Raul Yzaguirre

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Raul Yzaguirre (born c. 1939) is an American civil rights activist. He served as the president of the National Council of La Raza, the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, from 1974 – 2004.

[edit] Brief biography

Yzaguirre was born to Mexican American parents and grew up in the South Valley of Texas. He became the President of the National Council for La Raza when he took the office in 1973. The organization was at first aimed at helping other Mexican Americans. His organization proliferated across the United States Southwest during the 1970s, with offices opened in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, San Antonio, Texas, Sacramento, California, and other cities.

Under Yzaguirre, NCLR moved to Washington, D.C. during the middle '70s. In Washington, he redefined the term Raza, which literally translated means 'Race'; so it was not limited only to ethnic Mexicans , but also included Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Argentines, Cubans and others. This paved the way for the National Council for La Raza to open offices in New York city and San Juan.

In 1979, Yzaguirre was the first Hispanic to receive a Rockefeller Public Service Award for Outstanding Public Service from the Trustees of Princeton University. The NCLR headquarters building in Washington, DC named after him in 2005.

Yzaguirre was a task force member for the Council on Foreign Relations publication, Building a North American Community. A plan that calls for greater cooperation between the United States, Canada and Mexico. The plan also calls for the free movement or goods, capital and people in a North American union. He has had published other articles, among them, one titled Head Start’s National Reporting System Fails Our Children - Here’s Why.