A new group focused on mentoring young Hispanic women is starting small — working in Denton’s schools and universities — but the founders have their eyes on a bigger prize.
Maria Muniz and Tomasa Garcia say they hope that the Denton chapter of the Hispanic Women’s Network of Texas will grow to promoting Hispanic women for public office in Denton.
They don’t mind taking one step at a time, Muniz and Garcia said. The group’s mission — to promote advancement of Hispanic women in education, public, corporate and civic life — isn’t something that gets done overnight.
“This is something I had been interested in starting awhile ago,” said Muniz, the chairwoman-elect of the chapter who teaches Spanish at the University of North Texas. “But there wasn’t the interest at that time; there weren’t enough people. Then, a group of interested females who wanted to be represented started to come together. I had a student who was interested and she gave a presentation, and that’s really what got the interest started. We had our first meeting, and we’ve been steadily growing.”
The chapter started meeting last fall.
The Denton chapter of the network was a spark kindled by enthusiastic college students, founders said.
Garcia, owner of TLG Language Resources, has a history of activism in Denton. She was a founder of the Denton chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
The local Hispanic Women’s Network of Texas chapter will plug Denton Hispanic women into the state organization, but it also will bring Hispanic women together so that they might meet common challenges as a group, Garcia said.
“We’re all facing the same obstacles,” she said. “There really isn’t any representation in Denton [for Hispanic women]. There aren’t any Hispanic women on City Council, or even the Denton school board. We need representation. Usually, that doesn’t happen unless people come together and make it happen.”
The chapter has forged a partnership with Calhoun Middle School to launch a mentoring program. The school has one of the highest Hispanic student populations in the district. Muniz said members will mentor girls in the school, teaching the importance of finishing high school, graduating from college and contributing to the community as adults.
“The schools are packed with students, and you can’t expect that the counselors can meet every need,” Garcia said.
The chapter plans to begin a scholarship fund, but Garcia said scholarships aren’t enough. The chapter has to challenge some of the doubts Hispanic women have about their ability to serve and show girls and young women how to succeed in school and in the boardroom.
“We need more females who would agree to help themselves and others,” Muniz said. “Maybe they are afraid they don’t have the skills, and they might think that because they are married they can’t help others out. Now, we need more people to help, to volunteer.”
Ultimately, the chapter intends to make leadership a legacy for Denton’s Hispanic women. The chapter board includes professors, a doctor and several businesswomen, and Garcia said the board itself consolidates leadership in the private and public sectors.
Garcia said one of the chapter’s long-term goals is to have a building that might eventually be a community center for Hispanics of all ages.
“We want to have an education seminar series and maybe model it after the series the Dallas chapter has done,” she said.
The most recent Dallas seminar helped Hispanic women learn about college admission and college life.
Muniz said the Denton chapter celebrates Hispanic culture.
“You can feel the cultural energy in our meetings,” she said. “We greet in Spanish, and our meetings are in Spanish and English. The room is packed. We look forward to doing great things.”
The next chapter meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. July 6.
