Angela Kelsey

Tell the Story

Celebrating Gracia Molina de Pick

Filed in Stories, voices :: March 7, 2012
Born in Mexico City in 1929, Gracie Molina de Pick is (and this is the short list from the National Women’s History Project) “an activist, feminist, educational reformer and philanthropist.”

Frida Kahlo House

But I think I found the heart of all her work, maybe even the heart of her life, here:

“’My aunt was a very intimate friend of [Mexican Artist] Frida Kahlo,’ says Molina de Pick. ‘My aunt is your classical lesbian. Everyone knows [my aunt] is a lesbian, but she is completely in the closet. She is 95 now. But when I was 12 or 13, I would spend time with my aunt and Kahlo. I learned from them that great people defend not only themselves, but those who cannot defend themselves.’”

Molina de Pick believes that she has seen discrimination in every form possible. And this is, in large part, what drives her activism. ‘I’m a radical person,’ says Molina de Pick. ‘I have to be. I think anyone who identifies with human rights is going to be a radical in politics. We are on the cutting edge. My last breath will be fighting for those human rights.’”

Italics and repetitions are mine: “great people defend not only themselves, but those who cannot defend themselves.”
Filed in Stories, voices

3 Comments

    • Angela

      Great question. I was thinking the same thing.

  2. wholly jeanne

    yeah, i’d like that to be the norm and let the opposite be radical. that’s 3 votes. there’s bound to be more . . .