Sky’s The Limit
In 2015, First Officer Genoveva Leipold de la Lanza (center) was part of a historic flight on Aeroméxico piloted by women and featuring an all-female crew.
Now that we’re traveling again, we’re finding more women pilots greeting us at the end of the Jetway. A travel expert introduces three inspiring Latinas to keep on your radar screen
Although women have been flying planes for almost as long as men, aviation in the United States has been a male-dominated field.
According to United States Civil Airmen statistics, gleaned from the Federal Aviation Administration, there are nearly 104,000 pilots in the country flying commercial aircraft of all sizes. As of 2020, 7,724 or 7 percent of them were women. And while statistics are not as clear on the diversity of this community of women commercial pilots, I am learning that there is a growing corps of Latinas at the yoke.
Years of traveling for a living as a writer, host, and global public speaker has taken me to 61 countries with the help of mostly male pilots, and led me to wonder about the women cutting a path for other Latina pilots. One of the first things I noticed on the Internet was the Pilotina Scholarship, from the group Latinas in Aviation, aimed at young Latinas looking for careers in aviation, from engineers to astronauts.
It’s a good time to ponder this: We are traveling more, as more of us are vaccinated and are comfortable sharing pressurized air with strangers five or so miles up in the sky.
In my exploration of the growing community of female pilots, it was fascinating to learn about the different paths women can take to careers as pilots. It’s not just about commercial airlines. There are also female pilots at cargo airlines like FedEx Express and UPS. And of course, military and government flight has come to include more women.
So, I set out to interview three Latinas who have recorded many “firsts” as pilots and are emerging role models for a new generation. Meet captains Linda Pauwels, Jacqueline Pulido, and First Officer Genoveva Leipold de la Lanza. Let’s see why they’re inspiring, and deserve a spot on your radar screens.
Linda Pauwels
Linda Pauwels. Photo by Stephen Gould.
A rising star in aviation, Captain Linda Pauwels is the Boeing 787 Check Airman for American Airlines. In this crucial role, which requires government approval (from the FAA), Pauwels oversees and ensures the expertise of other pilots in the airline. The position is a natural for someone with so many firsts in her career: The first woman captain on the 707 for Southern Air Transport; First Latina Captain on the MD-80 for American Airlines; named one of the “100 Top Latinas” by Hispanic Magazine; and a keynote speaker at a U.S. Department of Transportation event during Hispanic Heritage Month in 2002, with a speech titled, "Hispanic Americans: Strength in Unity, Faith, and Diversity.”
Her mom was born in Argentina and her father’s side is from Poland. Linda was born in Argentina as well as her brother. They moved to the United States when her father passed away when she was 6 years old. Her mom, a schoolteacher in Argentina, could not find work right away as a teacher in the states. During those difficult times, Pauwels had opportunities to travel, flying back and forth from the U.S. to Argentina to stay with other relatives.
When she was 16 years old, Pauwels visited Miami, while also studying for an exam for medical school in Argentina. By that time, her mom had a job at the airport for an airline called TACA. It was then that she discovered that Wardair Canada Airlines was looking for agents, she applied and was hired.
That’s when that pivotal moment happened when she knew she wanted to become a pilot:
“(My job) was taking flight plans to the cockpit. It was a 747, and as I was looking at the cockpit, I just thought this is the most amazing thing, and I want to do this,” Pauwels said.
But it wasn’t a fairytale start. The first responses she got were all about “no.”
Pauwels said she took the comments as protective. “I didn’t feel I was told ‘no’ to hurt me. (It was) more to say, ‘look, don’t get your hopes up, this isn’t a possible thing.’ So, that’s what I felt,” she said. “My decision at the time was: Well, I am going to give it a shot. I would like to see if it’s possible.”
Pauwels is inspiring other pilots and aviation students. She has shared her story, her experience becoming an airline captain, by contributing to books and poetry. After being interviewed for an article in the Orange County Register, Pauwels pitched an idea to the paper’s editorial board: a travel column that became “From the Cockpit.” That led her to become one of the 21 Latina pilots who wrote for the collection, “Latinas in Aviation: Stories of passion, power, and breaking into the aviation industry.” The book's proceeds help fund the Pilotina Scholarship.
Pauwels continues to write. She’s embarked on what she says will be a four-book series. After her contribution to “Latinas in Aviation,” the first book is the just-published “Beyond Haiku: Pilots Write Poetry.” It’s available on Amazon, and on her website. Pauwels plans to donate proceeds from her writing to programs that foster women in aviation.
Jacqueline Pulido
Jacqueline Pulido. Photo by First Officer Bruno Zamora.
Based in Mexico, Jacqueline Pulido made history in November 2005 when she became the first woman pilot at Volaris Airlines.
Pulido is a mother, and her husband is also a pilot. So even though the coronavirus pandemic caused a downturn in the airline business, her family has stayed busy. Pulido is also an Airbus 320 instructor and an aviation safety advocate. Like Pauwels, she contributed to “Latinas in Aviation.”
Pulido wants to help women advance in aviation and to see more Latinos win key roles in the industry. “When I go to other countries, seeing myself in different pilot groups, that’s when I start to notice there are not so many of us there,” Pulido said.
She wants to help bring new talent into flight, even if they were not born for it, like she was: Pulido is the daughter of a pilot and a flight attendant. Her parents met while working for Mexicana Airlines.
“My parents did warn me that it could be hard to go in this area,” Pulido said, remembering some of the hardships she endured on her path to the captain’s seat. She said she had to scramble to pay for flight school and to find opportunities in a field that had so few women. She said her mother was her biggest cheerleader. As the young Pulido applied for jobs, her mother said: “We are going to take your resume to as many places as we can. We are going to knock on doors and one will open.”
Today, Pulido is active in programs for young people who want to become pilots. She believes it’s vital that these kids learn about aviation so they come to know that there is room for them in the business.
Genoveva Leipold de la Lanza
Genoveva Leipold de la Lanza posing for a photo taken by a flight attendant.
In August 2015, Genoveva Leipold de la Lanza made history in Latin America on an Aeroméxico Airlines trans-Pacific flight. As First Officer she joined a Boeing 777 from Tijuana, Mexico, to Shanghai, alongside — Captain Verónica Cervantes and First Officer Estibaliz López — and an all-woman flight crew.
Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, de la Lanza grew up in the United States as well, attending school north of the border until the ninth grade. Her father worked for the cargo airline Flying Tigers. She recalls many trips to airports with him, so she could see airplanes take off and land. He would point to the planes and ask her what kind they were.
For summer vacations, her parents would send her home to Guadalajara to stay with her grandparents. During one particular trip, when she was 6 years old, her mother made an Aeroméxico flight attendant’s uniform for her. “That’s how she sent me. I don’t know why she did that, she just did,” de La Lanza said. On board, she said, the pilot saw her and asked one of the actual flight attendants to usher her to the cockpit. “I have a very strong memory (of when) I entered: I saw the lights and the buttons, and in my 6-year-old mind, I said ‘wow, what a neat toy!’ I saw the takeoff and I fell in love, at 6 years old.”
Time passed and she got married, and then got into medical school. But after graduating, and after a divorce, de la Lanza asked herself what she wanted to do in life. The long-ago love resurfaced. She wanted to fly airplanes.
It was not easy, though. De la Lanza invested years of hard work and sacrifice. She started as a customer service agent for a Mexican airline. She taught English and worked at night for the Red Cross. She sold off everything, including her car, to pay for private and commercial flight lessons.
Finally, in August 1999, de la Lanza earned her commercial pilot license. Her dream was to fly with Aeroméxico. Now, 22 years later, she’s living that dream.
“(Looking forward) I see that every year, from 2021 and on, more women are becoming pilots,” she said, noting that change has come as industry leaders shift the institutional mindset about women’s roles. She wants to set an example for those coming up behind her: “We can do anything. We can be CEOs. We can fly airplanes. We can be anything we want.”
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Jeannette Ceja is an award-winning travel journalist and television host. She has appeared on BBC World News, WTTW Chicago, ABC7 Los Angeles, FOX 11 Los Angeles, The Mexico Travel Channel, Spectrum News 1, and KUSI News, among others. She’s a journalism graduate of Belmont University and the Professional Producing Program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Ceja has completed internships at Fox News Chicago, WTVF-CBS in Nashville, and The Tennessean daily newspaper. She was accepted into the Chips Quinn Scholars Program for Diversity in Journalism.