Alma Canales (born 1947) is an American organizer and activist best known for being the first and only Chicana, and the only Mexican-American, to run for lieutenant governor of Texas. [1] [2] In the 1970s, she actively participated in the Chicano movement as a member of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) and as an organizer in the Raza Unida Party (RUP). [2]
Canales was born in Rosita, Texas, to migrant parents and raised in Edinburg, Texas. [1] Her family claimed ties to the land long before the United States annexed Texas in 1845. [1] All family members worked as migrant farm workers during the summers, and their work took them seasonally from West Texas to Michigan. [1] From a young age, Canales witnessed discriminatory practices in West Texas toward migrant workers. [1]
The itinerant life of her farm working family made it difficult to establish a track record in school. However, Canales persevered to graduate from Edinburg High School in 1965 and received a journalism scholarship from the Edinburg Daily Review to attend University of Texas Pan American. [2]
The journalism scholarship enabled Canales to work as a reporter with the Edinburg Daily Review. [2] She also wrote for her college paper. [3] In the role of reporter, Canales looked further into events concerning Mexican American migrant workers and discrimination. At the height of the Vietnam War, Canales reported on casualties among young Chicano men. She noted the irony of young Mexican American boys being sent to war to fight for freedom and American democracy while still experiencing discrimination in South Texas. [1] Her reporting on the war led to her increased participation in the MAYO.
Canales wrote for the Castro County News for a short time before moving in 1969 to Wisconsin as part of the Colorado Migrant Council to establish childcare centers. [1] She returned to Edinburg, Texas later that summer to continue projects for the Colorado Migrant Council.
She later enrolled in Colegio Jacinto Trevino in Mercedes, Texas during which time she traveled to Mexico City as a representative of the United States Department of Education. The university disbanded before Canales could finish her degree.
Drawing from her experiences in MAYO and at Colegio Jacinto Trevino, Canales directed her energy into the early formation of Partido Raza Unida. In 1972, Canales accepted the RUP nomination for Lieutenant Governor of Texas. She was the first Chicana to run for this statewide position. [1] She garnered 88,000 votes running on a platform that challenged discrimination and poverty. Shortly following the election, Canales left the RUP over differences with the direction of the party and moved to Waco, Texas. [1]
Canales continued her activism by participating in the League of Women Voters, Waco Peacemaker Alliance, and as deputy director of the League of United Latin American Citizens Waco Council 273. [1]
Alma Canales made history for women and for Chicanas specifically. Although she lost the lieutenant governor's race, "many down-ballot Raza Unida Party candidates won, and they were often Chicanas." [1]
Crystal City is a city in and the county seat of Zavala County, Texas, United States. The population was 6,354 as of the 2020 census. It was settled as a farming and ranching community and was a major railroad stop being 110 miles (180 km) from San Antonio. Spinach became a major crop and the city has promoted itself as "Spinach Capital of the World." During World War II, a large internment camp was located here. The town is also noteworthy in the history of Mexican American political self-determination for the founding of the La Raza Unida Party.
Chicanismo emerged as the cultural consciousness behind the Chicano Movement. The central aspect of Chicanismo is the identification of Chicanos with their Indigenous American roots to create an affinity with the notion that they are native to the land rather than immigrants. Chicanismo brought a new sense of nationalism for Chicanos that extended the notion of family to all Chicano people. Barrios, or working-class neighborhoods, became the cultural hubs for the people. It created a symbolic connection to the ancestral ties of Mesoamerica and the Nahuatl language through the situating of Aztlán, the ancestral home of the Aztecs, in the southwestern United States. Chicanismo also rejected Americanization and assimilation as a form of cultural destruction of the Chicano people, fostering notions of Brown Pride. Xicanisma has been referred to as an extension of Chicanismo.
José Angel Gutiérrez, is an attorney and professor at the University of Texas at Arlington in the United States. He was a founding member of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) in San Antonio in 1967, and a founding member and past president of the Raza Unida Party, a Mexican-American third party movement that supported candidates for elective office in Texas, California, and other areas of the Southwestern and Midwestern United States.
The Chicano Movement, also referred to as El Movimiento, was a social and political movement in the United States inspired by prior acts of resistance among people of Mexican descent, especially of Pachucos in the 1940s and 1950s, and the Black Power movement, that worked to embrace a Chicano/a identity and worldview that combated structural racism, encouraged cultural revitalization, and achieved community empowerment by rejecting assimilation. Before this, Chicano/a had been a term of derision, adopted by some Pachucos as an expression of defiance to Anglo-American society. With the rise of Chicanismo, Chicano/a became a reclaimed term in the 1960s and 1970s, used to express political autonomy, ethnic and cultural solidarity, and pride in being of Indigenous descent, diverging from the assimilationist Mexican-American identity. Chicanos also expressed solidarity and defined their culture through the development of Chicano art during El Movimiento, and stood firm in preserving their religion.
Chicana feminism is a sociopolitical movement, theory, and praxis that scrutinizes the historical, cultural, spiritual, educational, and economic intersections impacting Chicanas and the Chicana/o community in the United States. Chicana feminism empowers women to challenge institutionalized social norms and regards anyone a feminist who fights for the end of women's oppression in the community.
Partido Nacional de La Raza Unida is a former Hispanic political party centered on Chicano (Mexican-American) nationalism. It was created in 1970 and became prominent throughout Texas and Southern California. It was started to combat growing inequality and dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party that was typically supported by Mexican-American voters. 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.
The Mexican American Youth Organization is a civil rights organization formed in 1967 in San Antonio, Texas, USA to fight for Mexican-American rights. The creators of MAYO, Los Cinco, consisted of José Ángel Gutiérrez, Willie Velásquez, Mario Compean, Ignacio Pérez, and Juan Patlán. MAYO and its political organization, Raza Unida Party, played an important part in Texas history during the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were a part of the larger Chicano movement in the United States, and played a role in bringing about civil rights for Mexican-Americans.
Jesús Salvador Treviño is an American television director of Mexican descent.
Colegio Jacinto Treviño or Jacinto Treviño College was a college in Mercedes, Texas, United States from 1969 until the mid-1970s.
Martha P. Cotera is a librarian, writer, and influential activist of both the Chicano Civil Rights Movement and the Chicana Feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Her two most notable works are Diosa y Hembra: The History and Heritage of Chicanas in the U.S. and The Chicana Feminist. Cotera was one of six women featured in a documentary, Las Mujeres de la Caucus Chicana, which recounts the experiences of some of the Chicana participants of the 1977 National Women's Conference in Houston, Texas.
The Chicano Art Movement represents groundbreaking movements by Mexican-American artists to establish a unique artistic identity in the United States. Much of the art and the artists creating Chicano Art were heavily influenced by Chicano Movement which began in the 1960s.
Ramiro Muñiz, known as Ramsey Muñiz, was an American political activist. Muñiz was a Mexican American who ran for governor of Texas in 1972 and 1974, each time as the nominee of the Raza Unida Party. He lost both elections to the Democrat Dolph Briscoe, a wealthy banker and landowner from Uvalde, Texas. He is the first Hispanic whose name appeared on a Texas gubernatorial general election ballot.
Hijas de Cuauhtémoc was a student Chicana feminist newspaper founded in 1971 by Anna Nieto-Gómez and Adelaida Castillo while both were students at California State University, Long Beach.
The following is a timeline of Latino civil rights in the United States.
Manuela Solís Sager (1912-1996) was a Mexican American labor leader, union organizer and educator. She is best known for her work organizing with Mexican women in Texas during the 1930s, where 40% of the total Mexican population were employed almost exclusively in low paid, low status jobs.
La Conferencia de Mujeres por la Raza was held in Houston, Texas between May 28 and May 30 in 1971. The conference marked the first time Chicanas came together within the state from around the country to discuss issues important to feminism and Chicana women. It was considered the first conference of its kind by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
Dorinda Moreno is an American Chicana activist, feminist and writer.
A Mexican American is a resident of the United States who is of Mexican descent. Mexican American-related topics include the following:
Maria Luisa Alanis Ruiz is an American Chicana activist and academic in Oregon. She has been active in Chicano and Latino social justice work in the state of Oregon since the 1970s, helped found Portland's Cinco de Mayo festival, and has been a long-term volunteer for the Portland-Guadalajara Sister-City Association. Much of her academic career was spent developing Chicano and Latino Studies programming and curricula for Portland State University.
Deborah Mora Espinosa is a Chicana activist in Colorado. She worked for History Colorado as the director of El Pueblo History Museum.