Book Description

From humble but proud origins picking fruit with her family in the fields of California to her success in helping thousands of Americans rise out of poverty and escape the chains of welfare, UNCOMPROMISED, The Lupe Angiuano Story, is the untold saga of one woman's courage and heroism in her lifelong struggle to improve the lives of all Americans. She is a woman who as a Nun in 1963, wearing her Habit... picketed in front of the office of the Cardinal of Los Angeles to protest the Catholic church's tolerance of the racially discriminatory practice of "redlining." Who left the church to help the poor in East LA and developed a teen program that incubated future Latino leaders of California. Who helped calm rival gangs after the Watts Riots. Who was the first Latina invited by a presidential administration to address the needs of the Mexican American. Who championed true Bi-lingual Education for all Americans. Who Cesar Chavez sent alone to organize and lead a statewide grape boycott in Michigan. Who joined Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug in the formation of the National Women's Political Caucus...led in the national effort for the Equal Rights Amendment. Who believed that welfare was a trap and disrespectful of women putting her at odds with many of her social justice contemporaries. Who left a high salary government position to live with women on welfare in San Antonio and created a private training model that helped hundreds of women get a job and burn their welfare checks! And with recognition by national media - 60 Minutes - and the support of several Presidents her program spread throughout the United States. The scope of this book is the life of Lupe Anguiano from birth until the age of 80. It was compiled from fifty exclusive recorded interviews conducted with Lupe and key people in her life by Debora Wright. Some of these interviews were conducted while traveling with Lupe to the places of her childhood as well to San Antonio, the site of her most significant life experience. These transcribed interviews were further augmented by an in-depth study of the Lupe Anguiano papers archived at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. Author Debora Wright uses her keen sense of history and her subject's own words to reveal Lupe Anguiano's loves, sacrifices, victories, failures and deepest thoughts.