Alicia Dickerson Montemayor (August 6, 1902 – May 13, 1989) was an American civil rights activist from Laredo, Texas, the first woman elected to a national office not specifically designated for a woman, having served as vice president general of the interest group, the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Montemayor urged the inclusion of girls and women into Latin American activism and also promoted the interests of middle-class Mexican-Americans.

[1][3] After graduation, Montemayor attempted to study law, but after the death of her father, she remained in Laredo with her mother.

[4] In 1934, Montemayor became a social worker for Webb County, where she investigated cases to place Mexican-Americans on welfare during the Great Depression.

She cited the women who had influenced her as Marie Curie, Amelia Earhart, Carrie Nation, Frances Perkins, Eleanor Roosevelt, Helen Hayes, and Irene Dunne.

[1] In 1936, Montemayor helped to charter the women's division of Laredo LULAC, a group of approximately thirty members, most of whom were married homemakers, secretaries, and other workers; most had a high school education.

[5] In the editorial, Montemayor stated: "My honest opinion of those who think in that line, is that they are cowardly and unfair, ignorant and narrow minded."

She ended the editorial by asking any member of LULAC to write an article favoring the suppression of ladies councils or supporting the denial of giving them equal rights.

She recruited both boys and girls for the program, believing that starting young would help them "abandon the egotism and petty jealousies so common today among our ladies' and men's councils."

The youth would learn debate and acting techniques, public service and expand on their educational skills like literacy.

The League of United Chicago Artists of Austin sponsored a solo exhibition of her work in August 1978 at Juarez–Lincoln University.

She would go on to exhibit at Instituto Cultural Mexicano in November 1979, and in Chicago, Mission, Texas, and Riverside, California.

Bright colors, as often seen in Mexican folk art, were her palette of choice and she also produced still lifes, landscape and portraits.

[3] Montemayor was one of a number of Texan women of Mexican descent to win notice as a folk artist; others included Beatrice Valdez Ximénez and Consuelo González Amezcua[6] A children's reading text, Stories to Treasure/Cuentos para atesorar, documented some of her art.

She made public calls for women to join LULAC to empower themselves and help close the gender gap.

Ezequiel D. Salinas, a state district court judge in Laredo and the president of LULAC from 1939 to 1940, reportedly hated Montemayor.

According to Montemayor, Salinas and the local men's groups refused to vote for her at national conventions and questioned if their dislike was because of her as a person or because of her sex.