Remembering the past is a PRIVILEGE
Articles on Hispanic Political groups from staff writers at the
Texas State Historical Association
MEXICAN AMERICANS
People of Mexican descent in Texas trace their biological origins to the racial mixture that occurred following the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the 1520s. During the Spanish colonial period, population increases occurred as Spanish males mixed with Indian females, begetting a mestizo race. By 1821, when Mexico won its independence from Spain, the mestizo population almost equalled the size of the indigenous stock and that of Iberian-born persons. Mexicans advanced northward from central Mexico in exploratory and settlement operations soon after the conquest, but did not permanently claim the Texas frontierland until after 1710. In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the French became increasingly active along the Texas Gulf Coast, and in response, the viceroy in Mexico City made preparations for the colonization of the Texas wilderness. The first expedition in 1716 peopled an area that subsequently became the town of Nacogdoches; a second in 1718 settled present-day San Antonio; and a third established La Bahía (Goliad) in 1721. During the 1740s and 1750s, the crown founded further colonies along both banks of the Rio Grande, including what is now Laredo. At this early time, the crown relied primarily on persuasion to get settlers to pick up and relocate in the far-off Texas lands. Those responding hailed from Coahuila and Nuevo León, though intrepid souls from the interior joined the early migrations. In reality, few pioneers wished to live in isolation or amid conditions that included possible Indian attacks. They feared a setting that lacked adequate supplies, sustenance, and medical facilities for the sick, especially infants. Frontier living inhibited population growth so that at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Spanish Texas neared its end, the Mexican-descent population numbered only about 5,000.
The Evolution of Tejano Politics in Texas: A Historical Overview
Tejano politics predates Anglo settlement and the later establishment of the Republic of Texas (1836) and state of Texas (1845) by a century, in a tradition that bridges three centuries and four sovereignties. From the colonial period to the Mexican and American eras, Tejano politics is characterized by a history of institutional empowerment and subsequent subordination through conquest and annexation. Nonetheless, though circumscribed by legal, social, and economic conventions for decades during the nineteenth and twentieth century, Tejano politics exhibits a history of resilience and continuity. Indeed, Mexican Americans are gaining political influence at all levels of government. Tejanos entered Texas jurisdiction at various times. The last to be effectively annexed were those who resided along the Rio Grande region west of the Nueces River and upriver toward El Paso. Communities long accustomed to negotiating with successive Spanish and Mexican administrations in New Mexico, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas, and by extension Mexico City, came under the administration of Austin and Washington. In the years since, the Tejano community has grown and settled across Texas.
The History of Bexareños Democratas: Tejano Political Organization
The Bexareños Democratas or Bexareños Democráticos (Democrats of Bexar) was a conservative political organization founded in San Antonio, Texas, in 1868. The organization’s original conception dates back to June 30, 1855, when Juan Seguín and José Antonio Navarro, among others, organized Tejano Democrats in Bexar County as the “Democratic Mexico-Texans.” Their purpose was to oppose the growing influence of the Know-Nothings (see AMERICAN PARTY) whose anti-immigration, anti-naturalization, and anti-Catholic policies went directly against the interests of the Tejano community.
The Mexican-Texan Club: A Radical Republican Organization in 19th Century Texas
The Mexican-Texan Club (also known as the Club Mexicano Texano) was a Radical Republican organization founded in San Antonio, Texas, in July 1868. The group’s purpose was two-fold. First, it sought to defend the concept of equality for the newly-freed slaves. Second, it worked to defend Radical Republican issues, including removal from elected office of former Confederates who previously qualified under President Andrew Johnson’s general amnesty and the disqualification for elected office and disfranchisement of anyone who had participated in the rebellion, directly or indirectly. Shortly after the Mexican-Texan Club’s founding, Tejano Democrats organized the Bexareños Demócratas that passionately opposed Radical policies.
The Raza Unida Party: A Historical Overview of Mexican American Political Activism
The Raza Unida Party was established on January 17, 1970, at a meeting of 300 Mexican Americans at Campestre Hall in Crystal City, Texas. José Ángel Gutiérrez and Mario Compean, who had helped found MAYO (the Mexican American Youth Organization) in 1967, were two of its principal organizers. In December 1969, at the first and only national MAYO meeting, Chicano activists had endorsed the formation of a third party, an idea that Gutiérrez had proposed in establishing MAYO. After RUP filed for party status in Zavala, La Salle, and Dimmit counties in January 1970, it began its eight-year quest to bring greater economic, social, and political self-determination to Mexican Americans in the state, especially in South Texas, where they held little or no power in many local or county jurisdictions although they were often in the majority. Membership in the party was open to anyone who was committed to RUP's goals. The party fielded candidates for nonpartisan city council and school board races the following April in Crystal City, Cotulla, and Carrizo Springs and won a total of fifteen seats, including two city council majorities, two school board majorities, and two mayoralties. In October 1971, RUP held its state convention in San Antonio and voted to organize at the state level over the objections of Gutiérrez, who believed that the party should strengthen its rural standing rather than expend its energy on a state party. Compean rallied enough support for a state organization on the grounds that it would give a boost to the Chicano movement in Texas and repeat the success it had attained in Crystal City throughout Texas.
The American G.I. Forum: A Civil Rights Milestone for Mexican Americans
On March 26, 1948, 700 Mexican-American veterans, led by Hector P. Garcia, met in Corpus Christi and organized the American G.I. Forum, a civil-rights organization devoted to securing equal rights for Hispanic Americans. The first issue the forum dealt with was the failure of the Veterans Administration to deliver earned benefits through the G.I. Bill of Rights of 1944. After securing those benefits, the forum addressed other veterans' concerns, such as hospital care and Mexican-American representation on draft boards. In 1949 the director of the Rice Funeral Home in Three Rivers refused the use of his chapel for the funeral of Private Felix Longoria (see FELIX LONGORIA AFFAIR). Garcia and the Corpus Christi forum organized a widespread protest that gained national attention. Eventually, through the intervention of Lyndon B. Johnson, Longoria was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The incident in Three Rivers established the forum as an effective civil-rights advocate for Hispanics and expanded the scope and nature of its activities.