Silvia Henríquez, Executive Director National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health

Silvia Henriquez, according to colleague after colleague, is a courageous, natural-born leader who brings joy to all that she does. Her accomplishments are astounding: in an incredibly short time, she has revitalized an organization and led it to national prominence, helped build a now thriving reproductive justice movement, and stood at the forefront of some of the most urgent issues of our time.

Silvia’s parents were among her strongest influences. After emigrating from El Salvador in the early 1970s, they became health-care providers in the Bronx, and expressed a strong commitment to people’s health and well-being. But much of their political activism centered on the civil war in El Salvador. Discussions revolved around inequality that fueled the conflict, and her mother’s feminist perspective shaped how Silvia began to examine the root causes of injustice.

After college, and with the civil war over, Silvia traveled to El Salvador. She visited rural communities and led platicas (informal conversations) with women about contraception. This was an important turning point for Silvia: “I realized how central a woman’s ability to control her fertility was—as a source of power and to care for her children.”

Silvia was forever changed. In Washington, DC, she worked for the Feminist Majority Foundation and the National Abortion Federation and set out to advocate for the reproductive rights and health of women who were most marginalized. “But back then,” Silvia remembers, “it was much more difficult to deal with issues of abortion and women of color. Today, it’s a whole different field. ” A different field, thanks in large part, to Silvia.

On the Cusp of a New Movement
In 2001, Silvia joined the Latino Issues Forum to evaluate barriers to California Latinas’ reproductive health. “This was before there were any organizations in the state focusing on these issues.” In fact, recalls Silvia, it “was really the beginning of the reproductive justice movement,” which examines how race, class, gender, immigration status, and other issues affect women’s access to reproductive rights and care. Silvia and her colleagues’ findings helped lay the foundation for an emerging movement nationwide.

Connecting Local and National Organizing, Expanding Constituencies for Change
In 2003, with the reproductive justice movement—and respect for her leadership—on the rise, Silvia was hired to lead the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) in New York City. The first full-time staff member, she was tasked with building a new organization.

Three months later, the March for Women’s Lives in Washington, DC was scheduled. NLIRH became one of seven major sponsors, catapulting them to the national stage, and attracting new constituencies on behalf of reproductive rights. “We were able to organize…thousands of young people, people of color, who historically had never participated in a march for reproductive health care,” remembers Silvia.

Connecting national advocacy and community organizing has always been critical to NLIRH. “Since the beginning,” says Silvia, “[we’ve] highlight[ed] the needs of the most marginalized…making sure they are their own agents of social change.”

Fast forward to 2009, the height of health-care reform advocacy. NLIRH was heavily involved in promoting the priorities of women of color, including immigrant women, on its own and as a leading member of the coalition, Women of Color United for Health Reform. Once again, because of their network of relationships on the ground, NLIRH was able to mobilize great numbers of women typically excluded from national debates.

For instance, at a Ms. Foundation gathering, NLIRH began a partnership with La Voz Latina, a project of Migrant Health Promotion that works with women farmworkers in rural Texas to advocate for their reproductive rights and health. During organizing for health reform, “They answered our call for urgent letter-writing campaigns and meetings with district officials,” says Silvia. “The relationship was very easy to mobilize.”

The Ms. Foundation for Women
“So much of this work has been supported by the Ms. Foundation from the very beginning,” says Silvia. In fact, the Ms. Foundation supported the Latino Issues Forum research project, was one of NLIRH’s first few supporters (which today has nine staff and a second office in Washington, DC), and provided funding to establish Women of Color United for Health Reform. “The Ms. Foundation’s deep understanding of women-of-color policy work is refreshing and unique. They’ve been particularly supportive of our work with activists on the ground, recognizing the complexity of national organizing and the need to remain community-centered.”

Silvia’s Vision
“My vision is that one day women and girls, Latinas, are able to make decisions about their health that are free from stigma, free from coercion, and that these decisions are respected and made with dignity.” “That,” says Silvia, “is what social justice should be.”