Indigo Hinojos uncovers the lost history of UNR’s Women’s Resource Center
Indigo Hinojos is extremely active with clubs and organizations on and off campus that strive for equality and justice. Please note: Hinojos uses they/them pronouns and will be referred to as ‘they’ throughout this article.
McNair Scholar Indigo Hinojos is working to uncover the history of the Women’s Resource Center (WRC) that used to live on the UNR campus. Hinojos has been researching this history for about two years as a McNair Scholar.
The 20-year-old Gender, Race and Identity major currently identifies as a queer, non-binary, Mechican (Aztec), Spanish, mixed Eurpoean and disabled person. They shared that their identities are important to them because they have pushed them to be a better person and allowed Hinojos to work on themself.
During Hinojo’s research about the WRC, they uncovered artifacts and documents that had been filed in the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center archives and conducted interviews with people mentioned in those documents.
During their research, Hinojos realized that women in the seventies and eighties were dealing with some of the same issues that we are dealing with today. They used the example of advocating for breastfeeding rooms on campus, which we still don’t have today.
“That was really sad to see because we always hear admin and community members who have been in Reno for a long time talking about how much UNR has grown,” Hinojos said. “But when you see stuff like that, it's like, has it really grown or are we just becoming accustomed with the little growth that we're getting?”
The only photo that Hinojos was able to find of the WRC was in the 1996 Artemesia yearbook. Photo provided by Indigo Hinojos.
Another issue that Hinojos brought up was the lack of recognition that the WRC and its students got for the idea of Campus Escort. Hinojos said that two directors of the WRC had the idea for Campus Escort, but are no longer credited for it.
“...if you go onto the Campus Escort website, it very quickly says something like ‘a student thought of it and then brought it to us,’” Hinojos said. “It was two students. And they created it and then brought it to ASUN and UNRPD, and that's something we still have. So that is a living history of the WRC, but we wouldn't know if we hadn't done this research because ASUN and UNRPD have hidden it.”
Hinojos notes that they no longer think UNRPD is involved with Campus Escort.
Hinojos said that their identities played a part while doing their research. Hinojos recounted how issues surrounding homphobic community members and staff at the WRC led to them recounting their own issues facing homophobia and transphobia in the LLC dorm their freshman year.
One memory Hinojos recounted that impacted them was going through different “Take Back the Night” shirts in the KC archives. Take Back the Night was a program that encouraged women to fight against sexual violence and call for leaders to make it safer for women to walk alone at night. Hinojos themself is a survivor and recounted that sitting in the archives by themself reading the stories “has probably been the hardest moment that I've had that I willingly put myself into on campus.”
The Take Back the Night shirts will be on display at Hinojo’s thesis exhibit 11 a.m.-6 p.m., April 5 at the Joe Crowley Student Union room 403.
Besides their research, Hinojos is an active member of many on and off campus clubs and organizations including the GRI club, Queer Student Union, the Multicultural Center and Black Wall Street. They also work alongside members of the indigenous community. Hinojos recently started the Gender Affirming Closet which accepts clothing donations and provides them to transgender people. The Closet is having a pop-up 1-6 p.m., March 2 at the Multicultural Center.
