Chicano leaders meet at San Antonio’s UTSA

By RAUL GARCIA | Mercedes Enterprise

SAN ANTONIO — If you thought the Raza Unida Party was dead, think again.

“Nombre shuttup,” Nephtali de Leon said, a Chicano Literary poet who attended the National Raza Unida Party 5Oth Anniversary Reunion.

The founding members of the Raza Unida Party may be older, but they are even bolder and ready to connect and continue the fight against policy for equity for all people.

It’s party leader Dr. Jose Angel Gutierrez was one of many leaders who spoke at the reunion that was held on the University of Texas San Antonio Campus.

Many leaders of the original organization that sparked a movement across the country to step into political leadership roles through the electoral process to better themselves and the community as a whole were at the reunion to meet and commemorate the movement that spawned the Chicnao identity.

Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States.

Amado Pena, Jose Angel Guttierez, Roberto Rosas together at the Raza Unida Party 50th Anniversary Convntion held at UTSA. The group are standing at the Double Tree Hilton Hotel lobby.

“It is our sincere hope as founders that the younger generation will look at what we did, why we did it and to read about the Raza Unida Party to inspire them to pick up the torch and fight the struggle for change and the empowerment of the Mexican Americans in Texas and the United States,” said Mario Compean, a founding member of the Raza Unida Party.

The Raza Unida Party’s 50th Anniversary reunion was a three day conference beginning Thursday through Saturday to discuss the RUP’s legacy, its accomplishments, and the plan to pass the torch to the younger generation to continue the fight to empower Mexican American people in Texas and the United States.

“We have unfinished business to be continued, and its a noble goal to purse to empower people who have lived a lifetime of oppressed status,” Compean continued.

From 1967 the RUP analyzed the unfair social conditions of Mexican Americans and worked to change its status through the political process.

Many of the founding members and supporting activists who were involved in the founding of the Raza Unida Party and attended the 1972 Raza Unida Party National Convention held in El Paso were in attendance at the three day reunion to discuss critical issues still effecting the Latino community and plans to move forward as Hispanics have become the largest demographic in Texas.