Raza Unida Party

Southwestern U. S. political party (1970 1978)
Partido Nacional de La Raza Unida (LRUP; National United Peoples Party or United Race Party) was a Hispanic political party centered on Chicano (Mexican American) nationalism. It was created in 1970 and became prominent throughout Texas and Southern California. After its establishment in Texas, the party launched electoral campaigns in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and California, though it only secured official party status for statewide races in Texas. It did poorly in the 1978 Texas elections and dissolved when leaders and members dropped out. La Raza, as it was usually known, experienced most of its success at the local level in southwest Texas when the party swept city council, school board, and mayoralty elections in Crystal City, Cotulla, and Carrizo Springs. To construct a new government that benefits the people while fulfilling the needs of the individual Their local platform in Crystal City supported farmers, students, and the working class. The stances they endorsed included multilingual instruction in school, farm subsidies, regulation of utilities, community based organization of politics, and an impartial tax system. In 1974, RUP developed a statewide platform in hopes to enlarge its appeal to voters in Texas. They endorsed an improved allocation of funds in public education, a revision and development of new methods of transportation, and a system that provided quality medical care. RUP also believed in the prosecution of industrial polluters, the conservation of “human and natural resources,” and the creation of resolutions to concerns exclusive to urban communities.

The Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) was begun by five young men studying at St. Mary's University in 1967: Jose Angel Gutierrez, Mario Compean, Willie Velasquez, Ignacio Perez, and Juan Patlan. Jose Angel explained "All of us were the products of the traditional Mexican American organizations All of us were very frustrated at the lack of political efficacy, at the lack of any broad based movement, and at the lack of expertise". Inspired by the Civil rights movement and by leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and black nationalists like Malcolm X, they reached the conclusion that the actions being taken by the leaders of the Chicano Movement were not doing enough to get results. They decided that they would halt the current approach being utilized by groups like LULAC and the American G. I. Forum, "which by the 1960s relied on litigation and support from sympathetic Anglos to achieve their goals". After the victory of the RUP in municipal elections in Crystal City and Cotulla, the party grew and expanded to other states, especially California and Colorado. In Colorado, the RUP worked closely with Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales and the Crusade For Justice based out of Denver. In California, the RUP spread throughout the state and held strong ground in Los Angeles County, with as many as 20 chapters at one point. The novice city council was not very effective in implementing its goals and damaged the party's reputation in the short term. However, RUP ran candidates for governor of Texas, Ramsey Muniz in 1972 and 1974 and Mario Compean of San Antonio in 1978. They petitioned the conservative Dr. Hector P. Garcia to run on the RUP ticket, but he declined. In 1972, they ran a candidate, Secundion Salazar, in a competitive U. S. Senate race in Colorado. Salazar received 1.4% of the vote, as victory went to the Democrat Floyd Haskell.

After initial successes where Chicanos were elected in the South Texas counties of Dimmit, La Salle, and Zavala, La Raza Unida Party decided to be more ambitious for the 1972 gubernatorial elections. Its campaign was extremely controversial because it was entirely racially based. The Party leaders believed that change could only occur by appealing to the cultural and familial values shared by Mexican Americans. They also asserted that racism against Mexican Americans was so prolific that the entire political system would have to be reevaluated. In a speech at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, he said,

<blockquote>Ya basta. Raza Unida offers the people an alternative and the days of being led to the polls to vote straight ticket for these two other parties are over if it is not done this year, it will come next year or the next as long as there are Mexican Americans there will be persons to replace people like me"

Women played a growing role in the party in Texas in the 1970s, holding party offices at various levels and running as political candidates, as well as doing campaign work in many localities. Women wanted to become involved in the decision making process in LRUP. Founding party member, Luz Gutierrez wanted to be involved in the political organization of the party. In an interview, she said,<blockquote>[Women] actually had a walk in to one of their meetings and said “We really want to be part of the decision making process." At that time, half the men broke off of Raza Unida, and they said they didn’t want to be a part of it if women were gonna be involved. After the formation of Mujeres Por La Raza, some factions of LRUP did focus on challenging machismo and patriarchal practices within the party and society.

Mujeres Por La Raza is a women's caucus associated with the Raza Unida Party which developed in 1973. Its creation has been credited to three women: Evey Chapa, Ino Alvárez, and Marta Cotera. Mujeres Por La Raza was conceived in conjunction with the Chicana feminist movement of the 1970s. Many women were involved in the RUP since its creation in 1969. Regardless of their participation in the movement, women were sometimes referred to as “groupies” by men in the party. Mujeres Por La Raza focused primarily on women and family life. They held many conferences with seminars that focused on community building and political organization. Mujeres Por La Raza had many local communities based in cities such as Houston, Dallas, Corpus Christi, Laredo, San Antonio, Crystal City, Mercedes, Austin, and Temple. Alma Canales, a member of the organization, received the endorsement from the Texas Women’s Political Caucus (TWPC) on her 1972 campaign for lieutenant governor. However, the TWPC failed to commit on Canales’s political campaign. A year later, Mujeres Por La Raza unanimously voted to remove themselves from the TWPC.

In 1976, 11 officials in Crystal City, Texas, were indicted on various counts. Angel Noe Gonzalez, the former Crystal City Independent School District superintendent who later worked in the United States Department of Education in Washington, D. C., upon his indictment retained the San Antonio lawyer and later mayor, Phil Hardberger. Gonzalez was charged with paying Adan Cantu for doing no work. However, Hardberger documented to the court specific duties that Cantu had performed and disputed all the witnesses called against Cantu. The jury acquitted Gonzalez. Many newspapers reported on the indictments but not on the acquittal. John Luke Hill, the 1978 Democratic gubernatorial nominee, had sought to weaken RUP so that he would not lose general election votes to a third party candidate. However Victory went to his Republican rival, Bill Clements. Compean received only 15,000 votes, or 0.6%, just under Clements's 17,000 vote plurality over Hill.

During the late 1970s, La Raza Unida Party decided to change tactics from a "get out the vote" organization to a more community based, grassroots, revolutionary nationalist format seeking the unity of all Chicanos, other Latinos, and Native Americans in the American Southwest, commonly called Aztlán. Xenaro Ayala was voted in as the national party chairman in 1978. The party held a second national convention in which Juan Jose Pena was elected chairman in 1980. Chicano politicians who continued their political careers after the disbanding of RUP learned how to organize politically during the active years of the party.