About us

In 1989, María Olea and Clara Luz Navarro, Latina immigrants in the Bay Area, were hired by a team of researchers at San Francisco State University to help them learn more about the living conditions of women in their community. Through numerous interviews, they documented the desperate reality they faced as newly arrived immigrants: widespread domestic violence, extreme poverty, isolation, fear, and frequent violations of their most basic rights. However, along with the dire living conditions they witnessed, they also discovered an underlying strength: despite isolation and lack of knowledge of their rights, the women interviewed shared a spirit of struggle and perseverance, and a desire to make a positive change. These initial encounters gave birth to Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA), a healing and leadership development program made up of immigrant members. Over 3 years decades later, MUA is a grassroots organization with a budget of over $4.5 million and a staff of 35+ that reaches thousands of immigrant women throughout the San Francisco Bay Area each year. MUA has the mission of promoting personal transformation and growing our personal and community power for social and economic justice.

MUA’s innovative leadership development model trains members to plan and implement our programs and lead our work for social justice. MUA is proud to be a national model for immigrant women and to have created a healthy, sustainable grassroots membership-led oragnization. Through the leadership of our community members and the founding of a variety of local, state, and national coalitions and alliances, MUA has constructed a political force that enables immigrants to effectively advocate on their own behalf, and in so doing impact the lives of countless immigrants in the Bay Area and beyond. MUA has helped cultivate a strong base of women, once isolated and disenfranchised, who are now leaders and organizers – defining and leading community education and organizing efforts on the issues that most affect them.

MUA’s past organizing successes have ensured access to pre-natal care in California for immigrant women; improvements in access to translation services in Alameda County hospitals and clinics; inclusion of specific provisions in the Violence Against Women Act addressing the needs and circumstances of immigrant women; and increased visibility of the economic contributions of immigrant women and of the need for basic labor protections for domestic workers, who make all other work possible in our economy. MUA is a founder of the National Domestic Workers’ Alliance, spearheaded efforts to pass the California Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, and has been at the forefront of the movements to end family separations and build a pathway to citizenship for all immigrants.