Emma Tenayuca was born in Texas and is a labor rights activist who was a pioneer in the fight against the horrible conditions migrant workers and laborers faced. She spoke out about the substandard wages and the great disparity between the rich and the poor however this led her to be arrested for the first time. After joining the strike against Finck Cigar Company when she was 16 nevertheless, she went on to be arrested multiple times for her participation in protests and strikes. In 1937 after Mexican migrants were beat Border Patrol officers, she organized a famous protest and strike against the San Antonio Pecan Shellers in 193. She later went on to join the Communist Party, worked an an organizer and activist for the Workers Alliance of America and for the Women's League for Peace and Freedom, and founded two International ladies Garment Workers Union. She even lobbied the mayor of San Antonio in order to improve relief distribution for unemployed workers during the Great Depression. In 1939 in San Antonio she was blacklisted after the anti-communist mob went on a riot which forced her to move to Houston and then San Francisco. In the late 1960's she moved back to San Antonio and died in her hometown in 1999 at 82 years old.