August 29, 2004 in Nation/World

Hispanic women’s network pioneer dies

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Celia Gonzales Torres, the daughter of Los Angeles garment industry workers who helped found the National Network of Hispanic Women to mentor professional women in leadership roles as well as aspiring young professionals, died of lung cancer Aug. 19 at her home in Solvang, Calif. She was 68.

Also a well-known philanthropist, Torres helped launch and support scholarship programs at her alma mater, Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles, and at Loyola Marymount University, where she co-founded the Mexican-American Alumni Association scholarship program in 1981.

“Celia was ferocious about opening doors for Hispanics, particularly women,” Cecilia Sandoval, a longtime friend, said Wednesday. “That was her role at Mount St. Mary, at Loyola and with the National Network of Hispanic Women.”

At its height, the network, founded in the early 1980s, had chapters in five cities. Members included executive women from large corporations, as well as entrepreneurs.

“There was no national group dedicated to breaking through the ‘glass ceiling’ for professional women in those years,” said Mary Salinas Duron, a senior vice president at Countrywide Home Loans, who was in her 20s when she met Torres. “Through her connections, Celia linked women in leadership positions in business, education and the corporate world.”

Torres also funded the salary for the network’s first executive director.

Born Celia Gonzales, she was raised by her grandmother and an aunt from the time she was 8, when her mother became ill with tuberculosis.

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