José Angel Gutiárrez
José Angel Gutiérrez is a prominent Chicano civil rights activist, professor, and lawyer known for his significant contributions to Mexican American political empowerment. He was a co-founder of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) and the La Raza Unida Party (LRUP), which sought to challenge the political status quo in Texas and promote the interests of Mexican Americans. Born on October 25, 1944, in Crystal City, Texas, Gutiérrez was influenced by his early experiences with systemic discrimination, which motivated him to engage in activism.
His activism gained momentum in the 1960s, particularly when he organized protests against discrimination in his high school and later helped establish LRUP, aiming to increase voter registration and political participation among Mexican Americans in South Texas. Gutiérrez's efforts culminated in the first statewide candidates fielded by LRUP in 1972, marking a significant moment in Chicano political history. Although the party faced challenges and saw many members transition to the Democratic Party by the late 1970s, Gutiérrez's work laid a foundation for future generations of Chicano leaders.
After a diverse career that included teaching, practicing law, and serving in various political roles, Gutiérrez's bold approach and commitment to civil rights have left an enduring impact on the Mexican American community, inspiring continued efforts toward political representation and social justice. His writings reflect his journey and insights into the Chicano movement, highlighting the importance of political activism in achieving equity and representation.
Subject Terms
José Angel Gutiárrez
- José Angel Gutiárrez
- Born: October 25, 1944
Is a Chicano civil rights activist, a professor, and a lawyer. Gutiérrez was a co-founder of the Mexican American Youth Organization, an important Chicano organization, and La Raza Unida Party, the most significant third party in Texas history since the Populist Party in the late nineteenth century.
José Angel Gutiérrez was born on October 25, 1944, to Angel Gutiérrez Crespo and Concepción Fuentes. Angel was born in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, but raised in Torreón, Coahuila. He studied medicine in Mexico and was pressed into service to help Pancho Villa’s División del Norte as a doctor. When the Revolution ended, Angel was elected mayor of Torreón in 1929. Political differences with Plutarco Elías Calles, the president of Mexico at the time, forced his father to seek refuge in the U.S. and he settled in Crystal City, Texas. There, Angel befriended Ignacio Fuentes, Concepción’s father. Angel and Ignacio agreed that he should marry his daughter, despite their age difference. Angel was 52 and Concepción was only 16 when they were married against her will. Ten years later their first son, José Angel, was born. Angel had medical training in Mexico but was not licensed to practice medicine in the U.S. This did not stop him from practicing, but it did limit his clientele and he served as the doctor for the ethnic Mexican community in Crystal City. Angel passed away when José was just seven years old in 1954. After his death, money was tight and the social esteem the family received because of Angel’s medical training ended.
At his father’s insistence, José learned Spanish and at his mother’s insistence, he learned English. Because he was fluent and could read and write in both languages, Gutiérrez did well in school. In 1963, his senior year of high school, the Teamsters Union and the Political Association of Spanish-Speaking Organizations (PASO) went to Crystal City aiming to change electoral politics in the town. The city was majority ethnic Mexican, but there was not a single Mexican American city councilor. PASO and the Teamsters wanted to challenge Anglo political dominance and change the city for the better. They ran a slate of five Mexican American city councilors and sponsored multiple voting drives. This was before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and there were still poll taxes. Most ethnic Mexicans in the town had given up on voting because it was always the same Anglos on the ballot and many refused to pay poll taxes because of this. Organizers got around this by holding dances where the fee for the dance was used to pay the poll tax. While many thought they were just paying for a dance, they were actually being registered to vote. PASO and the Teamsters registered Mexican American voters two-to-one in the election and elected all five city council candidates, who became known as Los Cinco (the Five). Gutiérrez helped organize, collect absentee votes and early votes, and delivered speeches. This early exposure to local politics set Gutiérrez on his path to political power.
Gutiérrez went on to graduate from Texas A&I University (now Texas A&M University–Kingsville) in 1966 with a degree in political science. He began law school at the University of Houston Law Center but did not finish. He, instead, went to St. Mary’s University, a small Catholic university in San Antonio for a master’s degree in political science, which he received in 1968. Eventually, Gutiérrez would receive a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 1976 and a J.D. from the University of Houston in 1988.
Even though Gutiérrez was unsuccessful in his first attempt at law school, it turned out to be fortuitous. At St. Mary’s University, he met Willie Velásquez, Mario Compean, and Ignacio Pérez and they formed the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO). The goal of MAYO was to be an organization of organizers and they wanted to train their leaders in effective organizing strategies and best practices. Those leaders then could go out and effectively address the unique concerns of their communities. MAYO staged student walkouts in schools to protest discrimination in treatment and curriculum across the state. Their biggest effort, led by Gutiérrez, centered on Crystal City in 1969. Students walked out to protest exclusion on the cheer squad and student government, abuse, and discrimination. School tradition did not allow Mexican Americans to be homecoming king or queen. Gutiérrez was able to show young students and their parents how these personal slights were actually part of larger political patterns of discrimination.
MAYO grew from just a student organization into a larger political entity. It finally morphed into La Raza Unida Party (LRUP, the United People’s Party) in January of 1970 with Gutiérrez and Mario Compean as its two principal leaders. They filed for party status in Zavala, La Salle, and Dimmit Counties. LRUP’s strategy was based on Gutiérrez’s master’s thesis at St. Mary’s on how to bring about political revolution in Texas through the political participation of the Mexican American community in South Texas. He argued that since Mexican Americans were the majority of the population in certain counties in South Texas that voter registration and Mexican American political participation could completely transform what had been a racially prejudiced and Anglo-dominated political system. In 1972, LRUP fielded its first statewide candidates. Ramsey Muñiz was their candidate for governor and Alma Canales was the candidate for lieutenant governor. Muñiz would only garner 6 percent of the vote in the November election. In September of 1972, LRUP held its first national conference in El Paso, with 1,500 participants in attendance. There, delegates decided to make LRUP into a national party. National divisions were already evident at the first convention, when the leader of the Denver-based Crusade for Justice, Corky Gonazales, challenged Gutiérrez for control of the party. Gutiérrez won, but LRUP never achieved any significant victory outside of local elections in South Texas. Nonetheless, LRUP did challenge the single party dominance of the Democratic Party in Texas, prior to its post-1970s political sea change.
Gutiérrez would lead LRUP in the Winter Garden Region of South Texas where they had a handful of successes. As an elected official, he established links with the Mexican government under President Luis Echeverría and even established a scholarship for students to study in Mexico, Becas de Aztlán (scholarships for Aztlán). He served as an elected trustee and president of the Crystal City Independent School District, and as a county judge for Zavala County.
By the late 1970s, many Chicano members of LRUP began to leave the party and join the Democratic Party. As the party was waning, Gutiérrez resigned his judgeship and moved to Oregon to take a position at Western Oregon State College in 1981. He would serve there until 1985. While he was in Oregon, he served as Commissioner for the Oregon Commission on International Trade from 1983–1985. He returned to Texas to complete law school and received his J.D. in 1988. He practiced law in the state and in 1993 became an assistant professor of political science at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Gutiérrez’s unapologetic rhetorical style empowered Mexican Americans across the nation to challenge exclusive and discriminatory political systems. He was unafraid to defy authorities and the political establishment. LRUP showed the revolutionary potential of Chicano political leaders and political power. LRUP’s victories demonstrated that with the right strategy and the right geographic area, Mexican Americans could take back power in a major way while working within the electoral system.
For Gutierrez’s own writings see A Gringo Manual on How to Handle Mexicans (1974), Chicano Manual on How to Handle Gringos (2003). For autobiographies see José Angel Gutiérrez, The Making of a Chicano Militant: Lessons from Cristal (1998) and The Making of a Civil Rights Leader (2005).