The Chicana Research and Learning Center

This collection is from the LLILAS Benson Latin American Collection and is apart of the Chicana Research and Learning Center Records. The collection includes a worksheet given to beneficiaries of the center as well as pamphlets that were handed out by the center. Both materials are from 1974 and were created by organizers and project leaders.

The Chicana Research and Learning Center was a Central Texas-based organization that is dedicated to empowering recent Mexican immigrants. They were the first research and service project in the nation founded and run by and for Mexican-American women. The organization was started in 1974 at the University Methodist Student Center in Austin. The goal was to address the social and educational issues that create barriers for American women.

The organization helped many different women set up their own programs and also collect vital data on Mexican women in Texas, allowing for other organizations to better target their programs to populations in need. More importantly, however, the organization changed the narrative surrounding Mexican women. It showed that they were more than capable of helping themselves and that with the proper resources they could build their own networks, allowing them to improve their communities from the inside.