María Teresa Tula (born 23 April 1951) is a Salvadoran political writer and activist associated with the group COMADRES.

At the age of one, her mother left her with her grandmother to move to San Ana with her older brother so that she could find greater opportunities in a bigger city.

[1] Tula and her grandmother eventually moved to San Salvador where she stopped attending school and instead sold bread in the market in San Carlos to help support her family[1] When Tula was a teenager her grandmother suddenly passed away and she moved in with her mother in Santa Ana.

[3] Tula's husband's body was found with a bullet wound to his head two days after people, who said they were the police, took him away to help with a robbery enquiry.

[citation needed] 1980 marks the beginning of the Salvador Civil War (1980-1992), fought between the Salvadoran government and the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) guerrilla movement.

During this time women played an important role in society by participating alongside men in advocating for a better quality of life.

COMADRES became a target because they actively denounced the Salvadoran military and demanded that the government provide information about disappeared and assassinated family members.

[5] Some of her fellow activists were captured and killed, but COMADRES did not shy away from controversy and their workers visited dumps to photograph bodies so that families would know the fate of the "disappeared".

[3] Tula's resolution was strengthened in 1984 when her organisation was given the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Award.

[2] In 1994 she achieved asylum and [2] Her name had been tainted by her own people despite work being appreciated by the other side.After being denied a visa, she made her journey to the United States via the desert walking towards Arizona and the assistance of a coyote.

She proceeded to successfully find her remaining family in Los Angeles, CA with nothing but a single phone number and picture.

There, she took part in press-conferences that covered the torturous crimes as well as other social movements organized back in El Salvador.