Yzaguirre, Raul

views updated

Raul Yzaguirre

Raul Yzaguirre (born 1939) is considered a key leader in the U.S. civil rights movement. Dedicating much of his adult life to the advocacy of Hispanic Americans, Yzaguirre spoke out on many issues of contemporary concern as president of the National Council of La Raza from 1996 until 2004.

One of the most high-profile Hispanics in the United States due to his outspoken advocacy of the interests of Mexican-Americans and the creation of a pluralistic society that prides itself on its cultural diversity, Raul Yzaguirre was president of the National Council of La Raza, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, for three decades. Representing the interests of his constituents in education, immigration, and in other social policy matters, he devoted his energies to improving the opportunities for Hispanic Americans as that group became a growing and increasingly influential sector of the U.S. population during the late 20th century.

Lifelong Activist

Raul Humberto Yzaguirre was born July 22, 1939, in San Juan, a town in south Texas's Rio Grande Valley. The first son of young parents Ruben Antonio and Eve Linda (Morin) Yzaguirre, Yzaguirre grew up a member of an ethnic group that had battled discrimination for generations. In the late 1800s Hispanics formed mutual aid societies—or mutualistas as a way of standing together in the face of the discrimination and violence that was directed toward them. During the Great Depression of the 1930s many Mexican Americans were deported back to Mexico as a way of decreasing unemployment in the southern states; discrimination also existed in areas of education and employment that would not be ended until the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century and beyond. Discrimination also touched Yzaguirre personally. Although his family could trace its Texas ancestry back to the early eighteenth century, due to his Hispanic ethnicity young Yzaguirre carried an identity card so that he was able to prove his status as an American citizen when confronted. This heritage, of being somehow a less-than-valid citizen, coupled with his parents' desire for their son to gain an education beyond their own high school diploma, fostered in Yzaguirre a drive to succeed. By age 15 he was already active as a community organizer, his first accomplishment an auxiliary of the Hispanic veterans' organization American G.I. Forum called the American G.I. Forum Juniors. Graduating from Pharr San Juan-Alamo high school in 1958, he then enlisted in the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps, where he served for four years and earned certification as a registered medical technologist.

After leaving the Air Force in 1962, the following year Yzaguirre enrolled at the University of Maryland on the G.I. Bill, intending to begin a career in medicine. After one year, however, he decided to transfer to George Washington University, where he became involved in student and community activism in the capitol region. Marrying Audrey H. Bristow during his sophomore year, in 1968 Yzaguirre received his B.S. degree, and began his career in public policy. Going to school in the Washington, D.C. area had inspired Yzaguirre with the changes then going on in the federal government with relation to social justice. During the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson the president had begun implementation of his "Great Society" program, one of the most notable facets being the 1964 passage of the Economic Opportunity Act. Under this act, the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) was established to serve as a chief actor in Johnson's so-called War on Poverty. Believing that at the federal level of government his efforts would do the most good, Yzaguirre joined the OEO's Migrant Division as a program analyst. In 1969 he founded Interstate Research Associates, a firm specializing in Mexican-American and education-based studies that Yzaguirre built into a highly respected nonprofit consulting firm now based in Washington, D.C.; after serving as the organization's executive director, he left in 1973 to return to Texas.

Growth of La Raza

In 1964, the same year that saw passage of the Economic Opportunity Act, 26-year-old Yzaguirre was working as a community organizer in south Texas. He founded the National Organization for Mexican-American Services (NOMAS) as a small nonprofit organization. NOMAS quickly expanded, and as its focus became more clear during the next four years, Yzaguirre joined with others who envisioned a larger organization, the Southwest Council of La Raza—now called the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). A nonpartisan, tax-exempt umbrella organization established in 1968 and dedicated to reducing poverty and racial discrimination and improving social opportunities for Hispanic Americans, the Washington, D.C.-based NCLR has become a respected voice of Hispanic interests in North America.

The name of Yzaguirre's new organization came after much thought. The term "la raza," while sometimes narrowly translated as "the race," actually has a broader meaning. First coined by early 20th-century Latin-American scholar José Vasconselos, the term translates into English most closely as "the Hispanic people of the New World," a reflection of Vasconselos' realization that Latin Americas are not a race, but rather a union of many old-world races, faiths, and cultures: African, Arab, European, Jew, and Native American. Indeed, by 2000 the U.S. Latino population of 33.5 million people was composed of 66 percent Mexican Americans, 14 percent Central and South Americans, 9 percent Puerto Ricans, and 4 percent Cubans, in addition to Spanish-speaking immigrants from Europe and elsewhere.

During the first years of the NCLR's existence, Yzaguirre assisted the board of directors and the group's executive director, Herman Gallegos. Becoming president and chief executive officer of NCLR in 1974, Yzaguirre charted a new course for the organization, and dedicated his efforts to promote the interests of U.S. Latinos in areas of health care, education, employment, home ownership, and immigration. Boasting 270 affiliates in 40 states as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia by 2000, NCLR grew to become the largest, most influential constituency-based national Hispanic organization in the United States. In addition, with its multimillion-dollar budget and a community network extending to 270 social activist groups across the nation, its efforts touch the lives of over 3.5 million Latinos each year.

While, according to the 2000 U.S. census blacks comprised 13 percent of the U.S. population and whites 69 percent, Hispanics had also become a significant minority group, also ranking at 13 percent of the total U.S. population. In contrast to the black minority, however, Hispanics' advances in this area were recent; during the 1990s alone their population increased by 60 percent. Census data further showed that, with a growth rate greater than that of the U.S. population overall, the Hispanic population was projected to become the largest U.S. minority group by 2005.

High-Profile Social Advocate

The findings of the U.S. census, while encouraging to Hispanics who had long suffered from a low political profile in relation to the vocal black minority, also reflected problems that Yzaguirre had been grappling with for several decades. Although they were the fastest-growing U.S. population segment, Hispanics also showed traditionally low rates of graduation from either high school or college, and most served in jobs that traditionally paid meagre wages: as laborers or in service industries, for example. The median income of an Hispanic family was far below that of whites, and one quarter of all Latinos lived below the so-called "poverty line," according to the census.

While the NCLR worked to combat the problems facing Hispanics on the grassroots level through its network of social-service advocates, Yzaguirre tackled the problem on the federal and organizational level, becoming a figurehead for NCLR concerns. In addition to speaking before organization and university assemblies, he worked to cultivate a media presence as well, and was soon sought out as a commentator on Hispanic concerns by the major television networks, as well as speaking on the Today show and on National Public Radio. Widely quoted in the press, his editorials and remarks were picked up in the pages of the nation's most respected newspapers: the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal among them.

Deeply involved in immigration issues, he joined the Council on Foreign Relations and in 1979 began a five-year commitment to the Working Commission on the Concerns of Hispanics and Blacks. From 1976 to 1979 he chaired the Forum of National Hispanic Organizations, and became involved within the Common Cause organization as well. In 1977 he cofounded the National Neighborhood Coalition, and was the first Hispanic to serve on the executive committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. From 1989 to 1990 Yzaguirre also became one of the first Latinos to hold a fellowship at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Vocal Proponent of Latino Family

Addressing issues of immigration, Yzaguirre believes that the United States has the duty to protect its borders and decide who it should allow within its borders. But he also maintains that the United States must recognize itself as a nation composed of immigrants. The nation's immigration policies, therefore, must reflect its own heritage, as well as its open relationship with neighbors to the north and south. Criticizing the traditional Bracero system that seeks to identify illegal immigrants by allowing them to obtain temporary work permits, he has argued that a truly fair immigration policy would allow taxpaying illegal immigrants—many of whom risk arrest in order to support their families by working in the United States—to earn full legal status as American citizens.

On the controversy regarding bilingual education, Yzaguirre has supported efforts to establish such programs when combined with strong English-language programs. While encouraging Hispanics to treasure the traditions and language of their forbears, he also has exhorted Latinos to learn English as a way of integrating fully in their role as American citizens. Other issues on which Yzaguirre has spoken out include the media's representation of Hispanic Americans and social welfare items as extending food stamps and other benefits to legal immigrants who are not yet citizens of the United States.

Yzaguirre's strongest advocacy has been in the arena of education, which he sees as the key to strengthening the Latino family. In honor of his efforts, Texas's Tejano Center for Community Concerns established charter schools in Houston and Brownsville that bear his name: The Raul Yzaguirre School for Success. Acting within the political arena, during the late 1990s Yzaguirre was appointed chairperson of President Bill Clinton's advisory commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, although he left after a year due to differences between himself and the Clinton Administration.

A Life's Work Honored

Yzaguirre has been honored on many occasions for his work, both in and out of the Latino community. He became the first Hispanic to receive Princeton University's Rockefeller Public Service Award for outstanding public service in 1979. Almost two decades later, in 1998, he was awarded both the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and the Charles Evan Hughes Gold Medal Award for courageous leadership in civic and humanitarian affairs, presented to Yzaguirre by the National Conference for Community and Justice. One of the most noted honors of his career came in 1993, when the Mexican government presented Yzaguirre with the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor awarded by that country to citizens of another nation.

In addition to his work for the NCLR, Yzaguirre has served on a number of boards of directors, including the Salvation Army, the National Democratic Institute, Sears, and the Enterprise Foundation, and during the 1990s was chairperson of the Independent Sector, a large-scale nonprofit coalition of foundations, nonprofit corporations, and voluntary organizations. He also founded the Hispanic Association of Corporate Responsibility as a way of encouraging an Hispanic presence in U.S. corporate structure. Other roles include serving as president of the Mexican and American Solidarity Foundation. A strong supporter of his own family as well, Yzaguirre and his wife have raised five children, Regina, Raul Jr., Elisa, Roberto, Rebecca, and Benjamin.

"I believe that we seek power to help this nation fulfill its destiny; to live up to its ideals and to go beyond the sometimes narrow definition of what it means to be an American," Yzaguirre remarked at the 2003 awards ceremony of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. Noting that Hispanics will continue to demand equal rights, he went on to state his pluralistic vision of "a nation where people are judged by their actions and not by their accents." While continuing to act as a leader of the Latino community, in January of 2004, at age 65, Yzaguirre stepped down as NCLR president, choosing University of Kansas vice chancellor Janet Murguia to take his place. His appointment was a reflection of a new era for the NCLR as well as for Hispanic Americans, as Latino populations have shifted north and to the Midwest since the 1990s. During the announcement of her appointment Murguia noted to the Kansas City Star: "It is not only important that the needs of the Hispanic community be advanced for the sake of our community, but really for the sake of our country. The stakes are very high, and I am humbled by this opportunity."