Co-Founders - Rebecca Jaramillo
Rebecca Dolores Hernandez was born on October 23, 1939. Her parents, Daniel Hernandez and Francisca Yanez, were both born in the State of Guanajuato, Mexico. Daniel was from Salvatierra and Francisca from Tarimoro. Rebecca was the fifth child of twelve and always stirring up excitement. She was extremely intelligent and excelled in school from a very young age; she was also a bit of a daredevil.
Rebecca began experiencing racism at a young age and she spoke about these incidents in her Panel of American Women speech, “Mexico, is a part of North America, and this is where my grandfather was born. Yet, somehow we continue to be regarded as aliens, foreigners. I became painfully aware of this when my third grade teacher called me to the front of the class and instructed me to describe life in Mexico. I was dumbstruck and embarrassed because I’d never been to Mexico and wanted so much to be thought of as one of the class/group. I was 8-years-old and devastated by her assumption that I had been born in another land/country.”
“Years later, in Junior High, I was walking down the hall and a boy I’d noticed was walking toward me trying to talk to me. I was thrilled because he was cute and I thought he was finally flirting with me. As he got closer I asked him to repeat his remark, then he scowled and hissed the word “spic”. I was crushed and confused by his look of hate and anger. Later, I asked my mother what the word meant. I felt sick and frightened when she told me it was meant as a repudiation of Mexican people.”
“After this incident my parents and grandparents began teaching me about my ancestors and their contributions to the world. For example, that Hispanics discovered and mined gold, silver, tin and copper. They developed maize (corn) from a tiny kernel. They developed the irrigation process, performed architectural marvels with indoor plumbing; they developed the most accurate calendar, mathematical concepts, communal water rights and established a university in 1551, 50 years before Harvard!"
At the age of 17, Rebecca was ready for a change so she packed up and headed to Kansas City, Missouri to attend Rockhurst University and worked in the Dean’s office. On a visit to Topeka, Kansas in June of 1957, she met Joe Jaramillo and the two began steadily dating. On January 28, 1961, they married while Joe was on two-week leave from the U.S. Army. The marriage took place just prior to his serving for one year in Korea. Joe completed his tour of duty in early 1962 and they established their first home in Kansas City. The couple had three children, Romulo Joseph, Cynthia and James.
Joe and Rebecca saw a lot of opportunity in Kansas City, but unfortunately the opportunities were not open to everyone. They joined the NAACP when they were repeatedly denied the privilege of restaurant service and became active in fighting that issue when they joined the Kansas City, Missouri’s People for Public Accommodations drive which sought the passage of a bill requiring public businesses to provide service to all persons regardless of race, national or ethnic origin, skin color, etc. They succeeded in registering scores of people in time to vote on the issue. The bill was passed by a thin margin and became law in 1964.
While at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Kansas City Area Office Rebecca was the Hispanic Employment Program Manager. She also served as the HUD office coordinator in the application process for Posada del Sol a senior citizens high-rise apartment complex in Kansas City, Missouri’s West Side. The project’s construction was completed in 1981. In recognition of her role, she received community service awards from the HUD Kansas City Area Office, the Hispanic Chamber of Greater Kansas City and the Guadalupe Centers.
Also in 1981, Rebecca, together with her fellow HUD employee Jose Gonzalez, and Ninfa Garza, program coordinator for the Guadalupe Centers Senior Citizens program, founded the GKC National Hispanic Heritage Committee and its Fiesta Hispana to annually commemorate National Hispanic Heritage Month.
For many years Rebecca actively continued her advocacy of equal rights and equal opportunities for minorities and women by serving on boards of local and national community agencies such as: Model Cities; the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity; the American G.I. Forum, the League of United Latin American Women; the Panel of American Women; the Incorporated Mexican American Government Employees (IMAGE) - 1979 to 1982 as national chairwoman of the IMAGE Women’s Action Committee with headquarters in Washington, D.C.; the Federally Employed Women; the United Nations Women’s Commission; the Women’s Political Caucus; the Guadalupe Centers, Inc.; the Mexican American Women’s National Association (MANA); the Heart of American United Way; the Salvation Army and several others.
Rebecca also received distinguished awards from the Federal Executive Board of Greater Kansas City, the U.S. Department of Defense, the Panel of American Women, the Mexican American Women’s National Association, the Salvation Army, and The Central Exchange of Kansas City honored Rebecca in 1981, naming her its second Woman of the Year.
A memorable moment, that Rebecca spoke fondly of, occurred on April 27, 1979, during the administration of President Jimmy Carter. While serving as national secretary for the Panel of American Women, Rebecca was part of a select group of panelists invited to the White House for a special reception in their honor for the many years of work in the area of human relations. In a letter President Carter welcomed the Panel, “Your organization exemplifies the approach Rosalynn and I so strongly support of citizens voluntarily taking responsibility for facing and solving the problems of their local communities. For the past twenty years you have brought people together to learn about one another and to eliminate prejudice by replacing it with understanding and acceptance of the diversity that should enrich rather than divide our nation. That is the ultimate goal of all who oppose discrimination -- not just to end particular practices, but to dispel our ignorance of each other and the fear of differences that creates prejudice and discrimination.”
For over forty years Rebecca fought for others. But in 1990, she had to start fighting for her life. She noticed blood in her mouth and a persistent sore throat. Tests showed an uncommon and unusually aggressive cancer had developed in a salivary gland. Doctors operated to remove it, but it reappeared. In 1998, she underwent a second surgery. Again, it came back. In 2001, the cancer had spread in her mouth and tongue, and had wrapped itself around her carotid artery.
The physician who had performed the prior surgeries told her the cancer was inoperable and gave her three to four months to live. She refused to give up. He told her there were only a couple of surgeons in the country who could possibly perform such a difficult operation.
“He told me not to get my hopes up,” Rebecca said.
One of the surgeons he mentioned was Dr. Terence Tsue, MD, an otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon at KU Medical Center. Rebecca made an appointment, not knowing what she would hear; afraid he would turn her down.
Instead, Dr. Tsue assured her the cancer was operable and that he had confidence in the outcome.
The surgery to remove the mass from her neck would be formidable. They would have to take out the carotid artery and reconstruct it using a section of artery from her groin. Most of her tongue and lower jawbone would be removed and reconstructed using tissue and bone from her left forearm. Muscle from her chest would be used to make a flap that would cover her new blood vessels. Furthermore, she was in danger of having a stroke during the 17-hour surgery.
Despite Rebecca’s and Dr. Tsue’s confidence, there was one remaining skeptical group. Rebecca had several longtime women friends (her Panel of American Women sisters) who had been with her during her previous cancer surgeries and wanted to be sure their “sister” was in good hands. The women insisted on talking with Dr. Tsue before the surgery.
“They grilled me,” he remembers laughing.
“He spent a lot of time with them. He was very forthcoming and answered all their questions,” stated Rebecca. “They were impressed.”
In December 2001, Rebecca underwent a successful surgery. Damage from prior treatments, and the drastic surgery, affected her vocal chords and she had to “speak” with a tablet and pen while seeing a speech therapist. She had to relearn to swallow, but her capabilities were so limited that the PEG tube was never removed from her stomach. When faced with the possibility that she would never speak or eat again she responded, “I think God wants me to become a better listener.”
In 2002 the Guadalupe Centers awarded Rebecca its coveted I. Pat Rios Award for outstanding contributions to the Community, recognizing Rebecca for her role in the historical completion of Posada del Sol and the first West Side neighborhood fountain. The fountain was formally dedicated on September 15, 2000 by the Kansas City, Missouri Parks and Recreation Department.
In February 2005, Rebecca was taken to North Kansas City Hospital because of constant, lingering pain in her side. While at the hospital the doctors discovered a myriad of illnesses from broken ribs to a tumor on her liver. Unfortunately for Rebecca the stubborn cancer had returned and surgery really was not an option.
Rebecca’s strong faith carried her through the difficult months before her death and she shared that faith with her family, “I have come to believe this life wasn’t meant to be easy but, it is very simple. It’s a test, or an opportunity to reach out to take the hand which God is always extending to us. If we do reach out to take God’s hand, I found that he opens our hearts so that we will know Jesus Christ and the path that Christ has made for us to follow Him into God’s kingdom. In coming to know Jesus and by following his way of life each and every day as much as we possibly can, even though it is rarely easy and we’re likely to stumble often, we will soon reach the end of our time on earth as we now know it…Then we will die. But Jesus has promised us that death has no power over us and we will be raised up from the decay of our ashes and we will be made new and we will enter God’s kingdom. There we will be reunited with those who we love who went before us with their faith in the word of God.”
On March 4, 2005 Rebecca received the YWCA Hearts of Gold Award for Economic Empowerment for her service thirty years before as a United Nations delegate on a commission studying the status of women in the world.
Rebecca Jaramillo passed away peacefully on May 13, 2005, the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima, after a fifteen-year battle with cancer. Rebecca truly believed that “Heaven is like a grand banquet where the guests will share in the joy of being together forever for time without end, we will enjoy there the grandest of food and drink and there will be no tears ever again.”