Elfreda Reyes
| Elfreda Reyes | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Elfreda Stanford 1901 British Honduras |
| Died | 1992 (aged 91) Belize |
| Nationality | Belizean |
| Other names | Elfreda Trapp |
| Occupation | activist |
| Years active | 1919-1981 |
Elfreda Reyes (1901-1992) was a labor organizer, suffragette, women's rights activist and political activist during the British Honduran struggle for independence from Great Britain. She helped found the Jobless Workers Union and pushed for labor reforms, including wage and hour laws, as well as the Women’s League, which fought for social, economic and political empowerment of women.
Elfreda Stanford was born in 1901 in British Honduras to Creole, Bajan immigrant, George Stanford and his wife Louisa. At the age of ten, she was selected for the 1910 “Tenth” ceremonies, to give the loyalty address of the schoolchildren to the governor. By 1919 she was working as a domestic for one of the white British families as an unskilled laborer. In the 1920s, Stanford married Solomon Trapp. Between 1924 and 1925, Trapp became a "significant new political voice" on gender and class. She was what is known in Belize as a Bembe woman. The term refers to primarily working-class women, who are “not afraid to fight or curse…”, but who refuse to be defined by moralists because they see themselves as engaged in a justifiable fight for their rights or nationhood. She spoke at the 1932 constitutional hearings, where she demanded that the authorities protect the interests of working women, but did not press for universal suffrage on the basis of lack of education. Around the same time, she was one of the founders of the Jobless Workers factory. On 15 November 1933, the Independent carried a notice of Solomon Trapp's death. On 1 October 1934, she was one of the women who led the takeover of the largest private employer in British Honduras, BEC Sawmill. Initially the group was led by Tony Soberanis, but when the men backed away, black women had led labor dispute and warded off white men by wielding sticks, while commenting on the cowardice of their own male leaders.
By 1935, Trapp and her sisters Virginia and Ianthe Stanford were members of the Labourers and Unemployed Association (LUA). Her stance had been radicalized and Trapp was now in favor of full suffrage. When the LUA marked its first anniversary in March 1935 with new elections, the winners were Rosannah Branche, Sarah Johnson, Amybell Pratt (chair), Pearl Tennyson, Christobel Usher, and Trapp. LUA women organized the Women’s League in 1935 with the goals of creating a national democracy without hierarchies of class, sex, or race. The petition which they sent to the government asking for suffrage included blacks, Garifuna, mestizos and Mayans, the 98% of the populace which did not earn $25.00 per month, and all persons aged 21 and over. Around this same time, the Black Cross Nurses split with the LUA women over class lines, as the nurses were not in favor of enfranchising "the rowdy popular classes".
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