Before Thelma & Louise: Josefina and Luisa took on the FBI, and the fight for labor and civil rights with a little help from Hollywood.

Before Thelma & Louise, there were Josefina Fierro and Luisa Moreno, two Latina badasses who fought for labor and civil rights in this country under the scrutiny of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. And like the Hollywood characters, the road eventually ran out for them, just when it seemed their heroism might bring them good fortune.

Hollywood filmmakers have a long history of supporting progressive movements. In the late 1930s, Josefina Fierro married John Bright in Los Angeles. Bright was a screenwriter and a founding member of the Screen Writers Guild. The FBI claimed that both were Communist Party members. A 1942 FBI document describes Josefina and John this way: “She is secretary of the Spanish Speaking People’s Congress, an organization having as its alleged purpose the protection of the Mexican workers in the U.S. from discrimination. The group is strongly C.I.O pro-union…John Bright, her husband, is a screen writer at Warner Brothers and was known to be a member of the Community Party in 1936.”

The Spanish Speaking People’s Congress was the first national Latino civil rights conference in the United States, and its principal organizer was Guatemalan-born Luisa Moreno. Josefina and Luisa were also founding members of the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee (SLDC), originally called the Citizens’ Committee for the Defense of Mexican American Youth. Other founding members included attorney and journalist Carey McWilliams and Mexican-American union organizer and activist Bert Corona. Together, they became the heart of the growing movement, raising money, gathering supporters, and challenging a justice system that seemed determined to make an example of Mexican American youth. 

Bright’s Hollywood connections brought much needed attention to the Sleepy Lagoon Case in 1942. He and Josefina hosted Hollywood parties to raise awareness and funds. Stars like Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Cary Grant, and Anthony Quinn backed the SLDC, helping organize, write, publish, and speak at benefits for the cause.

On October 4, 1944, the California Court of Appeal overturned the convictions of the Sleepy Lagoon defendants. However, the fate of the activists began to spiral. Josefina and Luisa were under FBI surveillance, and the agency began looking for ways to stop their work. 

The two women held out as long as they could.

As the sun sets on them, Luisa agrees to voluntarily leave the U.S. in 1950 rather than risk bringing harm to other activists who were being interrogated in the courts, and Josefina remarried and moved to the Hermosillo coast in the Mexican state of Sonora. 

Fact: FBI files connect Josefina Fierro to Dalton Trumbo

Fact: Scholar Carlos M. Larralde connects Josefina Fierro to John Steinbeck

Must read: Vicki L. Ruiz: “Una Mujer Sin Fronteras: Luisa Moreno and Latina Labor Activism”

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