6 |date=November 2021 |access-date=March 16, 2025 |language=en}}</ref> In founding the center, Sanchez aimed to create a new organization that was more broadly focused than other civic organizations in San Antonio at the time.<ref name="DeTurk2014">{{cite book |title=Activism, Alliance Building, and the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center |publisher=Lexington Books |last=DeTurk |first=Sara |date=November 20, 2014 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LzKaBQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Graciela+Sanchez%22&pg=PA1 |page=1 |isbn=9780739188651 |access-date=March 15, 2025}}</ref> Sanchez became director of Esperanza in 1988.<ref name="DeTurk2014" />
Sanchez is a founding member of multiple organizations in San Antonio, including the Lesbian Gay assembly and the Lesbian/Gay Media Project.<ref name="Ross2005" />
== Awards and legacy ==
In 2019, Sanchez was honored by the National Women's History Alliance as a "Champion of Peace and Nonviolence".<ref name="Alliance2019" /> In 2021, she received a Cornerstone Award from the Texas Society of Architects at its 82nd Annual Conference and Design Expo.<ref name="Architect2021" />
The National Women's History Alliance describes her leadership as having "changed the political character of San Antonio".<ref name="Alliance2019" /> Journalist Jade Esteban Estrada has said of Sanchez: "If it's unjust, she's on it."<ref name="Estrada2018" /> In response to death threats she has received over her life's work, she says: "You can't separate art and culture from justice and respect".<ref name="González1999">{{Cite magazine |title=Remember the Alamo, Part II |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/remember-alamo-part-ii/ |last=González |first=Bárbara Renaud |magazine=The Nation |date=March 15, 1999 |access-date=March 16, 2025 |language=en}}</ref>
== References ==
{{reflist}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanchez, Graciela}} Category:Living people Category:1960 births Category:Activists from San Antonio Category:American community activists Category:American education activists Category:American social justice activists Category:American women founders Category:American founders Category:Hispanic and Latino American activists Category:LGBTQ rights activists from Texas Category:American women human rights activists