Maria Teresa Leal, a well-known historian and activist in Nogales, Arizona, was found dead Tuesday morning at the Pimeria Alta Historical Society museum.
Nogales police received a call about 11:30 a.m. about a body in the museum on Grand Avenue in downtown Nogales, said Sgt. Robert Fierros.
There were no signs of foul play and Leal, 70, appeared to have died of natural causes "a day or two" before her body was found, Fierros said.
In addition to her work as curator at the museum, Leal was an environmental activist in Nogales, Sonora, and other parts of Sonora.
Leal was born in Navojoa, Sonora and she worked with the environmental group, SERI. Her activism sent her to work in Sonoran communities raising awareness of environmental degradation. She also trained indigenous women in Sonora as health educators.
In the mid-1980s, Leal founded the group Comadres, to address the issues of labor, environment and civil rights for women working in the maquiladoras in Nogales, Sonora.
She attended Catalina High School in Tucson and studied social anthropology at the University San Carlos in Guatemala.
Fierros said the body will be sent to the Pima County Medical Examiner for an autopsy.
