Wilma

 Dear Valeria,

“Europeans brought with them the view that men were the absolute head of households, and women were to be submissive to them. It was then that the role of women in Cherokee society began to decline. One of the new values Europeans brought to the Cherokees was a lack of balance and harmony between men and women. It was what we today call sexism. This was not a Cherokee concept. Sexism was borrowed from Europeans.”

Regards,

Wilma Mankiller

Louise

Dear Valeria,

At the dinner table when I was very little, I would hear people bickering... To escape the bickering, I started modelling the soft bread with my fingers. With the dough of the French bread --sometimes it was still warm-- I would make little figures. And I would line them up on the table and this was really my first sculpture.

Best wishes,

Louise Bourgeois

Lucille

Dear Valeria,

won’t you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.

the warmest hug,
Lucille Clifton

Dorothy

Dear Valeria,

Greatness is not measured by what a man or woman accomplishes, but by the opposition he or she has overcome to reach his goals.

Big hug,

Dorothy Height