María Guadalupe Urzúa Flores was twice mayor of Jocotepec.

The Jalisco State Congress will recognize María Guadalupe Urzúa Flores, from Jocotepec, and Martha Rodríguez García, from Chapala, with the «Hermila Galindo Acosta» award on March 8th, International Women’s Day.  

The Commission for Substantive and Gender Equality of the Congress of the State of Jalisco approved honoring ten women from the state, and one civic organization, for their actions in favor of women’s human rights  through teaching and research, public service, art and culture, health, gender equality, or civic advocacy.

María Guadalupe Urzúa Flores will receive this distinction post mortem. She was a woman who did not think of herself. Although she did not have material wealth, nor did she marry, she dedicated her entire life to the service of others.

Among her actions as mayor of Jocotepec for two terms were overseeing the installation of cobblestone streets, water wells, roads, electricity, a sports courts, a library, a women’s training academy, a night literacy school for adult men and women, a hospital, the leprosarium, the «Pedro Ogazón» elementary school, the «Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla» high school, and the current regional high school.

Urzua Flores was a friend of several presidents of the republic and governors of Jalisco. She was the first federal deputy for Jalisco from 1955 to 1958 and she was elected to four federal deputies, which allowed the needs of the people to be heard through her voice and her administration.

She was also mayor of San Martin de Hidalgo and managed to establish a high school, recognized by the University of Guadalajara.

Martha Rodríguez García is a rural social environmentalist leader in the Chapala region.

Another Lakeside woman who will also be recognized on March 8th is Martha Rodríguez García. She is an environmental leader and representative of the rural Lakeside community. She has committed herself to the defense of the environment, rural values and traditions of her community. Her skills and talents were recognized when she was elected as President of the Commissariat of her town in Santa Cruz de la Soledad, municipality of Chapala.

Martha Rodríguez warns all that the growth of an urban development and tourism model is occupying the spaces of the agricultural territories worked by the “ejido” or communal landowners and indigenous people. They have been displaced by real estate and by external interests that are alien to the traditional communal structure. The social fabric of her ejido was damaged because of new real estate development projects.

From her position as an ejido communal landowner, Martha took on the task of compiling a documentary file that traced the history of the community from the endowment of land in 1919, its expansion in 1925 to include164 hectares. 145 of those hectares belong to the Cerro del Junco, a hill that is home to important species of flora and fauna, and from whose summit the Colima Volcano can be seen. 

With this documentation in hand, Martha has undertaken defending the heritage of her community. She has worked to decree the land as a Natural Protected Area, guaranteeing that the ejido’s will will be followed. She also has worked for the integration of an Ecological Land Management Plan for the Lake Chapala Lakeshore in the hope it will attract projects, such as those developed with technical assistance and support from Aipromades Lago de Chapala, obtain funding from the United Nations Development Program for the restoration of Cerro del Junco, and the participation of the Coca-Cola Foundation and Arca Continental as partners in the project.

Translated by Colleen Beery