The “Preview Issue” of Ms. magazine was published with the immense help of Gloria Steinem (co-founding editor). Ms. was the first national feminist magazine, edited entirely by women. Until this magazine’s publication, the Women’s movement had little literary representation when it came to amplifying individual voice.
It was important for Steinem and staff to share a platform for women discuss and consider themselves beyond the stereotypical bounds. Gloria Steinem chose the first cover to include art depicting a female figure with many hands, juggling the tasks of a woman’s life. The mythic illustration had universality, as the character’s race was ambiguous.
In 1997 another Gloria would present an illustration depicting our multi-appendaged woman once again. Gloria Trevino Velasquez, an artist and poet, writes and illustrates the Superwoman Chicana. In the artwork drawn by Velasquez, the woman presented has more of an obvious identity. This superwoman Chicana has colors and objects that she embraces, and are revolving her. She is not just a woman of color, but a mother, student, cook, organizer, motivator and force. Superwoman Chicana refuses to be ambiguous and instead illuminates a different movement: The Chicano Movement. Challenging our complacency, her resonant cries for justice "refuse to be silent/to be buried in obscurity."
I can’t help but think that Gloria Trevino-Velasquez, a Colorado born Latina, born in 1949 may have read/been inspired by the imagery depicted in the Ms. magazine that hit the stands that fateful Spring ‘72 day. Perhaps Velasquez took that inspiration to build upon her identity as a woman- she was not just a woman but a woman of color.
