A lot of my role models are poets and philosophers who are no longer alive like Mexican intellectual Rosario Castellanos, Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil.

All were outstanding thinkers who never had a tenured job….

Those three women gave me inspiration when I needed it most.

After I came to California, I was inspired by women involved in political activism, like Emma Goldman, Dolores Huerta and Elizabeth Martinez.

– Norma Alarcon (1943- )