MARIA ANTONIETTA BERRIOZÁBAL
First Chicana City Council Member in San Antonio

Maria Antonietta Berriozábal is the first chicana ever elected to the San Antonio City Council. She served from 1981 to 1991.

Two distinguished activists, Maria Antonietta Berriozábal (left) and Graciela Sanchez in a happy moment. Berriozá is now very active in the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center as an "elder" advisor which she says "has captured my imagination." This picture was taken at Berriozábal's home during a coffee she hosted to explain the importance of the lawsuit Esperanza filed against the City of San Antonio for its defunding in 1997.

Maria Antonietta Berriozábal speaks at the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center's 15 de septiembre celebration. Dr. Antonia Castaneda, Associate Professor of History at St. Mary's University is to the left.

Maria Antonietta Berriozábal was the first Mexican-American woman elected to the San Antonio City Council. During her tenure, she became a role model for Latina women. Known for her outspoken opinions on the role of government in the every day lives of its citizens, Berriozábal frequently clashed with her city council colleagues, including then Mayor Henry Cisneros, as well as powerful business interests within the city. On important economic development projects, such as the Alamodome and tax abatements for large corporations relocating to San Antonio, she often cast the lone dissenting vote. For that, she was branded as a divisive element rather than a consensus builder. Berriozábal's District 1 constituents however, regarded her as an effective representative who aptly addressed the diverse needs their neighborhoods.

During her tenure, Berriozábal quickly became, and continues to be, a role model for Latina women. She appointed numerous Latina women to important boards and commissions (82 out of 102 positions); founded the Hispanas Unidas Conference; served as a presidential appointee to the OAS Inter-American Commision on Women; was a Fellow at the Harvard University's Institute of Politics; participated in the United Nation's Fourth International Women's Conference held in Beijing, and has served as a mentor to many young Latina women. When the name Maria is mentioned in conversations among Latina and Anglo women, whether they are activists or professionals, they refer to only one woman - Maria Antonietta Berriozábal.

Early Influences

Berriozábal notes that several women served as role models in her life. She has the personal qualities of her two grandmothers. Her paternal grandmother, a gifted organizer, mobilized the women in the church to raise money to rebuild Christ the King Church when it a fire destroyed it. Although she was illiterate, she served as president of every church organization in her area. Berriozábal proudly notes her grandmother was a doer:

"When the priest and men were trying to decide how to raise money, my grandmother was over there with the women making buñuelos and tamales and selling them to make money. In other words, while the guys were figuring out "How are we going to make the money?" the ladies got together and said, " After each mass, we're going to start selling food and we're going to have a fondo (fund) para la iglesia" (fund for the church). And they started. And by golly they helped to rebuild two churches - San Geronimo and Santa Isabel (now Christ the King)" (Berriozábal interview).

Berriozábal's maternal grandmother was a model homemaker, "powerful in her family, but in a soft, yet strong, crocheting, pretty-smelling way, cooking and making bread." The influences of her grandmothers fused in Berriozábal's consciousness. She proudly states:

"I'm both. I developed a love of cooking, gardening and pretty things, but also a love of being out there and doing. Talk about role models! Me meto donde no me invitan (I go where I'm not invited). … We go and we do; nobody has to tell us. That's a very precious thing" (Berriozábal interview).

The Anglo nuns at Providence High School were also powerful role models. They reinforced what Berriozábal learned at home. She "felt affirmed learning" both in school and in the home. These nuns affirmed her humanity, her faith and with that, her culture. For Berriozábal, the latter two are closely linked. They provided her with much encouragement to speak her mind.

"They listened to me. When I raised my hand, they called on me. When I asked a question or gave an answer, they treated it as a very important one. They told me I should always speak up in class. Well, they never should have said that!" (Berriozábal interview).

Although she grew up in poverty, life was secure at home. Her parents instilled the values of compassion, service to others, responsibility, religious faith and intense pride in Mexican culture, history and the Spanish language. She spent much of her time attending church activities. "I studied, I learned, and participated. I prayed a lot." This included teaching doctrina [Catholic doctrine] in people's homes along with other young girls. The beginning of her activism began to unfold. She recalls:

"We had meetings in girls' houses. We had punch and cookies and organized things. I thought it was wonderful. The idea of getting together with a group and planning something and then doing it was like a revolutionary process for me that I loved, and that's politics" (Silva 1).

In her youth, Berriozábal survived poverty and discrimination through the love of her family and by reaching out to other people. She discovered that by helping people in need, "it didn't hurt anymore. That's how I dealt with pain as a child." Her activism further blossomed. She recalls:

"Even as a little girl, I was very conscious of my environment-how the school works with the church, how the church works with the neighborhood. Those relationships fascinated me. I observed what my neighborhood looked like--the lack of good streets, the poverty--and I would see the rest of the city was different. I saw how hard my parents worked. So at an early age I had a desire to work with other people to improve my neighborhood" (Eskenazi 2).

Money was scarce in the home when she was a teenager because her father, then a construction worker, earned only $55 weekly to support her large family. In Christ the King Elementary School, the Mexican nuns looked down upon her because she was poorly dressed. She was often ridiculed by the other students, and when she asked her parents to intervene, the nuns ignored them. It was a pivotal event in her life because she learned to fend for herself in school. She also learned to translate for her parents and take care of her younger siblings. These circumstances made Berriozábal a very responsible child early on.

At the age of 14, she determined her mission was to help provide for the family. She continued to attend school because "quitting was never an option." Even when she was offered a scholarship to Our Lady of the Lake University she rejected it because she was so focused on her family. "I didn't even discuss it with my parents," she says. Instead, she decided to forgo her own education to help her parents so her brothers and sisters could go to college. She recalls, "My mission was making money and giving it all to my family." It was indeed a selfless act yet she did it willingly and gladly. Eventually however, after attending part time and evening classes, Berriozabal obtained a B.A. in political science from UTSA in 1979.

Berriozábal's studies at UTSA were related to her employment. She held a number of administrative posts working for prominent Democratic Party politicians and the county judge. She also ran the 1968 Hubert Humphrey presidential campaign headquarters in Bexar County. This helped her to "learn politics from the inside out" (De Los Santos 97). Under the guidance of her professor, Dr. Richard Gambitta, she began to focus on Chicana women and in particular, the entire lack of Mexican-American elected officials. She used her academic training to connect her cultural values as a Chicana and her political views. Rosales observes that the study of politics helped to merge her activism with her profound belief in spiritual values. He notes:

"She saw politics as a way to equalize things, which she found the church lacking in terms of opportunity to do. To put it a different way, the spiritual in the abstract cannot in itself meet the needs of the people. But material needs in themselves also do not make a human being" (162).

After Berriozábal graduated in 1979, she was appointed to run the San Antonio Central Census Office during the 1980 census count. She received high praise for her management of this operation from the community at large, and as a result, she became even more visible and respected. The 1980 Census provided her with a broader picture of the state of Chicana women locally; in comparison with the rest of the population, they were the lowest in income and educational attainment.

A Different Brand of Politics, A Conscious Political Choice for No Personal Gain

At the urging of friends, Berriozábal ran for city council when Henry Cisneros vacated his District 1 seat to run for mayor. Her victory was considered historic. Berriozábal's politics were clearly populist, grassroots, and inclusive. Her progressive and independent views however, clearly marked her as an outsider on the council, particularly among her Chicano peers. It was difficult for her male colleagues to deal with an assertive, independent Chicana councilwoman. The council generally ignored the issues she brought to the table, which would benefit her district. Thus, one of the most important hallmarks of her tenure was empowering the citizens she represented to speak for themselves.

"I had to fight my way through ten years on the council and I learned how to do without them. I had to figure a way to do it in spite of them... Instead of having me present the issue before the city council, I would get the people to take it. I said, 'Look, you have this street that you need; you're going to have to organize'" (De Los Santos 97-98).

Berriozábal helped her constituents to organize at the grassroots level. She taught them how to prepare petitions, and they would come to the city council meetings to present them. "And the council had to go with them. I developed a totally different way of doing politics which was going back to the people" (De Los Santos 98). This was a very conscious decision on her part that was based on "community principles that went beyond the more individualistic goals of position and power" (Rosales 166).

"...when the work was done, the people said we did it ourselves. It's very inefficient politically, because it's not having people depend on you as the caudillo, as the one, el jefe o la jefa, que les da cosas. [who provides for you]. And you lose power as the world sees it. But you empower people and that's what I did all those years" (Rosales, 167).

In a wider realm, her practice of empowering people came head to head with major economic development issues, which she firmly couched within the context of community development. Rodolfo Rosales notes:

"While the primary object of her program was neighborhood development, including the "soft" issues such as child care and taking care of the old, the key element of this grassroots politics was that the community, through its various neighborhood representatives, (not simply the city council representatives) should play a key role in the development of the vision and the plans for economic development--a very threatening idea to those who looked at economic development from a business perspective" (Rosales 167).

Berriozábal's position put her at odds with then Mayor Henry Cisneros who strongly supported major development projects such as the construction of the Alamodome, annexation, and tax abatements for the Sea World and Fiesta Texas theme parks. Cisneros was considered a consensus builder, while Berriozábal garnered a reputation for being one-sided, inflexible, and anti-business. Her philosophy however, was to invest in people, in human capital. She candidly remarked in an interview:

"Let me tell you about consensus building. Issues of development in San Antonio are bigger than any local elected official, whether you are a council member or the mayor. It was not an issue of consensus building. The establishment of San Antonio is so powerful that it was, and still is, easy to get those six votes for whatever the major business interests want. It is very unfortunate because 20 years after our administration of the 1980's, we are still living in a poor city, with an ill prepared workforce for our present technological reality, with a brain drain of our educated youth and with large numbers of working poor, high illiteracy and a high dropout rate from high school. If what some of us were saying in the '80's about investing in human capital was included in part of a consensus building, at least this aspect of a city's development and growth would been included in the equation. The fact is in those years, we were just left out" (Berriozábal interview).

Berriozábal gives the Applewhite Reservoir project as an example. Environmentalists believed Applewhite would encourage more development over the recharge zone of the Edwards Aquifer, the city's sole water source. She and Helen Dutmer, another city council member, who were opposed to the project, were removed from a regional water committee before that group made its final recommendations. They were consequently eliminated from that discussion. In other cases such as the Fiesta Texas tax abatement, "the votes were already there" so she was ignored. Her concerns were for higher employee wages and protection of the aquifer over which development would occur. In a dramatic 10-1 vote on this issue, she was the lone dissenting voice on the council. Berriozábal contends that the business interests, an important element of the city's power structure, control the city's agenda and all have marginalized her. She contends:

"It's very convenient for them to be able to attack a good leader of the people and devalue or marginalize them because they put the fault on the leader instead of on the system that will not let leaders like that flourish" (Berriozábal interview).

The characterization of Berriozabal as "divisive" resulted in her defeat in her bid for mayor in 1991 against Nelson Wolff.

Although Berriozábal was on the losing side of most economic development issues, she was victorious in her fight against the Applewhite Reservoir Project. She, along with a broad coalition of activists, twice defeated referendums in 1991 and 1994. In her traditional style, Berriozábal questioned the viability of the project just as she had done with other major economic development proposals while she was a councilwoman. Her main concern was that the Edwards Aquifer would not be protected from insensitive development over its recharge zone, which would endanger the city's sole water source. In a pointed article which appeared in La Voz de Esperanza, she discussed several technical failings of the project, which included inadequate pumping limits, and the unresolved issue of wastewater. In addition to technical inadequacies, Berriozábal vigorously criticized blatant disregard for alternative proposals brought forth by environmentalists and other citizens' groups during the planning process which was "terminated before due and deliberate public debate" (Berrriozábal 6). Furthermore, she accused Mayor Nelson Wolff and other elected officials of breaking their promise to abide by the voters' decision to reject Applewhite in 1991. Wolff spearheaded a campaign to present Applewhite once again, which was backed by the Greater Chamber of Commerce of San Antonio and most of the mainstream political officials, including Chicano officials. This time however, Applewhite proponents raised one million dollars to mount an elaborate campaign which "hit the media full blast" (Rosales 174). Berriozabal believed that Applewhite II was no different from the first proposal. She contended:

"The charge can still be made that Applewhite is part of a scheme to allow continuous development of the northern part of the city and over the recharge zone of our sole source of water... Applewhite is still very much the old Applewhite. It is still a bad idea... The entire proposal is even dangerous. It is not addressing in a serious and honest way how we are going to have a secure and clean water supply for our future. There is the illusion that something is being done. As long as we continue to spend time fending off badly conceived ideas, we do not spend time working on real solutions. I will vote against Applewhite... again! (Berriozábal 7).

Berriozábal worked with an extraordinary coalition of women from the north side, the south side and west side to oppose this second referendum. These included Judith Sanders-Castro from MALDEF (Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund), Carol and Kirk Patterson, north side water activists, Karyn Conley, a Black state legislator from San Antonio's eastside, Rosa Rosales, a LULAC activist, Angela Garcia, a labor organizer and Kay Turner a highly respected, outspoken water activist from the north side. With a paltry sum of $12,000, these women from very broad and diverse socio-economic backgrounds resoundingly defeated the second referendum and the leadership of Berriozábal was critical in the election outcome (Rosales 175).

Merging Spirituality with Activism

Throughout most of her career, Berriozábal has combined spirituality with her activism. Yolanda Tarango, a proponent of mujerista theology, says that the religious experience of many Hispanic women is "characterized less by pious practices and holy thoughts and more by piety of concrete acts of love and justice" (Tarango 14). Berriozábal exemplifies this. She believes that spirituality is active rather than passive. "It's out there making changes, helping out and doing." Her spirituality is inextricably linked to her aversion to seeking position and power through politics.

"One thing that is said about Latinas in leadership positions and particularly in politics is that we're not going to get very far because we always have the community with us. In other words, we must learn to cut the political deals. And with me, I never did it - gladly I never did it. And the reason was that when you choose that way of doing your work, you leave out the people. My work is based on listening to the people. Their clamor is for justice" (Berriozábal interview).

Since she left public office in 1991, Berriozábal was "without a road and without a plan." She seized the opportunity however, to slow down and let go. This "gestation" period has been one of deep introspection and reflection. She concentrates more on holistic living, the study of Eastern religions and self-improvement projects.

Her desire to serve the community is still prevalent, particularly as an elder for younger activists. "I want to provide them with the support and counsel I often did not have" she notes. She has taken an avid interest in the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center and its executive director, Graciela Sanchez. Collaborating with Esperanza, which has captured her imagination, is "almost like working with a clean slate." It is also a way she can remain "anchored" to her activism. She and other supporters of Esperanza have a deep desire to narrow the bridge between the mind and the heart. She notes enthusiastically:

"What is needed is support for leaders and all people on how they can integrate their life - not be people with all brains, but how they can be more compassionate and loving people. How can we talk about more love, kindness and tenderness as we change systems? I think there's incredible power in that! I look at Dorothy Day, Ghandi, Cesar Chavez, Teresa de Avila who were strong people, but not political people. They were not elected to anything" (Berriozábal interview).

Thus, Berriozábal has concluded that for her, the best way now to effect change is not through elected office, but through non-profits and community groups as a volunteer.

"Elected office becomes less and less attractive as a way to change things because for now, that's not where most people are, and I want to go where the people are. Why aren't the people voting? So instead of going there, I want to go where they are - not where they are not!"

Berriozábal may be out of the public eye, but she is not idle!

Mariana Ornelas