NELDA OJEDA WYLAND

Researched  & Created by: Tracy Morse

Basic Facts About Nelda


A lifelong advocate of Mexican American Women

Nelda Ojeda Wyland recognized the important issues Mexican-American women faced.  She believed being a feminist activist could improve the quality of their lives.  It was a mechanism to foster change and gain equality.   

Early Life

Nelda Ojeda Wyland was born during the Depression just outside Austin, Texas, on April 21, 1931, to Jubentina Cantu, a homemaker, and Cecilio Ojeda, a farmer. She was one of twelve children in her family. Segregation still existed during Wyland’s childhood, which influenced her decision to become a local member of the League of United Latin Citizens (LULAC), and fueled her passion to help Mexican Americans. Wyland left high school after tenth grade due to illness, but she returned to college for two years as an adult before eloping with Leon Jose Perales, a military officer. They married on October 25, 1947, in Reno, Nevada, and went on to have two children, Palmira and Clarissa.

The Path to Activism

Nelda lived all over the US, including Washington, D.C., and Anaheim, California.   She married four times, the third time in the early 1970s, to a man whose last name she is most recognized for—“Wyland,” but about whom little information can be found. In 1972, Wyland flew from D.C. to Southern California as the VIP representative and national liaison for LULAC to charter a new chapter of LULAC in Long Beach.  Wyland moved to Anaheim in the mid-1970s and became an active member of both the Orange County Health Planning Council and the State’s International Women’s Year (IWY) Committee.  

President Ronald Reagan (L) with Nelda (fR)

"Warner" (C), Nelda (R) with Actress Elizabeth Taylor (front center)

Nelda (L)



Nelda with California Governor Jerry Brown

Representing California at the NWC

Nominated to be a delegate at the California State IWY Conference, Wyland was the only Chicana representative from Orange County to attend the National Women’s Conference in Houston, TX from November 18-21, 1977.  Wyland was one of the 101-member delegation from California.  She was focused on encouraging Spanish-speaking women to be active in the women’s rights movement.  Wyland felt so many issues concerned them, including their shared experiences of segregation in school, discrimination in the workplace, and discrimination in general. 

As a member of LULAC (the League of United Latin American Citizens), Wyland recognized the important issues Mexican-American women faced, and how being active in feminism was relevant to these women if they wanted to improve the quality of their lives, see change, and gain equality. LULAC is the largest and oldest Hispanic membership organization in the United States. 

Wyland held multiple other positions in the 1970s, including being an educational coordinator for Operation Self Employment Redevelopment (OSER) and an active member of the National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC).  She received the Women’s Hall of Fame Award “for outstanding leadership, great strength and commitment to the 60-year-old organization,” by LULAC ("Laurels for Latinas 1989").

Life after the National Women's Conference

In the early 1980s, Nelda moved back to D.C. and was hired as a bilingual program analyst for the United Planning Organization in 1982. In DC, she founded Ojeda’s International Inc. to locate Ojeda relatives on her father’s side. The reunions became so large that 300 hundred relatives held regional parties in addition to the national week-long reunion she held. Her week-long reunion included more than 400 Ojeda relatives from the USA to Cuba, Japan, Russia, Uruguay, and Puerto Rico. Congressman J.J. Pickle immortalized her family reunions in the Congressional Record.

The Final Years

A Life of Public Service

Nelda married Harold Savoy on March 22, 1985. They were married for twenty-five years.  They moved back to Austin, Texas, where Wyland attended one final childhood neighborhood reunion, in 2002. During her interview, she commented on why she kept organizing the Ojeda reunions:

I keep it up because I have such pride in my people. I want to make Austin aware of who we are.  When we were young, the only time the white kids talked to us was when they wanted to copy our homework.  When we saw them in Congress, they wouldn’t acknowledge us.  I just want them to know that we turned out OK.  We’re lawyers and doctors and architects and successful business owners.  I just want them to know that even though we were poor growing up, we turned out OK (Gandra).


Wyland’s husband, Harold Savoy, preceded her in death on August 2, 2003.  Wyland passed away at the age of seventy-nine on March 7, 2011, in Austin, Texas. Her entire life was dedicated to public service, bettering the lives of Mexican Americans, and bringing awareness to the “treatment of undocumented persons and whether such persons are granted due process of law, especially regarding immigration matters” (Bennett). She is buried at the Assumption Cemetery in Austin, Texas. 


Nelda in her senior years

Above daughter Clarisa with her mother Nelda, before she fell ill.

Presentation on Nelda Wyland by Tracy Morse

Nelda Wyland was featured as one of the presentations created by Tracy Morse, UC San Diego Undergrad Student for THE SHARING STORIES DIGITAL HUMANITIES PROJECT.  This was a collaborative effort of students and alums based at UC Irvine and UC San Diego who researched the 96 delegates and 5 alternates that represented the state of California.  Former delegates and conference attendees from across the country were present for this presentation.  

Bibliography  


Associated Press. “Hispanic Group Plans $88K Cleaning.” Lincoln Journal Star. October 28, 1989. https://www.newspapers.com/image/312435224/?terms=nelda%20ojeda%20savoy&match=1 


Barreto, Julio. “Hispanic Tree Casts A Long Shadow.”  The Washington Post.  August 18, 1982.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1982/08/18/hispanic-tree-casts-a-long-shadow/d698ea56-bece-41e1-86ab-0b3022ed9b8d/  


Bennett, Lorraine.“Women Delegates Find Unity in Their Diversity.,” The Los Angeles Times. November 10, 1977. https://www.newspapers.com/image/164906547   



Bennett, Lorraine. “Diversity Marks County Delegation.” The Los Angeles Times. November 10, 1977. https://www.newspapers.com/image/164907236/?terms=Diversity%20Marks%20County%20Delegation&match=1 .


Chavez, Lorenzo.  “The Quest for Hispanic Roots.” Tucson Citizen. March 7, 1987. https://www.newspapers.com/image/579390119/?terms=nelda%20ojeda&match=1  


Gandara, Ricardo. “Gandara Reunion has Grown From 10 to 300.” Austin American-Statesman.   September 28, 2002. https://www.newspapers.com/image/356865627/?terms=nelda%20ojeda&match=1 


Gandara, Ricardo. “Reunion Recognizes a Neighborhood’s Enduring Spirit.” Austin American-Statesman.  September 28, 2002. https://www.newspapers.com/image/356865440#


Harold A. Savoy. Grave marker. Memorial ID 87213510, Assumption Cemetery, Austin, Travis County, Texas, digital image s.v. “Harold A. Savoy,” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/87213510/harold-a.-savoy 


“Health Planning Council Names Board.” The Los Angeles Times.  November 25, 1976. https://www.newspapers.com/image/166700861/?terms=health%20planning%20council%20names%20board&match=1 


“Laurels for Latinas.” El Paso Times. August 26, 1989. https://www.newspapers.com/image/431485366/?terms=nelda%20ojeda%20savoy&match=1 


Nelda Ojeda Savoy. Grave marker. Memorial ID 87213455, Assumption Cemetery, Austin, Travis County, Texas, digital image s.v. “Nelda Ojeda Savoy,” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/87213455/nelda-savoy 


“Virginia, Marriages, 1936-2014,” Roll: 101173404, Ancestry.com. digital image s.v. “Nelda Ojeda Wyland.” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/87213455/nelda-savoy 


Wyland, Nelda Ojeda.” Interview with Nelda Ojeda Wyland.” Interview by Viola Valles Beilin. California State University, Fullerton, University Archives and Special Collections, October 26, 1977. Audio, 21:51, https://calisphere.org/item/8e16e1e7b55bfcb65982857782a9da8b/