[1][4] Soon she was named president of the Association of Seamstresses "Protection, Savings and Defense," which had its first session on June 1, 1906, registering hundreds of members.
Publication ended shortly after Jeria addressed a May Day gathering of 40,000 people, apparently causing her to lose her job as a typographer and suffer several personal tragedies (all documented by Valdés in her first 1908 editorial).
[2] Valdes denounced the precarious working conditions of Chilean women using her printed platform, beginning with her first editorial on May 1, 1908:[1][7][8]"Here we are in front of the enemy.
Even today, in the middle of the twentieth century, the enormous mass of prejudices weighs on the weak shoulders of women, attached with strong chains to the post of the current prevailing society.
Despite her short tenure in labor leadership roles, Esther Valdés is remembered for her fight for women's rights to decent work.