This year, the Board of Trustees of Urban College of Boston bestows two honorary degrees to two extraordinary women, Colette Phillips and Dora De Leon. Colette Phillips is a global brand, but her local leadership and passion for Boston and Massachusetts are palpable even as her influences extend well beyond our borders here. In a similar yet different way, Dora De Leon’s impact on generations of women is not limited to Massachusetts and California. But also extends to her country of birth, Guatemala.
Urban College of Boston is a Minority Serving Institution (MSI) where about 90 percent of our students are of color and are working their way up the socioeconomic ladder. We also serve a considerable proportion of immigrant learners. Our students tenaciously strive to achieve the American Dream. They are on a path that Colette and Dora know very well in their own ways.
Unlike Colette, Dora is a local unsung hero about whom most audiences know nothing. Dora’s work is worthy of an honorary degree because of the impact she has had on the lives of Central American women in Boston and the Los Angeles area. At 18, Dora moved from Guatemala to Los Angeles and spent four years working as a domestic worker for a family. She found her way to Massachusetts after meeting another Guatemalan immigrant and got married. In Boston, she worked cleaning houses, assembling sneakers for Converse, and doing administrative work for the Boston Police Station.
What sets Dora apart is her audacious belief that girls should be afforded the same opportunities as boys, that they should experience the world, open their horizons, and have meaningful careers in life. Too often, within immigrant communities, girls and young women are held back. Parents, out of fear, more strictly impose the norms, habits, and gender-biased expectations of the old culture on girls, limiting their opportunities.
Dora, who broke tradition and traveled alone to the United States, has spent much of her life exhorting girls and young women to seize the opportunities that a life in the United States affords them. This began in her own family, where she bucked socially embedded norms and supported her daughter, Jennifer De Leon, to publish her first national article in Ms. Magazine about birth control. This seminal article changed Jennifer De Leon’s path in immeasurable ways. That first article, in which she had the courage to talk about a taboo subject in her community, opened many doors even as it created controversy in her family. It was the road less traveled that her mother encouraged her to explore.
Achieving gender parity starts with confronting ingrained gender norms and prejudices to enhance girls’ agency in shaping their destinies. This is how we ensure women’s participation in societal, political, and economic spheres. This is not to say that immigrant communities need to espouse the American version of women’s empowerment or that our version is superior. After all, we reversed Roe v. Wade. In honoring Dora De Leon, Urban College of Boston explicitly signals the impact it seeks to have in helping women find their agency and fulfill their full human potential.
Today, Jennifer De Leon is the award-winning author of the Young Adult novels, Borderless, featured on the TODAY show, and Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From. She is also the author of White Space: Essays on Culture, Race, & Writing, which won the Juniper Prize from the University of Massachusetts Press. As an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Framingham State University and faculty member in the Creative Writing & Literature Master Program at Harvard University, she has published prose in dozens of literary journals and magazines. Jenn is also the editor of the anthology, Wise Latinas: Writers on Higher Education, which won an International Latino Book Award. A contributor on NPR, she is the founder of Story Bridge, which aims to bring people together from all walks of life to shape, share, and hear each other’s unique stories.
This year, it is not Jennifer that we celebrate. We celebrate the woman who chose not to clip Jennifer’s wings at a young age. Jennifer is one of many women whose careers and joy Dora De Leon enabled. She started with her daughter and with her family but has spent a lifetime supporting girls, young women, and women. We need more Doras in this country and in this world.
Congratulations, Dora and Colette!
Congratulations, Dora and Colette!