Agent of Change: Adela Sloss-Vento by Cynthia E. Orozco (review)

By 1970, Adela Sloss-Vento had authored more publications on civil rights than any other Mexican American woman. Guided by her Christian faith and her commitment to justice, she had developed over numerous decades into an unmatched advocate for immigrants, farm laborers, and women, firmly placing her at the center of the Mexican American struggle for civil rights.

Her political activism is the soul of Cynthia E. Orozco's superb two-part book. Part one follows Sloss-Vento's decades-long journey as a civil rights leader, public intellectual, and feminist. Beginning at the age of twenty-six, she vigorously helped shape the Mexican American civil rights agenda in stages from 1927 to 1950, from 1950 to 1963, and from 1963 to 1978, remaining an influential voice until 1990. Part two expertly analyzes Sloss-Vento as "a beneficiary of modern gendered selfhood" (171) and provides insights into her role as a public intellectual.

Sloss-Vento's commitment to la causa made her a collaborator with Alonso S. Perales, the primary founder of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC); an archivist of important Mexican American civil rights documents; and a uniquely gifted composer of the "art of lettered protest" (131). Orozco illustrates through extensive chapter sub-sections the overarching theme of her book, that Sloss-Vento was a consummate proponent of Mexican Americans' rights. For instance, she provided support for Comité Pro Defensa Escolar Del Rio, which was crucial to Salvatierra v. Del Rio Independent School District, the first class-action case brought by LULAC against segregated education in Texas.

In her writings, Sloss-Vento denounced fascism and endorsed pan-Americanism and the Good Neighbor Policy with Mexico. Her prolific letters and opinion pieces in newspapers and her letters to public officials are noted throughout, illustrating the agenda she undertook. For instance, in a letter to the Valley Morning Star (Harlingen), she proclaimed that a Mrs. L. J. Ring "reveals a lack of Christianity and the lack of democratic principles" (33), while in an essay in El Heraldo of Corpus Christi, she attacked "hatred against people of Mexican descent" (61). In an essay in LULAC News, she abhorred the oppression of women within the Mexican American family, and she wrote to Governor Coke Stevenson about using the press and the law to support racial harmony "in the homes and in the schools" (60).

Adela Sloss-Vento also promoted the Chicano movement. In 1967, for example, she supported the walkout by Elsa-Edcouch public school students who demanded classes in "Chicano and Mexican history" (84), and she endorsed La Raza Unida Party as a continuation of the political rights efforts she had entered decades before.

In Agent of Change, Cynthia E. Orozco has marshalled in-depth materials that convincingly spell out how Adela Sloss-Vento took on the powerful and proved herself to be a committed, smart, and tough servant of her people. Through her actions and her innumerable writings, Sloss-Vento proclaimed the urgent necessity "to build a better America" (178).

This essential and timely book reinforces her significance to that cause and to Mexican American history.