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415 q M q MACHUCA, ESTER (1895–1980) Born in Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Mexico, on October 10, 1895, Ester Nieto Machuca was a pioneering Latina feminist who pushed open the doors for women in the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). Her parents were Juan and Carolina (Rodríguez) Nieto. She had an upper-middle-class upbringing in Mexico because her father was a lawyer and civil engineer. She married Juan C. Machuca, and they had one son, Louis. It is not known when they immigrated to the United States or if they became citizens. Machuca founded Ladies LULAC Chapter No. 9 in El Paso, Texas, in 1934 and served as its treasurer. Two years later, as a form of protest, this Ladies Council quit LULAC because national officials, all men, decided to ignore women’s correspondence. A year later she helped reorganize the chapter and began to spread the idea of women’s councils outside of western Texas. Appointed Ladies Organizer General, she established chapters in Laredo, Dallas, and beyond Texas in New Mexico, California, and Arizona. Her friend and feminist ally Alice Dickerson Montemayor remarked, “She has proven that the office of Ladies Organizer General is not an honor to be used for ostentation, but by untiring efforts and constructive planning as she has done. This office is one of the most important posts in the organization .” Machuca organized these chapters at her own expense because LULAC, as an all-volunteer organization at the time, did not reimburse her for her many travels. As a married woman with a family, she traveled on her own, experiencing a degree of autonomy and mobility not typical for Latinas during the 1930s. In 1939 Machuca conceived the idea of a special issue of LULAC News edited and written by women. To this day it is the only issue produced entirely by women and one of only two issues dedicated to the theme of women. This special issue, a hefty sixty-eight pages, was edited and produced by Machuca; members of the LULAC Ladies Council in Las Vegas, New Mexico, wrote most of the articles. During a time when women were scorned for joining LULAC and received little support from male members, Machuca believed that women could be a major power base within the organization . A vocal feminist, she worked tirelessly for women’s recognition and leadership within LULAC at the local, regional, and national levels. During the 1980s Ladies LULAC Council No. 9 was the only women’s council that remained because most women members preferred integrated LULAC councils. In addition to serving as president of the local Ladies LULAC Council in 1968, Machuca was actively involved in the Catholic Daughters of America, the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary, St. Anthony’s Altar Society, and St. Patrick’s Catholic Church. Ester Machuca died on January 26, 1980, at the age of eighty-four. See also League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) SOURCES: LULAC News. 1979. “First Ladies’ Organizer General.” March. Nettie Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas, Austin; Orozco, Cynthia E. “Ester Nieto Machuca.” In New Handbook of Texas, 4:410. Austin: Texas State Historical Association. Cynthia E. Orozco MADRID, PATRICIA A. (1946– ) Patricia Madrid, New Mexico’s first woman attorney general and the nation’s first Hispanic woman attorney general (1998 and reelected in 2002) is a native New Mexican whose roots extend deep into the southern part of the state. The Madrid family still owns a small farm in the Mesilla Valley on land that has been in the family for generations. A graduate of the University of New Mexico, Madrid received a bachelor of arts degree in English and philosophy. She received her juris doctor from the University of New Mexico Law School in 1973, where she served as an editor of the New Mexico Law Review. Madrid became a partner in the Albuquerque law firm of Messina, Madrid and Smith. Her practice focused on commercial trial litigation. In 1978 Madrid was the first woman to be elected a district court judge Madrigal v. Quilligan 416 q in New Mexico. Fellow judges elected her chief presiding judge of the Second Judicial District, the state’s largest judicial district. During her six years on the district court bench, she presided over a court of general jurisdiction hearing felony criminal cases and business , tort, malpractice, workers’ compensation, probate , and domestic relations cases. Madrid received the Governor’s Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women in 1993. During that same year...
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