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“Born a Leading Lady”: The Political Trajectory of Lucretia del Valle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2020

Margie Brown-Coronel
Margie Brown-Coronel*
Affiliation:
California State University
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: mbrown-coronel@fullerton.edu
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Abstract

This essay explores the life experiences that shaped the political work of Lucretia del Valle Grady. Born in California at the turn of the twentieth century, del Valle Grady traced her lineage to early California Spanish-Mexican settlers. She came of age in the emerging metropolis of Los Angeles and closely witnessed her father's, Reginaldo del Valle, own political career evolve. After a successful acting career, Lucretia left Los Angeles to study in New York and took part in suffrage efforts. While suffrage occupies a center role in understanding women's political work, this essay shows that suffrage functioned as a stepping stone between formidable political experiences. By decentering suffrage, this profile traces the vast scope of del Valle Grady's life of political engagement.

Keywords

Spanish-Mexican womenpoliticsheritageclub workfeminism
Type
Spotlight
Information
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 623 - 633
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (SHGAPE)

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References

Notes

1 “Lucretia Grady, Democratic Party Aide,” The Washington Post, Times Herald (1959–1973); May 25, 1972; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Washington Post (accessed July 18, 2019).

2 Smith, Wallace, This Land Was Ours: The del Valles and Rancho Camulos (Ventura, CA: Ventura Historical Society, 1978)Google Scholar; Brown-Coronel, , “Intimacy and Family in the California Borderlands: The Letters of Josefa del Valle-Forster, 1876–1896,” The Pacific Historical Review 89:1 (2020)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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4 Lozano, Rosina, An American Language: The History of Spanish in the United States (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2018), 5CrossRefGoogle Scholar and 25.

5 Also see Molina, Natalia, How Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Power of Racial Scripts (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Hayes-Bautista et al., “Reginaldo del Valles; and Pérez, ErikaColonial Intimacies: Interethnic Kinship, Sexuality, and Marriage in Southern California, 1769–85 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2018)Google Scholar.

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8 “Del Valle in Hermosillo, Battle May Occur Today: Special Envoy of President Wilson …,”Los Angeles Times (1886–1922), June 15, 1913; Proquest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times, 11 (accessed July 2019).

9 Kenneth J. Grieb, “Reginald del Valle: A California's Diplomat's Sojourn in Mexico,” California Historical Society Quarterly, Dec. 1, 1968, 47:4; Smith, This Land Was Ours.

10 Scrapbook, Personal Papers of Deirdre Grady (granddaughter of Lucretia del Valle), private collection.

11 “Going to Mexico as Wilson's Own Agent, Del Valle Takes Beautiful Daughter,” The Watching Post, July 10, 1913; Proquest Historical Newspapers: The Washington Post, 2 (accessed July 2019).

12 Grieb, “Reginald del Valle,” 321.

13 Scrapbook, Personal Papers of Deirdre Grady, private collection.

14 Lucretia del Valle to Charles Lummis, n.d., Correspondence 1.1.1748, Charles Lummis Papers, Braun Research Center, Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, CA.

15 Charles Lummis to Lucretia del Valle, Nov. 1, 1916, Correspondence 1.1.1748, Charles Lummis Papers, Braun Research Center, Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, CA.

16 Deverell, Whitewashed Adobe, 234; “COURAGEOUS IN DEFEAT'S FACE,” Los Angeles Times (1886–1922); Jan. 9, 1917; http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed Aug. 20, 2010).

17 Charles Lummis to Lucretia del Valle, Nov. 1, 1916, Correspondence 1.1.1748, Charles Lummis Papers, Braun Research Center, Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, CA.

18 Charles Lummis to Lucretia del Valle, No. 1, 1916.

19 “DAUGHTER OF TOECALLI: Informal Reception in Honor of Miss Lucretia Del Valle …,” Los Angeles Times (1886–1922), Feb. 13, 1917, http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed Aug. 20, 2010).

20 Tuesday, Jan. 16, 1917; Nov. 1, 1920, Journal Entries, Charles Lummis Papers, Braun Research Center, Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, CA. Information on Margaret Chung see Wu, Judy Tzu-Chun's article, “Was Mom Chung a ‘Sister Lesbian’,? Asian American Gender Experimentation” in American Dreaming, Global Realities: Rethinking U.S. Immigration History, eds. Gabaccio, Donna L. and Ruiz, Vicki L. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006)Google Scholar.

21 LDV to CFL, probably sent from New York Oct. 10, 1917, Correspondence 1.1.1748, Charles Lummis Papers, Braun Research Center, Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, CA.

22 LDV to CFL, New York Oct. 10, 1917, Correspondence 1.1.1748, Charles Lummis Papers, Braun Research Center, Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, CA.

23 LDV to CFL, New York Oct. 10, 1917, Correspondence 1.1.1748, Charles Lummis Papers, Braun Research Center, Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, CA.

24 DuBois, Ellen, Harriot Stanton Blatch and the Winning of Woman Suffrage (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999), 165Google Scholar.

25 Finnegan, Margaret, Selling Suffrage: Consumer Culture and Votes for Women (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 79Google Scholar.

26 Finnegan, Selling Suffrage, 46.

27 “LUCRETIA DEL VALLE IS NEW YORK CITY BRIDE: News of Nuptials Surprises Friends.” Los Angeles Times (1886–1922), Oct. 19, 1917, http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed Aug. 20, 2010).

28 DuBois, Harriot Stanton Blatch and the Winning of Woman Suffrage, 194.

29 November, Journal Entries, Charles Lummis Papers, Braun Research Center, Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, CA.

30 November, Journal Entries, Charles Lummis Papers.

31 Del Valle Family Year 1919, Chronological Research Notes of Wallace Smith, Ventura County Museum of Art and History, Ventura, CA.

32 McNay, John T., ed The Memoirs of Ambassador Henry F. Grady (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2009), 23Google Scholar.

33 Scrapbook, Personal Papers of Deirdre Grady, private holding.

34 DuBois, Harriot Stanton Blatch and the Winning of Woman Suffrage, 124.

35 Scrapbook, Personal Papers of Dierdre Grady, private holding.

36 Graham, Sara Hunter, Woman Suffrage and the New Democracy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996), xviiiGoogle Scholar.

37 Scrapbook, Personal Papers of Deirdre Grady, private holding.

38 Newspaper clipping, “Decision to Organize Commodity Exchange Is Reached at Big Meeting,” Personal Papers of Dierdre Grady, private holding.

39 Scrapbook, Personal Papers of Deirdre Grady, private holding.

40 Correspondence Lucretia del Valle Grady to Mary Dewson, Papers of the Women's Division of the Democratic National Committee, (1933–1944), Franklin D. Roosevelt Library & Museum, Hyde Park, New York.

41 Ware, Susan, Partner and I: Molly Dewson, Feminism, and the New Deal Politics,(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987), 148–50Google Scholar.

42 Grady, Henry F., The Memoirs of Ambassador Henry F. Grady: From the Great War to the Cold War (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2009), 10Google Scholar. Grady passed away in 1957 before he was able to publish his memoir. This publication is edited by John T. McNay and reveals little of Grady's personal life with his wife.

43 Reginaldo del Valle Papers, Huntington Library, box 3, San Marino, CA.

44 Wallace Smith, “The Last of the Señoritas,” The Californians: The Magazine of History 4:2 (Mar./Apr. 1986), 39–43.