Judy Chicago Dinner Party, 2014

I am honoring my great aunt, Maria Teresa Ruiz Rojas, born June 15, 1898 in Santa Clara,Cuba. In the early 1920s,Cuban women experienced profound prejudice and discrimination, and the majority of women of employment age did not work. Maria, however,graduated from the University of Havana Law School and became a lawyer in 1925. In the early 1940s, when only 100.16 of women were employed, she became the first female judge in Cuba. In 1960, her only son, Juan,had joined resistance efforts to stifle Castro's plans, and at age 18, had to escape late at night, on a cargo ship sailing to Spain to keep from being arrested and punished as a dissenter. He then came to the United States to live with our family. Maria was never allowed to leave Cuba,and passed away on March 7, 1968 in Havana, without ever seeing her son again.

Virginia served as Associate Professor Emerita of English and the "Intellectual Mother" of Women's Studies at Lock Haven University from 1969-1999. "My students challenged, stimulated, and inspired me-no matter in what context I met them. I never thought about looking for another job because I had found a lifetime of cultivation at LHU. I am a fortunate woman."- LHU Roll of Service acceptance speech, October 2011