A Project of
the San Diego County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls,
the Women's Museum of California,
SDSU Women's Studies Department, and UCSD Women's Center.
Herminia Enrique
2004
Historian
Herminia Acosta Enrique (Techitzin) is best known as the founder of the Ballet Folklorico en Aztlan (1967) and co-founder of San Diego�s Centro Cultural de la Raza (1969). She is a life-long art and social justice activist, preserving and teaching dance and the arts while promoting dialogue among indigenous tribes of the Americas. Since childhood in the 1920s, Enrique has designed costumes, composed plays, produced local musical theatre productions, and taught folklore. In 1978, she participated in the Smithsonian�s Folklife Program in storytelling sessions on Mexican folktales, myths, legends, superstitions, and was a facilitator of Mexican games. She has been a volunteer working as a Chicano Federation Board member, the National Health Systems Agency, the National Council on Aging, and numerous local and international theatrical, dance, and storytelling organizations.
Enrique is the author of Chia: A Powerful Recuerdo, several pieces about Folkloric Dance, and numerous short plays, songs, and performance art works. She has been a frequent speaker in San Diego and San Antonio, Texas about Southwest folktales, traditional morality tales, and the history and symbolism of rituals. Also, in the 1970's and 80's, she was featured in music videos and taught Folkloric Dance at San Diego State's Chicano Studies program. Enrique passed on not only cultural treasures to generations, but she has helped create a proud identity for thousands of children and adult Chicanas and Chicanos in San Diego for 35 years.