Lupe Anguiano was born on March 12, 1929. For more than fifty years she has worked for the equality of all people. She was born in Colorado. Her father worked for the railroad and in the summers the family lived in California, picking fruit and walnuts. In 1949, she joined Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters. As a nun, she worked for fifteen years to improve the social, educational, and economic conditions of poor people throughout the United States. Anguiano was also a United Farm Workers' volunteer, working directly under the direction of Cesar Chavez in Delano, California. In the late 60s, she was assigned to lead what became the successful grape boycott in Michigan.



In 1966, Anguiano became the East Los Angeles Coordinator of the Teen Post program, a program funded by President Johnson's War on Poverty program. Her work with youth brought her to the attention of Congressman George E Brown who nominated her to be a delegate to a White House meeting addressing the inadequate education offered to most Mexican Americans. From 1967-1969, she served as a presidential appointee to the U.S. Office of Education where she created the Mexican American Unit. She also assisted in the development and passage of the Bilingual Education Act.



In 1973, she returned to Washington and became the Program Officer for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. During this time she began to focus on women's rights, including the Equal Rights Amendment and the Women's Action Program. She worked with Women's Movement leaders such as Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug, to found the National Women's Political Caucus. In the same year, she accepted a position with the Southwest Regional Office for the Spanish Speaking (SWROSS) which was sponsored by the National Council of Catholic Bishops. She took this position with the understanding that women's welfare would be her primary focus.



For many years, Anguiano worked helping women who were single parents move out of the dismal cycle of welfare. During the 1970s, she advocated changing AFDC Welfare Policy from "income maintenance" to an education and gainful employment policy and most importantly to assign these women the title "head of household." In 1973, disturbed by the hopelessness of women and children trapped in welfare poverty, Anguiano moved into the San Antonio public housing projects and within six months, she helped five hundred San Antonio women switch from welfare rolls to jobs--all in the private sector.



In 1977, Lupe was elected as a delegate to the first State of Texas federally funded Women's Conference and was also elected as a delegate to the landmark First National Women's Conference held in Houston in November of the same year. Along with Jean Stapleton and Coretta Scott King, Anguiano read the "Declaration of American Women" before thousands of conference delegates and guests.



In 1979 she founded the National Women's Employment and Education Model Program (NWEE); enlisting the support of many San Antonio businesses who provided skills training for women along with funding for education, employment upward mobility, child care, transportation, and other support services. NWEE became a nationally recognized successful employment and education model – implemented in seven states – where over 5,000 women who were single parents became gainfully employed.



In the early 1980's, Lupe founded her business, Lupe Anguiano and Associates, a consulting firm that helped business build cooperative relationships with their local neighborhoods. The firm also helped non profit organizations find funding sources.



In 2015 Anguiano said that she is "a passionate environment volunteer, helping to protect 'Mother Earth' from global warming and other destructive environmental hazards." She is a full-time volunteer with the "California Coastal Protection Network" (CCPN), headed by Susan Jordan. CCPN is leading the struggle to protect the California Coast from fossil fuels, oil drilling, from the threat of LNG (liquefied natural gas) tankers which would dump over 280 tons of pollution annually, and against pipelines on the Oxnard , Malibu Ocean floor. She also works with Rory Cox, Program Director of Pacific Environment and Ratepayers for Affordable Clean Energy, and numerous environmental organizations throughout the United States and other countries. As of 2019, she lives in Oxnard, California.