Argelia Mercedes Laya Lopez was born on July 10, 1926. She was an Afro-Latina woman’s rights activist and educator. She called for women’s suffrage and was one of the first Venezuelan women to speak out about a woman’s right to have children outside of marriage or to have an abortion.
“Lucharemos por nuestros derechos y los de nuestra patria, porque el problema de la igualdad de la mujer es el problema de la liberación de los pueblos.” – [We will fight for our rights and those of our country, because the problem of the equality of women is the problem of the liberation of the peoples.] – Argelia Laya Lopez
Últimas Noticias (in Spanish). 2017-11-27. Archived from the original on 2018-07-18. Retrieved 2021-02-27.
In 1945, at the age of 19, Laya Lopez received her degree in teaching. She co-founded the National Union of Women Organization (Organización de la Unión Nacional de Mujeres) the following year and served as its secretary for the following twelve years.
Laya Lopez campaigned relentlessly for women’s suffrage, fighting for educational equality, inclusiveness for girls who became pregnant while in school, and the right to safe pregnancy. She was one of the first Venezuelan women to openly talk about a woman’s right to have children outside a marriage or to have abortions, which was a crime in Venezuela at the time.
Laya Lopez had a child during her early teaching years and was prohibited from teaching due to her perversion as an unmarried mother. She expressed her right to be unmarried and have a child in a letter to Education Minister Luis Beltrán Pietro Figueroa, as well as her right to not have biases prohibit her from seeking services for her child from organizations such as child care and healthcare facilities. She was allowed to return to teaching after a few months, but she became more outspoken about the ways in which women were discriminated against.
During her time Laya Lopez was very passionate towards advocating for disadvantaged people’s -women, minority and working class- rights in Venezuela.
Laya Lopez later founded the Patriotic Board’s Women’s Committee ( Comité Femenino de la Junta Patriótica) and worked in the Legion of Women Nationalists (Legión de Mujeres Nacionalistas). She campaigned for women’s sexual and reproductive rights while teaching mental health lessons, pushing for both healthy pregnancies and abortions. During her time on the board of the Venezuelan association for alternative sexual education and the protection of the violated women, she became actively involved in these issues.
She was appointed as the Venezuelan delegate to the United Nations’ Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1985. At that time, she also served as Venezuela’s delegate at the Inter-American Commission on Women and was active in the government’s women’s health initiative. Laya Lopez ran for governor of Miranda as a MAS candidate in 1988, but lost, and two years later became the party’s president. With this achievement, she became the first woman and the first person of African descent to hold such a position.
Laya Lopez died in Caracas on November 27, 1997, at the age of 71. Her name is associated with gender empowerment initiatives and policies throughout Venezuela. She is remembered as one of the most influential female leaders in Venezuelan history.
Citations:
Lee, Melissa. Phenomenal Woman: Argelia Laya. Off Colour. 12, Mar. 2020 https://offcolour.org/2020/03/12/phenomenal-woman-argelia-laya/ Accessed 15, Feb. 2021.
“Hace 20 años murió Argelia Laya | Últimas Noticias”. Últimas Noticias. 2017-11-27. Archived from the original on 2018-07-18. Retrieved 16, Feb. 2021.
Wikipedia contributors. “Argelia Laya” Wikipedia, 15 Feb. 2021 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argelia_Laya
