Carlos Mendoza

García Early College High School | Laredo, TX | 10th Grade

Inspirational Family Member
My Mother

In my family, there is a woman who was granted the right to vote when she crossed to the U.S. That woman is my mother whose name is Paula Rendon Trejo. My mom was born on January 16, 1984, in Mexico somewhere around the border of Laredo, Texas. My mom when she was little lived in a small ranch with her mom, dad, and her two elder brothers. My mom wasn’t the richest and lived in poor living conditions. Actually her first home wasn’t a ranch, it was a small home but she and her family got kicked out because they couldn’t pay their rent. And a lot of her life was moving to different houses and apartments because they were poor. They moved until finally they landed on the ranch and the ranch was pretty big; it had a horse, pigs, and chickens. Their family actually had to breed chickens so they could kill them and eat them because that’s what they had to eat.

When my mom finally grew up, in her 20s she got her passport so she could cross to the U.S. My mom came and settled in Laredo around the 2000’s. During the 2000’s things like the the September 9/11 attacks occurred. My mom at the time wasn’t that affected because she didn’t pay much attention to what was going on even though it was pretty tragic. My mom was more interested in partying with her friends as every young person would do now and back then. My mom didn’t really take her right in the U.S. as a consideration until she stopped partying. She feels like she has true power and control as a woman. She hasn’t felt as powerful all her life, she feels like she could do something that actually matters and affects the country. Although she still hasn’t voted she still thinks it’s a power that no other country really has to offer.

Historical Figure I Admire
Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Women in history fought to get voting rights like the men and African Americans had. Women like Susan B. Anthony or Sojourner Truth are very well known in history. But no one seems to notice Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She isn’t respected and known like the other suffragettes which is kind of strange because she contributed as much as the other suffragists. Well, let’s run down some history about Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Elizabeth like the other suffragettes is known to lead the women right’s movement in the 1800’s. She led the movement for about fifty years, which really shows her dedication in her cause. In the 1800’s she actually had some followers, which most of them consisted of local reform groups that fought for the same cause as her. She and her group were always in newspapers because of her actions and the things she said. She also in her life did some things that were off like she was throwing some doubt on the Bible, the way she raised her children, her political views, and the way she dressed just set everyone off. Let’s just say she wasn’t very liked by society and her community. The way she acted just annoyed and pissed off people. It even outraged her father and her husband because they didn’t support the women’s rights movement like she did.

Although Elizabeth had all that controversy, she did some good things for the women’s sake. Some of the good things she did consisted of campaigning for child custody rights, equal pay, rights for woman to own property, and more. Elizabeth was also known to be very tough and known to have a keen intelligence. She was described as feisty, funny, engaging, and was very outspoken which helped her cause. Although she did all of this good stuff she was known as merely Susan B. Anthony’s sidekick. The reason why she is known is because of her two children named Theodore Stanton and Harriot Stanton Blatch who would get some of her mother’s papers, put them all together in two volumes called “Elizabeth Cady Stanton as revealed in her letters, Diary, and Reminiscences”. The two children did this so their mother would be more respected in history through their mother’s documents. Also, after the books were ready Elizabeth’s daughter, Harriot Stanton Blatch, would burn the remnants, which some of them survived. Theodore and Harriot would continue to write off any political problem, domestic discord, and material friction their mother had. Elizabeth Cady Stanton herself actually wrote an autobiography where she said very nice things about herself and that had very few enemies. In 2002, the Huntington Library sponsored a conference in her honor called “The Social Theory of Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Exploring the Roots of U.S. Feminist Intellectual History”. It was supported by the study of women at UCLA. Elizabeth Cady Stanton wasn’t a perfect human being by any means but she still helped make an impact in the world. She stills needs to be remembered like the other suffragists.

What the Project Means to Me

After researching on the suffragettes, I found out that women through the events of history have been heavily oppressed by society. Women have been looked upon as servants to man in the course of historical events. That is why I understand why women in the 20th century were fighting for the right to vote because they wanted to feel like they had power and were needed. They wanted rights and equality like every white or black man in the U.S.. I just can’t believe that we as minorities have been granted the right to vote. Honestly, we have the power to vote for someone to represent the U.S., especially women who were heavily oppressed. Everyone nowadays doesn’t take advantage of their voting right even though women and basically everybody fought so the power would be passed down to the people. After researching I understand that voting matters because if we don’t have a democracy our country will turn into a communist or dictatorship country. A government at all times should be power to the people because you can’t tell when the government is going to go completely AWOL. Voting keeps the government and the people we elect in check.

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