Armed with a ballot: The rise of La Raza Unida Party in Texas

Abstract

In 1970 a group of Mexican Americans in Crystal City, Texas came together to form El Partido de La Raza Unida (The Raza Unida Party) and challenged the Anglos that had governed there for years. From that beginning came a state-wide party that ran a candidate for governor in 1972 and in a short period took political control of two counties and numerous other elected positions throughout the state. This thesis looks at two aspects in the development of the Raza Unida Party. It reviews the years leading up to the founding of the Mexican American Youth organization, which was the precursor of the party, and it focuses on the strategies used by this group to organize Mexican Americans into a voting bloc. It is the premise of this thesis that La Raza Unida Party, more than any other Mexican American organization before it, was responsible for Mexican Americans becoming participants in the electoral process in larger numbers than ever before.