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.
Sonia Lopez
2014
Historian
Sonia Lopez has worked to preserve and share Chicana history and culture in San Diego for over forty years. In 1972, she began teaching Ethnic Studies classes in the Centro de Estudios Chicanos that she helped establish at San Diego State University. Currently, Lopez is recording and preserving the experiences of activist Chicanas in San Diego and across the nation.
As a college student, Lopez became actively involved in the Chicano Student Movement and the Women's Rights Movement. She received her B.A. in Ethnic Studies from Sacramento State University in 1972, her M.A. in Counseling from SDSU in 1975, and her J.D. in 1985. After working as a college instructor, Lopez decided to work with youth as a counselor at Calexico High School and later for the Sweetwater Union High School District. In 1993, she became one the founders of Adelante Mujer (Move Forward Women), an organization that promotes higher education and community involvement for Latina students and their mothers.
In addition to her work with youth, she is actively preserving Mexican American history for public access. She is a member of the SDSU Chicana Archive Project Committee; the archive documents the history of the Chicano Student Movement in San Diego and the struggle over education during the Civil Rights Movement. Currently, Lopez is the director of a campaign to gather the oral histories of San Diego Latinas active during the Civil Rights Movement. Lopez is also a contributor to a nationwide oral history campaign called Chicanas Por Mi Raza led by Maria Cotera at the University of Michigan. Sonia Lopez's works to empower Chicana youth as a counselor and mentor, and preserves and promotes Chicana history as an instructor and oral historian.