Manuela's political career began in 1932 and 1933, when she began organizing with
Tejano onion field and garment workers in
Laredo. In 1934, she was awarded a year long scholarship by
La Asociacion de Jornaleros to attend Universidad Obrera de México, a left wing labour school in Mexico City. During this time she helped establish the Texas Workers Alliance in
San Antonio alongside
Emma Tenayuca. On her return to Laredo in 1935, Manuela and her husband, James Sager, began to consolidate their local efforts among Mexican workers into a statewide movement. Later that year, Manuela and James were appointed official organisers of the
Rio Grande Valley at a Corpus Christi conference that established
South Texas Agricultural Worker's Union (STAWU), which mainly represented predominantly Mexican field and packing workers. In 1937, she became a member of the executive committee of the
Workers Alliance of America, a national federation of unemployed workers organisations. She died in California in 1996, while visiting her son. == See also ==