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Seeking women to exhibit their face on $20

Seeking women to exhibit their face on $20

Eleanor Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks y Wilma Mankiller son las cuatro finalistas de la votación online que pretende incluir el retrato de una mujer en…

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The nineteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, giving women the right to vote in this country, will turn 100 on August 18. To celebrate this, a group headed by businesswoman Barbara Ortiz Howard, launched the online campaign ‘Women on 20s’, a few weeks back. The initiative with which they demand to put an end to male dominance on US currency bills replacing the face of Andrew Jackson, the 7th US President, for the face of a woman on 20 dollar bills. But, whose face?

To decide on the person to choose from among the large group of illustrious American woman –the rules set in 1929 state that in order to appear on legal currency, the face must belong to a well-known public figure deceased at least two years prior to such time—voting has been launched on the web, and is open to all those wishing to participate.

After the first round, which included 15 women worthy of this acknowledgement (Alice Paul, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, Sojourner Truth, Rachel Carson, Rosa Parks, Barbara Jordan, Margaret Sanger, Patsy Mink, Clara Barton, Harriet Tubman, Frances Perkins, Susan B. Anthony, Eleanor Roosevelt and Elizabeth Cady Stanton) chosen from among a group of 100, four have managed to go on to the final stage. After receiving over 256,000 votes, the finalists chosen by the public are Eleanor Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks. The organization has decided to add a fourth: Wilma Mankiller, the first chief of the Cherokee nation.

Numerous well-known faces, among them that of actress Susan Sarandon, have joined the initiative. Thus, in an article titled 'Let’s Get a Woman on the $20 Bill!’ and published in The Daily Beast, the actress has shown her support for this initiative. But she’s not the only one. President Obama, on more than one occasion, has also acknowledged his interest in including more women on US currency. However, the person in charge of requesting new portraits and designs is not the President but rather the Secretary of the Treasury who, unless a specific law exists from Congress, has the last word in this regard.

Eleanor Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks and Wilma Mankiller. One of these four women shall be the candidate presented by ‘Women on 20s’. A diverse group in which Latinas, however, are nowhere to be found. Though the list has been closed, we would have proposed the following:

 
Pura Belpré
Born in Cidra (Puerto Rico) and a resident of New York, this writer became the first  Puerto Rican librarian of the US city; known for her marvelous work in popularizing literature among the Puerto Rican community. 
 
Julia de Burgos
One of the most famous Puerto Rican poets, in addition to being an excellent activist for women.
 
Gloria Anzaldúa 
This Chicana activist and writer is very well known for her works such as Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza’.  
 
Jovita Idár
This American journalist, the first president of the League of Mexican Women was a great civil rights activist for Mexican society in the country. 
 
Lucy González Parsons
Of Mexican roots, she was one of the great fighters for the rights of workers, Afro American society and Women in the US.

 
Who would you propose?

 

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