Chicana 1976
Legislation is passed, that includes an allocation of 5 million dollars to implement 56 state and territorial conferences for the election of delegates to the national conference, which will be held in Houston in November 1977. The planning committee has offices and staff in Washington D.C. headed by Midge Costanza, office of the President. The planning committee pulls in white house staff to that includes Chicana Rose Marie Roybal. Midge assigns the IWY staffers a section of the country to coordinate the development of state committees to implement and produce the 56 state and territorial meetings that must occur prior to the national convention. Delegates have to be chosen, agendas have to be agreed upon, in less than a year as the conference is scheduled for November of 1977.
Each state conference meeting will have a commissioner appointed by President Carter to officiate each state and territorial meeting. Women and men from a variety of industries and organizations are chosen as commissioners, including three Latinas, Cecelia Preciado Burciaga, Assistant to the Provost, Stanford University, Rhea Mojica Hammer, Vice-Chairperson of the NWPC, and Carmen Votaw, President of the National Organization of Puerto Rican Women.
Rose Marie Roybal is assigned the Southwest US—states include California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Texas (ask Rose Marie if this is right about Texas). One of Costanza’s many assignments is to develop lists of women that reflect the demographic of the state and are in-line with the goals of the Plan of Action who can serve on the state conference planning committees. Each state has an allocation of 100,000 dollars to produce a conference, managed by each state's planning committee. Roybal creates planning committees that meet the goals as assigned by Costanza and is called into question by her superior for following instructions.
What Roybal realizes with Costanza’s unhappy reaction to the resolutions produced in a series of state meetings managed by a true demographic (read predominantly women of color) is that the task assigned should have reflected token representation, not actual representation. Costanza proceeds to give Roybal little to do and proceeds to have as little interaction as possible with Roybal going forward. Roybal is not dismissed but does become a pariah in the IWY planning office. It is suggested that Roybal will not be allowed to attend the Houston Conference. Rose Marie then reaches out to Commissioner Rhea Mojica Hammer. It is Mojica Hammer's correspondence with the State Department that secures Roybal's ability to attend the conference.
