Rodriguez, Luz

Luz Marina Rodriguez was born in New York City on March 7, 1956, and grew up on the Lower East Side. She was the eldest of three children of Elsa Rodriguez Vazquez and Luis Rodriguez Nieto, Sr., who had both recently emigrated from Puerto Rico as part of Operation Bootstrap, a government economic investment into the Puerto Rican economy. Her father held a variety of jobs, including electronics repair and night security work, while her mother sold Avon products.

After graduating from Seward Park High School in 1974, Rodriguez spent two years immersed in social and cultural activities in her Puerto Rican neighborhood, which became known as Loisaida (a Latino pronunciation of the Lower East Side). She was deeply involved in The Real Great Society, a gang outreach and community empowerment organization created in 1964 to engage youth in addressing local needs, especially sweat equity projects to create affordable housing. She was also an active participant in Charas/El Bohio, a cultural center where she taught Puerto Rican folkloric dance.

After studying dance at Pratt Institute, Rodriguez graduated from New York University as a dance therapy major in 1982. College research into the sterilization of, and birth control experimentation on, Puerto Rican women planted the seed of later reproductive rights activism.

Rodriguez defines herself as a servant-leader. She has continued to combine grassroots social justice work with administrative leadership in non-profit organizations, including Henry Street Settlement, East Side Family Resource Center, Dominican Women's Development Center, and Casa Atabex. In 1996 she became Executive Director of the Latina Roundtable on Health and Reproductive Rights and played a critical role in the formation of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective. In 2011, she become co-chair of the Management Circle of that organization. A specialist in organizational development and non-profit sustainability, Rodriguez currently serves as bilingual training coordinator at the New York City headquarters of the Foundation Center.

In 1994 in recognition for her advocacy work, Rodriguez was awarded a Windcall Residency, a retreat program for those who work for social justice. She is a published poet, playwright, aspiring sculptor, and she remains active in SisterSong. She was married to Norbeto Cruz and later divorced. She has two sons, Gabriel and Abran-Lumi, a step-son, a foster daughter, a kinship foster child, and four grandchildren.

From the guide to the Luz Rodriguez Papers 539., 1945-2006, 1968-2006, (Sophia Smith Collection)