Mexican American Youth Organization

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MAYO, the Mexican American Youth Organization was first formed in 1967 as an organization to fight for the civil rights of Mexican-Americans. The creators of MAYO called Los Cinco, or the five, consisted of José Angel Gutiérrez, Willie C. Velásquez, Mario Compean, Ignacio Pérez, and Juan Patlán. They came together in San Antonio, Texas concerned about the treatment of Mexican Americans. These five young men were concerned with the continuity and advancement of La Raza. In Spanish, La Raza means the Race. MAYO and its political organization, Raza Unida Party, played an important part in Texas history during the late 1960’s and into the 1970’s. They were a part of the larger Chicano movement that was sweeping the nation. The Mexican American Youth Organization was begun in South Texas and it did remain rooted here even though its principals did spread. MAYO became a key part of the Chicano movement in the South and played an essential role in bringing about civil rights for Mexican-Americans. MAYO was involved in voter registration South Texas. Willie Velásquez, a founding member of MAYO, was iven a Congressional Medal of Honor, posthumously, for his work with voter registration. Research has suggested that MAYO was heavily involved in voter registration and did very well at getting voters registered. However, they were not as successful in getting the Hispanic voters out to the polls to vote, especially in the larger cities and towns.

School walkouts were a major part of MAYO’s approach to achieving equality for Mexican Americans. They staged walkouts at least 18 times, which usually produced the effect they were after. By doing this, MAYO enabled Mexican Americans to gain some power, which in turn was used to take over seats on School Boards that had before been the white man’s territory. The major walkouts were in Crystal City, Kingsville, and Edgewood and Lanier High Schools in San Antonio. These were just a few of the walkouts planned and organized by MAYO and in conjunction with some of the participating students. These displays of power allowed the members of MAYO to get to what they were really after, seats on the school boards. By becoming members of previously all white school boards, MAYO was able to participate in deciding what was best for their own people.

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[edit] Civil Rights

MAYO considered LULAC, or League of United Latin American Citizens, one of the leading Hispanic groups in Texas, too soft in its approach to achieving equality for Mexican Americans. Because of MAYO’s tactics, which were diametrically opposed to LULAC’s, it became known as the militant arm of the Chicano Movement. Make no mistake; it was not as hard core as the Black Panthers, but it did not work behind the scenes as most Chicano groups had before. They were fighting for equal civil rights for all Chicanos. Although they existed at the same time as other Civil Rights groups, since they were not involved in the Black Civil Rights movement, less attention was paid to them. This militancy is increasingly reminiscent of groups like the Ku Klux Klan or the Black Panthers. Each of them tried to perpetuate the purity of their race. MAYO followed suit, as they also wanted to maintain the purity of the race, the Mexican race. One of the founders even said once that they would go as far as they needed to in order to keep that purity, if that meant killing the white man then so be it. "We have got to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to kill him." This was a comment made by Gutiérrez during a speech in San Antonio in 1969. This is alarming to some, that race was still such an issue then. Members of MAYO did not think the civil rights movement included the Mexican race therefore; they had to continue their fight. However, Gutierrez has stated that he did not have a problem accepting help from whites, but he did not want them to join MAYO. Therefore, while the KKK and the Black Panthers frequently broke the law and sometimes murdered for their cause, MAYO never went that far.

It is important to note the information above addressing MAYO as not affiliating with Black civil rights movements of the time. MAYO chapter in Houston worked with People Party II and the John Brown Revolutionary Brigade. The militancy of these groups evolved out of the repressive and racist environments the US Government implemented on Blacks, Latinos and Asians. As a matter of fact the Black Panther Party included Asians and Latinos in their rank and file. Working closely with the "White Panthers" and "Young Patriots" who were young White militants struggling for equal rights along side MAYO and the Panthers. The Black Panther Party like MAYO, AIM, RED GUARD and YOUNG LORDS PARTY received negative media coverage produced by the FBI through Cointelpro. This type of media still exists today and groups like the KKK are used to trivialize the struggle for freedom by Black, Latino and Asian groups.

[edit] Political Activism

The creation of MAYO later led to the creation of Raza Unida Party, the Race United, a third party political group that found many of their first members in the ranks of MAYO. They played the central role in the creation of La Raza Unida Party, or RUP, which quickly spread to other states. MAYO was later integrated into RUP and became the youth arm of RUP. As stated before, there were many people who did not agree with the methods of MAYO, many of whom where Hispanics themselves. Henry B. Gonzalez had created a name for himself, becoming a well-known political activist. His ideas with respect to civil rights for Mexican- Americans were important to many people. However, many of the average Mexican-American people MAYO said it was fighting for did not agree with MAYO’s tactics either. They agreed with Gonzalez’s thinking about civil rights and how the fight should be fought. MAYO adopted a logo, appropriated from Aeronaves de México, an Aztec warrior inside a circle. This was later used in the Raza Unida Party logo as well. MAYO was important enough to have had its own political party, with their candidates even winning elections in the 70’s. Electing third party candidates to office proves that at one time MAYO had enough political power to affect the local political scene. There was even an interesting article in the Dallas Morning News in 1980 that showed members of the Raza Unida Party had become important enough in world politics to rate a face-to-face meeting with the head of the PLO, Yasser Arafat. That right there shows how militant members of MAYO had become. This could have been a publicity stunt but regardless, it showed that RUP and MAYO had the political influence to meet with a world leader without support from anyone political in the United States.

[edit] Further Research

For further research, check the archives of the San Antonio Light and the Express News as well as the Newspapers at Trinity University[1] and at UTSA[2], all in San Antonio. The Institute of Texan Cultures and the Library at the University of Texas at Austin [3] contain papers donated by José Angel Guitiérrez, some of which contain information about MAYO. There is also background information about MAYO on various sites on the Internet as well as articles from the Mexican American Studies and Research Center at the University of Arizona. The Handbook of Texas Online also has wonderful background information on the life of MAYO.

Many articles found deal with specific instances with which MAYO was associated. This puts MAYO in context as a part of history in South Texas. Unfortunately, there has been little written on the subject otherwise. There is one book that covers the history of MAYO, but even the author admits there is still much research to be done regarding MAYO. He thinks that this research is needed in order to fit MAYO properly in the historical narrative of South Texas, Mexican-American, and political history. This research will help put MAYO in its proper place within the historiography.

[edit] References

Navarro, Armando, "Mexican American youth organization : avant-garde of the Chicano movement in Texas" Austin: University of Texas Press, c1995 ISBN 0292755570