Many churches were started because of the influence of Pentecostal women.
About this project
Honoring Pentecostal Women
Hidden Figures began as a Master’s project of Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Rios at Union Theological Seminary, for completion of her MA in Social Justice degree in May 2025 under the supervision of her advisor, Rev. Dr Samuel Cruz.
What started as an academic endeavor has now grown into a broader initiative to honor the often-overlooked legacy of Pentecostal women leaders, beginning with the Northeast region and with hopes to expand in the future.
This project is also grounded in the academic and ministerial work of Rev. Dr. Elizabeth D. Rios, whose chapter “The Ladies Are Warriors” in Latino Religions and Civic Activism in the United States uncovered the deeply impactful and often invisible civic and spiritual leadership of Latina Pentecostal women which included Aimee García Cortese, Rev. Rosa Caraballo, Mama Leo (Leoncia Rosado Rousseau), and Rev. Ana Villafañe.
Building from that foundational scholarship, this digital archive and storytelling space will elevate their stories and include that of:
Julie Ramirez
Camelia Mercado
Rosa M. Silva
These are women whose leadership transformed lives in the Northeast but whose names have yet to be widely known or honored in theological, academic, or public spheres.
By collecting oral histories, biographies, photos, and scholarly reflections, Hidden Figures aims to:
Preserve Pentecostal history from the margins.
Inspire a new generation of women in ministry.
Create educational tools for faith communities, seminaries, and researchers.
A special thanks to:
—Assemblies of God minister, Rev. Dr. Ramon Luis Ortiz, Jr. (Sito) for contributing to this site with his dissertation titled: Separated to Serve: Three Latina Pentecostals Becoming Senior Pastors and Ordained Ministers.
—Rev. Dr. Kittin Silva, for providing primary source material on Mama Leo and his beloved late wife, Rev. Dr. Rosa M. Silva.
The Problem
Despite the vital contributions of women in Pentecostal history, particularly in urban centers like New York City, their stories remain largely undocumented and under-recognized in both academic and church spaces. Leaders like Mama Leo and countless others helped shape faith communities, planted churches, and ministered on the margins with power and purpose. Yet, their legacies are often passed down only through oral tradition or remain hidden in personal archives. There is an urgent need to preserve, digitize, and publicly honor the legacy of these trailblazing women to ensure their impact is not erased from the historical record.
The Purpose
The purpose of this project is to develop a public-facing website that will serve as a digital archive and educational platform highlighting the lives and leadership of women Pentecostal pioneers, with a special emphasis on those in New York City. This website will be directly tied to the annual Mama Leo Lecture Series at Union Theological Seminary, creating an evolving resource that supports the event’s mission of honoring Pentecostal women’s contributions through theology, storytelling, and scholarship.
Hidden Figures: Pentecostal Women You Might Not Know also exists to honor the lives and legacies of these Pentecostal women whose ministries transcended the pulpit and transformed their communities. The women featured here, beginning with pioneers like Mama Leo, Aimee Gárcia Cortese, Julie Ramírez and others, were chosen not just because they preached with power, but because their faith compelled them toward action, and toward a gospel that touched earth as much as it pointed to heaven.
These are women who believed that salvation wasn’t only a future hope, it was a present call to love thy neighbor in tangible, embodied ways. Whether through drug addiction recovery ministries, ESL classes, or youth and children's programs, they modeled a holistic Pentecostalism rooted in healing, hope, and community transformation.
Their stories counter the stereotype of Pentecostals as being so “heavenly minded” that they are of no earthly good. These women were deeply spiritual and deeply grounded. They didn’t separate personal piety from public witness. They lived their faith loud, not just through tongues or titles, but through service, sacrifice, and systems change.
This site begins with a few women, some spotlighted in Dr. Elizabeth D. Rios’s chapter “The Ladies Are Warriors” but it won’t end here. In the spirit of this work, future honorees will be chosen based on how their faith moved them to make a meaningful difference beyond the pulpit. They may be known or unknown, clergy or lay, denominational or independent. But they’ll all share this: they lived a faith that didn’t just save souls, but sought to save communities from neglect, injustice, and despair.
This site is not about nostalgia. It’s about remembrance as resistance. It’s about documenting erased or overlooked legacies and reminding the church that the Spirit doesn’t only fall on those with status, but on those with courage, compassion, and conviction.
These women walked the talk and made the gospel believable, beautiful, and bold.
And we honor them here.
The Significance
This project is significant because it offers a groundbreaking, women-centered contribution to Pentecostal historiography. By curating digital content, including biographies, sermon excerpts, photos, oral histories, and links to relevant books housed at Union’s library, we will lift up the voices of Pentecostal women who have too often been overlooked or undervalued. This will affirm their theological authority, preserve their legacy, and position their stories as central to the broader narrative of American religious life.
Furthermore, by aligning the website with the Mama Leo Lecture Series at Union Theological Seminary, we create a living, accessible archive that evolves annually and invites participation from scholars, clergy, and community members alike.
Contact us
Is there a Latina Pentecostal leader in the Northeast you’d like to honor? Let us know.
Interested in sharing your research here?
Fill out some info and we will be in touch shortly. We can’t wait to hear from you!