David Adan

Ermelinda Torres Vazquez, better known as Minda, was born in El Paso, Texas on March 25, 1941. All of her family came from Mexico and she was the first U.S citizen in her family. Due to several circumstances, her family had to move to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas by the year of 1948. She was raised there until she met Tomas Maldonado Delgado in the year of 1955. She was only 15 years old when she had her first child. This particular event forced her and Tomas to get engaged. With this situation, Tomas persuaded her to move to his hometown: Tula, Tamaulipas. There, she gave birth to another ten children which, unfortunately, one of them passed away due to heart difficulties.

First of all, Minda was totally against women being inferior. Unfortunately, that was one huge issue in her era. Women were supposed to stay home and just take care of the kids. Many of her children were completely aware of this problem in society. That’s why she always told them to treat everyone equally without paying attention to the gender of the person. Up to this day, all of the family has followed this rule in memory of her. Due to the situation of that time, she decided not to vote as a U.S citizen. Even though her mother tried to change her mind, she refused to ignore the right she received as an American woman.

Ermelinda Torres Vazquez died at the age of 63. Even though she promised not to vote, she did not fulfill this promise. Minda chose to change her decision a few years before her death. During the election of 2000, Ermelinda thought that it was a privilege to have the right to vote, so she did. Minda traveled from Tula, Tamaulipas to El Paso, Texas to vote. Unfortunately, four years later, on May 02, 2004 Minda passed away due to kidney problems even though she never showed symptoms of an illness present.

Olympe De Gouges, born on May 7, 1748, was a French female activist. When she was born, her name was Marie Gouze. She was the daughter of Anne-Olympe Mouisset and Gouze Pierre. By the age of 15, she married Louis-Yves Aubry, who died two years later. She had a child named Pierre Aubry de Gouges with Aubry. By an unknown reason, she refused to be known as “Widowed Aubry” because she thought that it was a social convention. By the year 1770, she moved to Paris where she changed her name to Olympe de Gouges and specialized more on being a playwright. Because of certain circumstances, Olympe De Gouges is considered a precursor of the modern feminism.

The main goal of Olympe De Gouges was to promote women’s rights. However, this action was not reinforced by the government at that time. Eventually, De Gouges’ goal led to her arrest and later her execution. She sacrificed her own life just to encourage Women’s Rights. The government did not tolerate perceived subversion or criticism and that’s exactly what De Gouges did. Olympe exposed herself to a huge problem, but she thought that she had the right to speak about the rights of women. She made the government her enemy and it ended up with her losing her life with the guillotine by the age of 45.

When the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen was published in 1789, De Gouge decided to respond. She published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman in September of 1791. Olympe’s declaration demanded freedom of speech, right to vote, and the opportunity to seek public office for women. She used the exact same language that characterized the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. Olympe De Gouges hoped that Queen Marie Antoinette would support her work, so she dedicated the effort to the queen.

Olympe De Gouges made a huge impact on the people of her era. She influenced and changed the minds of many of them. Women were the most persuaded by De Gouges with the Declaration of the Rights of Woman that she published in 1791. Her main idea was to promote the equality for women. She influenced activism during the era where women used to stay at home taking care of the children.

Fortunately, all the work she did gave great results. Nowadays, women are treated with more respect and equality as men. Obviously, this wouldn’t be possible without the work Olympe De Gouges and many other women that shared the same goal. Analyzing our era, it is way more common to see women completing tasks that many years ago were only for men. Not only that but also it is completely usual to see women voting on every election.

Olympe De Gouges made a huge impact on the people of her era. She influenced and changed the minds of many of them. Women were the most persuaded by De Gouges with the Declaration of the Rights of Woman that she published in 1791.
 

While completing this assignment I learned and received a lot of good things. The research that I did taught me that you could do whatever you want to. Olympe De Gouges and Minda are great examples in this case. They both did what they wanted even though the consequences were not great. On the other hand, I received good memories from my elders about Minda. We got the chance to remember several things that characterized her. My grandmother told me that a few days before Minda’s death she dreamed about me. Basically, Minda saw me in her dream with a big teddy bear. This means a lot to me because now I know that she loved me with all her heart even though I couldn’t spend a lot of time with her.

Now, going back to the topic of voting. In my opinion, I think that it is crucial to vote because it is a privilege as Minda said. Not everyone has the chance to choose someone who will represent a certain amount of people. It doesn’t matter if it is for local, state, or federal level. Everyone with the power to choose their representatives should do it. This action keeps a nation’s governmental system working. In other words, it enables citizens to choose their own government.