From Frida Kahlo to Celia Cruz, These Are the Latinas Who Define What National Latina Day Is About

National Latina Day is celebrated every year on August 20th, a date established in 2015 in Texas by Dolores “Loli” Alvarez Castilla to honor the achievements, strength, culture and societal impact of Latina women across every field and every generation. The day began as a social media movement and has grown into nationwide community events, local business panels and networking luncheons, with a purpose that has remained constant since the beginning: to empower Latinas, embrace cultural identity and recognize the contributions of women whose names deserve to be spoken loudly and often.

Today we are celebrating by going back to the source, to the words and lives of the Latina women who shaped history, led revolutions, created art, sang truth and refused to be silent when silence was the easier option. These are some of our favorites.

The Revolutionaries

Policarpa Salavarrieta (La Pola), Colombia, 1795-1817

Policarpa Salavarrieta was a Colombian revolutionary who worked as a spy for the independence movement against Spanish colonial rule and was executed by firing squad at 22 years old after refusing to beg for her life. Her final words, shouted defiantly at the crowd watching her execution, have been remembered for over two centuries.

“Although I am a woman and young, I have more than enough courage to suffer this death and a thousand more.”

Las Hermanas Mirabal, Dominican Republic

Patria, Dedé, Minerva and María Teresa Mirabal were four Dominican sisters who became the most visible symbol of resistance against the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. Three of them were assassinated on November 25th, 1960, a date now recognized as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Minerva, the most outspoken of the sisters, studied law in secret, organized resistance cells and faced imprisonment and torture without breaking. The United Nations designated November 25th in their honor, and their story has never stopped being told.

Juana Azurduy de Padilla, Bolivia, 1780-1862

Juana Azurduy was a guerrilla military leader who fought for Bolivian and Argentine independence, earning the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and leading indigenous troops into battle against Spanish colonial forces. She is considered a national hero in both Bolivia and Argentina, and in 2015 a statue of her replaced the one of Christopher Columbus in front of a major Buenos Aires cultural center. She lost four of her five children during the war and kept fighting.

Gioconda Belli, Nicaragua, born 1948

Gioconda Belli is a Nicaraguan poet and novelist who joined the Sandinista resistance against the Somoza dictatorship in 1970, was forced into exile in Mexico and Costa Rica and returned after the revolution’s victory in 1979. Her debut novel “La Mujer Habitada” raised questions about gender and women’s liberation within revolutionary narratives for the first time in Nicaraguan literature and has been translated into dozens of languages. She has since become one of Nicaragua’s most prominent critics of authoritarianism and one of the most celebrated living poets in Latin America. She was designated among the 100 most important poets of the 20th century.

Clara González, Panama, 1898-1990

Clara González was the first Panamanian woman to earn a law degree, graduating in 1922 and immediately founding the National Feminist Party to campaign for women’s rights and suffrage in a country that had not yet granted women the vote. She collaborated with activists across Latin America and the United States through the Inter-American Commission on Women, studying the condition of women across the Americas and pushing for legal reform. She later became the first Panamanian woman to serve as a juvenile court judge and helped draft the Panamanian juvenile code. She spent over four decades fighting for inclusion and equality and never stopped.

Pancha Carrasco, Costa Rica, 1816-1890

Pancha Carrasco was the first woman in Costa Rica’s military, who famously joined the defending forces at the Battle of Rivas in 1856 armed with a rifle and a pocketful of bullets. Her courage made her a national symbol of pride and she has since been honored with a postage stamp, a Coast Guard vessel and a police women’s excellence award bearing her name. She showed up when her country needed her and never asked permission to do so.

Dolores Huerta, United States, born 1930

Dolores Huerta is one of the most influential labor activists in American history, co-founding the United Farm Workers alongside César Chávez and spending decades organizing for the rights of agricultural workers, many of them Latino. She coined the phrase that became a rallying cry for generations of activists.

“Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.”

Rigoberta Menchú, Guatemala, born 1959

Rigoberta Menchú is a K’iche’ indigenous activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 for her decades of work defending indigenous rights in Guatemala during and after the country’s brutal civil war. Her voice has never stopped being one of the most important in Latin America.

“A hungry people is a people without peace. If the demands of the people are not met, what kind of peace are we talking about?”

The Artists and Poets

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mexico, 1651-1695

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a 17th century poet, philosopher and writer who became one of the most important literary figures of the Spanish colonial period at a time when women were expected to be neither educated nor outspoken. She wrote about gender, knowledge and autonomy centuries before those conversations became mainstream.

“Who has forbidden women to engage in private and individual studies? Have they not a rational soul as men do?”

Gabriela Mistral, Chile, 1889-1957

Gabriela Mistral was a Chilean poet, educator and diplomat who became the first Latin American author to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945. Born into poverty in a small Andean village, she became one of the most celebrated literary voices in the Spanish-speaking world and an advocate for women, children, indigenous people and the poor throughout her life.

“Hate is brief and love immense.”

Julia de Burgos, Puerto Rico, 1914-1953

Julia de Burgos was a Puerto Rican poet whose work explored identity, womanhood, political resistance and the tension between the self and the world’s expectations of it. She wrote about the multiplicity of a woman’s identity at a time when that multiplicity was rarely acknowledged, and she remains one of the most celebrated voices in Puerto Rican literary history. Her work continues to be read, taught and claimed by Latinas who recognize themselves in her words.

Frida Kahlo, Mexico, 1907-1954

Frida Kahlo painted her pain, her identity, her body and her politics with a fearlessness that made her one of the most recognized artists of the 20th century and an enduring symbol of resilience and self-expression for Latinas across the world.

“I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.”

Virginia Brindis de Salas, Uruguay, 1908-1958

Virginia Brindis de Salas was an Afro-Uruguayan poet and the first Black woman in Latin America to publish a book, using her work to address the social reality of Black Uruguayans and advocate for solidarity, equality and dignity at a time when those words were radical. Gabriela Mistral herself praised her work, writing that she was the only one of her race who represented Uruguay in literature. She published two collections of poetry and never stopped writing about the community she came from.

The Icons Who Sang Our Truth

Mercedes Sosa, Argentina, 1935-2009

Mercedes Sosa was an Argentine folk singer born into poverty in Tucumán who became one of the most celebrated voices in Latin American music history. Known as the Voice of Latin America, she was a central figure in the Nueva Canción movement, which used folk traditions to speak about social justice, the poor and the marginalized. During Argentina’s military dictatorship she was arrested on stage, her music was banned from radio and television and she was forced into exile in Europe. She returned to Argentina in 1982 to sold-out crowds and a hero’s welcome, and continued performing until the end of her life. When she died in 2009, Argentina’s president declared three days of national mourning.

Celia Cruz, Cuba, 1925-2003

Celia Cruz was the undisputed Queen of Salsa, a Cuban-born singer who became one of the most beloved and recognizable voices in the history of Latin music. She performed until the very end of her life, carrying the joy and pain of the Cuban diaspora in every show she gave, and her presence on any stage was an event in itself. Her legacy lives in every corner of Latin culture.

Shakira, Colombia, born 1977

Shakira is one of the best-selling music artists in history, a Colombian singer who built a global career while remaining deeply connected to her Latin roots and using her platform to advocate for education, children’s rights and the communities she came from. She founded the Pies Descalzos Foundation in Colombia, which has provided education to thousands of vulnerable children, making her impact considerably larger than any chart position could measure.

How to Celebrate National Latina Day Today

Celebrating National Latina Day does not require a grand gesture. It requires intention. Spend money at a Latina-owned business today. Share the work of a Latina creator, artist, writer or entrepreneur on your social media. Tell a Latina in your life what her presence means to you. Participate in local events or community gatherings organized around the day and use the hashtags circulating in the community to add your voice to a collective conversation that is louder every year.

The women above built roads that we walk on every day without always knowing their names. National Latina Day is the annual occasion to make sure we know their names, say their names and ensure the next generation does too.