Esperanza Salinas
Organizations
Edcouch-Elsa ISD
Location
Edcouch- Elsa, Texas
Biography
Esperanza Salinas earned her B.S. in Education from Pan American University and taught in Monte Alto and Progreso Independent School District for over twenty years. Prior to that, she worked as a teller and then a marketing officer for ten years at First National Bank in Edinburg, TX. She served as the Vice President of the Edinburg Chamber of Commerce and was twice elected as a trustee of the Edcouch-Elsa ISD School Board during her teaching career.
Audio Clips
Interviewed by Michelle Téllez on December 8, 2022 in Edinburg, Texas
Esperanza Salinas talks about how Anglo counselors discouraged her son and his friends from applying to colleges. She then took it upon herself to help him and other high school students. This became one of the motivating moments for her to become politically involved to help other Mexican American kids, as well.
Salinas talks about volunteering to facilitate the Children of the Colonias project with students. This project allowed people to document their experiences with cameras and took them to Washington, D.C. .
Salinas talks about how women are the “movers” of political process in the Valley because of their social networks.
Digital Archive
Cover of Children of the Colonias photo project, which Salinas helped to facilitate.
Political gathering at a supporter’s home in Elsa, Texas.
Photograph with former U.S. Representative Kika de la Garza.
Political ad in local newspaper about Esperanza Salinas’s re-election campaign for school board.
Campaign bumper sticker from Esperanza Salinas’s husband’s campaign for school board.
Political ad in local newspaper promoting Esperanza Salinas’s re-election campaign for school board.