On April 4, 1970, the slate of La Raza Unida Party swept the school board elections in Crystal City, Texas, defeating the candidates of the Democratic Party. Although the elections were officially non-partisan" the party affiliations were known to all.
Jose Angel Gutierrez, 25, a founder and former state chairman of the Mexican-American Youth Organization (MAYO), headed a slate of three Chicanos. Elected with Gutierrez were Arturo Gonzales, 21, a gas station attendant, and Miguel Perez, 31, operator of a Chicano dance hall.
Defeated were two Democratic vendidos [sellouts], Luz Arcos, 61, a county employee, and Rafael Tovar, 54, a supervisor in the local Delmonte packing plant. Also defeated was rancher E. W. Ritchie, Jr., 46, who in desperation began claiming he was "half Mexican."
On April 7, 1970, La Raza Unida candidates again swept to victory in the city council elections in three cities. In Carrizo Springs, Company D headquarters of the Texas Rangers, Rufino Cabello was elected first Chicano mayor in the city's history. In Cotulla, Raza Unida candidate Alfredo Zamora was elected mayor. In both cities, an additional Raza Unida cooncilman was elected. In Crystal City two Raza Unida councilmen were elected to the five member city council, which for several years has been half Chicano.
The racist anglo ruling class in Crystal City (or gringos as they are referred to in Texas) pretty much gave up trying to run their own people for the city council there eight years ago. Their tactic has been to run vendidos, or coconuts (brown on the outside, white on the inside)-Chicanos who think like gringos. That is why the city council was composed of four Mexican-Americans and only one gringo.
How did it come about that in these elections young militant Chicanos were able to defeat the gringo and vendido candidates of the Democratic Party who were backed up by the ranchers and the other monied interests?
To understand this we must look at the city of Cristal, as the Chicanos there refer to Crystal City. Cristal is 85 percent Chicano and 15 percent gringo, with a small number of anglos friendly to La Raza Unida Party. The people there are primarily migrant laborers who must follow the harvest north into Colorado, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin each spring, work for miserable wages throughout the summer and return home in the fall.
In many cases, families are forced to put all their possessions into hock to raise enough money for the trip to the beet fields. The small amount of money they bring back barely gives them enough to get out of hock and survive the winter months.
Median family income in Zavala County where Cristal is located, is $l,754 per year. The median educational level is 2.3 grades, which is lower than some impoverished Latin American nations. All the agricultural land is owned by gringos, 95 percent of the businesses in the city are also owned by gringos.
In 1962 an attempt was made to give the mexicano in Cristal some political representation. PASO (Political Association of Spanish-speaking Organizations) got some Mexican-American Democrats together and ran them for office against the gringo incumbents. In the 1963 elections they succeeded in throwing out the gringo mayor of some 38 years in Cristal, as well as creating the all-Chicano city council. They also had successes in other counties.
PASO, which had not built up any kind of an independent mass movement, became frightened by the unexpected victory. It abandoned the candidates, eventually losing almost all posts within four years. PASO today is the Texas version of the California Mexican-American Political Association (MAPA) - vote getters for the Democratic Party.
But in 1970 something new was added to the picture. La Raza Unida Party came out of a mass movement which developed as a result of the school walkouts in Cristal. Secondly, unlike PASO, La Raza Unida Party does not view itself as simply an electoral coalition to elect candidates, but as a political party in the full sense of the word-participating in strikes, boycotts of gringo-owned businesses, and the fight for community control of the schools.
In the spring of 1969, Cristal students raised a series of demands for improvement of the schools. The school board and the administration, however, succeeded in intimidating the students into capitulation.
The resentments and desire for change were not dissipated, however, and remained under the surface until December when again the Chicano students rallied around demands calling for bilingual education, participation in federal programs, such as a lunch program, better physical plant conditions, Chicano counselors, scholarships, the right to bring whatever literature they wanted into the schools, and an end to racist practices in selection of cheer leaders.
The result was one of the best organized and most successful school walkouts in Texas, and probably in the Southwest. Approximately 1,700 out of 2,300 students in grades one through 12 walked out, virtually closing all the schools in the city.
During the Christmas holidays, teachers came from surrounding areas, Chicano restaurants and beer halls closed and turned over their facilities for classroom space, and workers used their trucks for buses to transport students to a Chicano freedom school.
Many of the students who at first were not very political quickly began seeing things in their true light. The assistant principal of the high school, a Chicano, was mayor of the city. But it wasn't until they saw his reactionary role during the strike that they made the connection that he was also a vendido Chicano. Likewise with the Chicano teacher who also served on the city council. Thus, the real basis for the independent campaign of La Raza Unida Party came out of the desire of the parents and students to throw out the existing racist school board and city council.
But the involvement of the Chicano community quickly went beyond the issue of the schools. Students who were fired from their jobs in local Stores for participating in mass marches and rallies were quickly backed up by the entire community which proceeded to boycott those stores.
But they didn't stop there. They contacted the parent company and applied for their own franchises to compete with the gringo stores. This re suited in the opening up of community-controlled Chicano businesses. Much of the financing for La Raza Unida Party and other community projects has come out of these small businesses.
Furthermore, to show their attitude toward Chicano vendidos, they boycotted the cleaners owned by the vendido Chicano school board member. For about a week, the community went to the gringo cleaners in town to drive home the point that they would not tolerate one Chicano exploiting another. They then proceeded to set up a community cleaners. As result of these actions no more students were fired from their jobs.
Students put a coat of brown paint on a statue of Popeye, symbol of the spinach industry, that stands in front of City Hall. After two and a half months (17 actual school days) the school board capitulated.
This would have been a resounding victory in itself. But the Chicano community was not about to let up on its initiative. The high school students, together with the adults, mounted a voter registration campaign which put La Raza Unida Party on the ballot in three counties and netted an almost 100 percent registration among mexicanos.
This was a first in the history of Texas and without doubt in all of Aztlan. Maximum voter registration bad varied from 15 to 30 percent, as is the case throughout Texas. The power of this burgeoning movement rightly frightened the local ruling class (100 percent gringo) who desperately tried to hinder the party legally.
Pablo Puente, Raza Unida candidate for city council, was ruled off the ballot in Cristal on the basis of a municipal law requiring candidates to own property. But they succeeded in having the law ruled unconstitutional in the federal courts. Puente was placed on the ballot and subsequently won the election along with Ventura Gonzales, Jr.
La Raza Unida Party also succeeded in forcing the Civil Rights Commission to come to Cristal to observe the elections so that the ranchers and agribusinessmen could not blatantly intimidate people with threats of violence, loss of job for voting, or tamper with the ballots.
The real significance of the electoral victory for the Chicano community in Cristal was apparent at a board of education meeting I attended May 11. The meeting was held in the high school cafeteria, which was packed to overflowing with at least 250 people, predominantly Chicano.
While the board had previously consisted of five gringos and two Chicanos, it now consisted of three Raza Unida Party members, three gringos, and a Chicano who decided to move to the left, giving La Raza Unida Party a majority.
Jose Angel Gutierrez, new president of the board by a 4-3 vote, called the meeting to order.
Among the points discussed were the following: The school district would build houses for school employees, but rent would be based on a percentage of the individual's salary. From now on the school buses had to patronize all gas stations equally, including the Chicano gas stations, such as the one where board member Arturo Gonzales works (previously all business had gone to anglo-owned service stations). Employment of personnel for school maintenance must reflect the composition of the community which is 85 percent Chicano.
On all controversial points such as the denial of contracts for the fall to two racist teachers, the vote was four Chicanos, Si, three gringos, no.
The most controversial point, however, was reflected in the minutes of a special meeting of the school board held on April 27. At this meeting Gutierrez suggested that Cristal accept transfers from the Uvalde School District. The motion itself was routine and harmless enough- on the surface. It touched off a heated fight and a lawsuit.
Uvalde is a town similar to Cristal about 40 miles to the north. It had been the scene of a militant strike by Chicano students around 14 demands such as: the right of teachers to be politically active without intimidation (Jorge Garcia, candidate of La Raza Unida Party for county judge, was fired from his teaching job); bilingual education; Chicano studies; more Chicano teachers; the right to bring any literature into the schools: revision of racist text books; and amnesty for striking students upon returning to school.
As in Cristal last December, the Uvalde school board refused to accept the demands of the students and used every means of intimidation, such as arrests. and denial of graduation to seniors, in an attempt to break the walkout.
The students in Uvalde, many of them MAYO activists, turned to Cristal for aid. Attorney Jesus Gamez. now the official attorney of both the Cristal school board and the city council, represented the students before the Uvalde board.
But aid was even more direct. Gutierrez held that if Uvalde wouldn't graduate the striking seniors, then Cristal High School would. The vote: four Chicanos, si, three gringos, no.
The defeated minority on the board then took the board of education to court. Jesus Gamez as the attorney for the board successfully won the case in court, and at the May 11 meeting, Gutierrez matter-of-factly presented the superintendent, a gringo at least twice his age, with a bill for $2,500 for services rendered by Attorney Gamez and told him. "See that it's taken care of."
The complete defeat and humiliation of the gringo board members evoked a very apparent manifestation of pride and elation in the Chicano audience.
Toward the end of the board meeting, Armando Trevino, brother of walkout leader Mario Trevino, pointed Out to the board that in a school that was 85 percent Chicano, 20 out of the 25 chosen for the National Honor Society were anglos. (The five Mexican-Americans were considered vendidos by the Chicano students, )
One anglo teacher denied that there had been any discrimination, that it was only because more Chicanos "weren't qualified." Armando Trevino replied, "This happened when I was in school, and it is still happening that qualified students are not elected by teachers . . . I would like the school board to look into it."
One of the gringo board members, typically, objected to discussing this point because it wasn't on the agenda. But this was a new school board now, a Chicano school board. Gutierrez quickly responded: "If there is any problem that any one student or parent has we will always incorporate it into the agenda."
He then added, "This board is not going to stand for any kind of discrimination. And any time an allegation of this nature is made we are going to look into it." A committee headed up by Gutierrez was formed on the spot to investigate the charge.
One could not help but be overcome by what was occurring in that room in South Texas. For the first time. the majority of the people, the Chicano people, were running the schools and beginning to mete out justice to racist teachers and administrators. The Chicano community was being heard be fore its own school board, rather than being insulted by a gringo board representing a tiny minority.
This reality has already resulted in important gains for the entire Chicano community. By a simple motion of the Chicano board, for example, free breakfast is now provided for every child in every school.
Gutierrez aims to improve the schools and make the education there relevant to Chicanos and thus cut down the 71 percent dropout rate.
The Chicano community has been faced with difficult problems from the beginning of this endeavor. Over thirty, anglo faculty members, including some administrators, have resigned from the schools because of the victory of La Raza Unida Party and the actions taken by the hoard. In spite of this, the school board is moving ahead. Since the candidates of La Raza Unida Party assumed office On April 15, 1970 the following programs have been instituted in the Crystal City Independent School District:
1. Complete bi-lingual education from kindergarten through third grade.
2. A free breakfast and lunch program for every student in every school.
3. Banning of the use of the culturally biased I.Q. tests and English Proficiency tests.
4. The use of relevant texts in the classroom, even though they are not "state approved," which relate the true contributions made to society by Chicanos. El Espejo, an anthology of Chicano writings, will be used as a high school English book, and Stan Steiner's La Raza will be a high school reader, as only two examples.
5. Student records have been declared completely confidential. Crystal City High School is the first secondary school in the United States which will no longer provide the Selective Service Board with any information. This is a reflection of the growing anti-war feelings of Chicanos who suffer one of the highest death rates in Vietnam. Crystal City suffered one of the first casual-ties when U. S. troops invaded Cambodia and Laos this past May.
All the changes in the schools would be too numerous to list here. Chicanos are being hired to fill vacancies at all levels from teachers, counselors, band director, to vice principals and principals. Even the school song has been changed to "Jalisco." Bi-cultural education (Chicano studies) will now become a reality in Crystal City. For the first time in its history Cristal has the possibility of providing real education for Chicano youth and adults alike.
The City Council in Cristal has also been taking action to improve the living conditions of me mexicano. The jurisdiction for law enforcement by the State police and the Texas Rangers has been revoked by the council. This will seriously hinder the ability of these two racist "law and order" out-fits to harass the people of Crystal City within their own city limits. The all Chicano city police force is now required to undergo a community involvement training program headed up by La Raza Unida Party.
A 20 year contract of municipal tax exemption and services for the DelMonte Corporation was voided when La Raza Unida Party learned that the former city councilman who signed the contract had been under salary from DelMonte at the time. This will result in increased revenues for the city. Also recently, the Department of Housing and Urban Development granted $25,000 to the city for the formulation of a comprehensive city plan. Thus Chicanos will be in the position of determining priorities for city improvement. At present at least one-third of the Chicano community has no sewage service or paved streets. Also, when citizens now appear before the city council to ask for action on these and other problems they will find official business conducted in both Spanish and English, so that they may use their native tongue. Likewise in school board meetings.
If La Raza Unida Party is victorious in the county elections in November, a lawsuit may well follow which could bring in tax revenues to the predominantly Chicano counties. This is a result of the revelation that the oil companies in Texas have been cheating on taxes by digging wells and then capping them. As long as they are capped, they don't pay taxes. But they have received lucrative loans from banks on the basis of the value of the wells. It is easy to understand why the ruling powers in Texas are worried about the turn of events.
At almost every meeting of the school hoard since the elections. anglo lawyers, from as far away as Dallas and Houston, have been present in the hope of catching La Raza Unida hoard members on something. But the Chicano community is standing firm. An oppressed people have got-ten a little taste of freedom and they are not about to let that go without a fight.
Rather than being intimidated, the new Chicano party is projecting an ambitious organizing drive which could see the party on the ballot in 26 Sooth Texas counties by 1972.
As the result of an open nominating convention of La Raza Unida Party May 2, the gringo power structure (i.e., the Democratic Party) will face some 40 Chicano candidates in the Nov. 3 elections. La Raza Unida is running a full slate of candidates in the counties of Zavala, La Salle, Dimmit and Hidalgo for all county offices.
The giant step that has been taken in South Texas is an example of what can be done throughout Aztlan. There are scores of cities in Aztlan where the Chicano is a majority. But even in cities where the Chicano makes up only 10 or 20 percent of the population, significant gains can he made by breaking politically from the two capitalist parties. The fight for community control can be a dynamic force if properly led by an independent Chicano political party.
What is needed, however, is to mobilize people into action around such demands as community control of the schools in the Chicano community. What is needed are Raza Unida par
ties everywhere throughout Aztlan. Such a party will have to continually struggle against those who want to channel every movement for social change into support of the gringo ruling class through the Democratic Party, on the one hand, and those ultra-leftists who consider electoral activity "meaningless' and therefore give a free hand to capitalist politicians in keeping the Chicano and Latino communities under illusions and "under control."
The success of La Raza Unida Party in South Texas should be an inspiration to create two, three, many Cristals. As Gutierrez pointed out on May 4, 1970: "Aztlan has begun, in the southwest part of Texas."