Leonor Villegas de Magnón

Leonor Villegas de Magnón (June 12, 1876 – April 17, 1955) was a political activist, teacher, and journalist who founded a brigade of the international Mexican American relief service, La Cruz Blanca, during the Mexican revolution.

The better part of Magnón's life was dedicated to the Mexican revolution; she even began her life as a refugee—her father brought her family to the United States to escape the fighting in Mexico. By 1895, Magnón had received her bachelor's and teaching certificate at New York's Academy of Mount St. Ursula, and after school, married Aldopho Magnón and settled in Mexico City to teach kindergarten out of their home. Magnón also began to write articles criticizing then Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz in La Crónica, a Spanish-language newspaper founded by the Idar family (of Jovita Idar) that exposed injustices against the community.

Because of Magnón's political affiliation her father's businesses in Mexico began to be shut down, and Magnón fled to Laredo, Texas while her husband stayed in Mexico. There in Laredo she continued to teach kindergarten, but eventually her home became a makeshift hospital for her all-volunteer medical team, La Cruz Blanca.

Magnón detailed her experiences as a volunteer in La Cruz Blanca in her autobiography, The Rebel, and this is where we get much of the information about Cruz Blanca's operation. Magnón was careful to leave two versions of her memoirs—one written in Spanish, and one translated into English, entitled The Lady was a Rebel. Magnón wrote these manuscripts (called "novelized memoirs") in the third person, and wrote about important figures in the revolution, including women who helped carry out Cruz Blanca's operations. Unfortunately, her memoirs would not be seen by the public until 1994, when her granddaughter was able to publish it through Arte Publico Press.

After her father's death in 1910, Magnón was not allowed to visit her father in Mexico for a proper burial due to the war. But four years later the Mexican government would award her five medals for her work at La Cruz Blanca. She died in Mexico City on April 17, 1955.