Estilita Grimaldo is a lesbian activist and businesswoman from Panama. Born on May 8, 1936, in Colón, she grew up in the Canal Zone. Throughout her childhood in Colón segregation was officially and unofficially enforced by the U.S. occupation. This led to her developing a very keen understanding of imperialism at a young age. She attended Catholic school and was very religious as a young woman. At one point she planned on becoming a nun. This led to painful internal conflicts over her sexual identity, including a relationship that she hid from friends and family.

In 1957 at the age of 21, Estilita decided to visit her sister in Costa Rica for Holy Week. Their mother was originally from Costa Rica. While it was supposed to be a short visit, Estilita did not intend on returning to Panama. Her sister helped her find a job with a local company as a secretary. During her time in Costa Rica, she had a long, secret relationship with a woman. Due to the stress of hiding the relationship from others, she began seeing a psychologist who eventually recommended that she move to San Francisco where she could openly live as a lesbian.

Estilita then moved to San Francisco. She lived on Haight Street during the Summer of Love. She also lived on a commune for some time. She was also introduced to several revolutionary groups with whom she began working. She also started working on political collages at this time. Around 1966 she decided to return to Latin America and wanted to become more involved in the anti-imperialist movement. However, in 1968 at the age of 32 she met her long-time partner Gina in Los Angeles and decided to stay in California. This would be her first lesbian relationship in which she was able to openly live as a lesbian and be accepted by her partner’s family. During this time she decided to come out to her family. Her mother was initially unaccepting, but later invited both Estilita and her partner to Colón. After staying in Panama with Gina for some time, they both returned to Los Angeles in 1969.

Lesbian LA in the early 1970s

In 1970 Estilita and Gina opened a secondhand store in Echo Park. She also frequently attended events at the Women’s Building. During this period of her life, she was able to express her sexual identity and become active in the city’s lesbian community. She also wanted to become more politically active in the feminist and lesbian movements, which created tension with Gina who had no interest in political activities. They eventually broke up in 1973.

Following their separation, Estilita became more involved in the women’s movement and rented an office in the Women’s Building for her new business, Woman Tours. Woman Tours was established with the goal of not only being a women-focused, feminist travel agency, but also educating American women about Latin America and the history of imperialism. Estilita felt strongly that more and more women would become influential leaders in the wake of the feminist movement and that it was important for them to avoid replicating the mistakes of U.S. foreign policy. Originally located near MacArthur Park, the Women’s Building was a central meeting place for organizing, art and performances, and social events that catered to women, but more specifically feminist and Queer women. The building regularly hosted dances on Saturday nights that were very well attended.

Around the same time, Estilita began to get back in touch with her Latina American roots. She had noticed that Women Tours would often receive calls from Latinas who appeared to be closeted lesbians and were hesitant to reach out but were clearly looking to connect with other lesbians. She decided to put an announcement in the Sister newspaper advertising that she was starting a group called Latin American Lesbian. The group would be a precursor of Lesbianas Unidas.

If you are interested in learning more about heryou can listen to her Latina Lesbian History Project interview on California Revealed.