ALAS and the Latina Initiatives

In the early 1980s in Boston, a group of Latinas — Elizabeth MacMahon-Herrera, Maria Lourdes Mattei and Loly Carrillo — formed Amigas Latinas en Accion pro-Salud (Latina Friends in Action for Health), or ALAS. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, ALAS was dedicated to innovative community health outreach, using pamphlets, radio, and street theater — mainly for the Latino community of Boston and, in later years, New Mexico.

ALAS produced the first Spanish language educational AIDS video in the United States. ALAS worked alongside Our Bodies Ourselves as a sister organization and became affiliated with Our Bodies Ourselves. Eventually it was incorporated as a major program area. ALAS members supported the work on the ambitious Latin American translation and cultural adaptation of "Our Bodies, Ourselves", which was managed and directed by the “Nuestros Cuerpos, Nuestras Vidas” (NCNV) program team at OBOS (this team would later become the Latina Health Initiative).

Through a creative trialogue/trialogo between the U.S. text, collaboration with 19 women’s health groups from 11 countries, and the Boston editorial team, “Nuestros Cuerpos, Nuestras Vidas” became a transnational edition for women of Latin American and Caribbean descent, wherever in the world they might live.

Directors and other key leaders in this project — Rosie Munoz-Lopez, Mayra Canetti, Maria Morison Aguiar, Veronica Nielsen-Vilar and Ester Shapiro — synthesized the work of activists and translators from feminist and women’s health organizations throughout the region.

Nirvana Gonzalez Rosa, formerly of Puerto Rico’s Taller Salud and general coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network, offered critical guidance in connecting with inspiring women, organizations, Feminist Encuentros, and documents that informed and enriched an inviting activist text.

In 2001, OBOS launched its Latina Health Initiative (formerly known as ALAS) under the direction of Zobeida Bonilla. The program’s focus was the development of “Promotoras de Salud” (2002), a companion curriculum guide to “Nuestros Cuerpos, Nuestras Vidas.” The guide is used by peer health educators in training programs across the United States and Latin America, and the program now focuses on distributing Spanish language materials online.

OBOS and its collaborating partners approached this project with the hope that the publication of “Nuestros Cuerpos, Nuestras Vidas” and the dissemination of Latina-directed health information would provide an opportunity for outreach, prevention awareness, and network-building in Spanish-speaking communities. It would not have been developed without the energy, commitment and expertise of these groups and the book’s publisher, Seven Stories Press.

Those mentioned above and contributors listed below have worked passionately to address the health needs of Latinas in Boston and far beyond. We acknowledge them with deep respect and appreciation.