League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council #60

In 1929, the League of the United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) was formed in Corpus Christi, Texas. By 1934, LULAC took root in Houston's Magnolia Park community when Manuel Crespo, a young immigrant from Spain, Mariano Hernandez, originally from San Antonio, and Elias Ramirez initially organized a council. In 1935, the LULAC council of Magnolia Park hosted the LULAC State Convention. This same year, another organization, the Latin American Club of Harris County (LAC) was formed when a group of men wanted a club more centrally located near downtown. Headed by John Duhig, who is perhaps Houston's first Mexican American attorney, Manuel Crespo, John J. Herrera, Juvencio Rodriguez, and Felix Tijerina, LAC took on more political overtones as it endorsed candidates and ambitiously tried to register the city's many Mexican American voters.

Both groups, LULAC and LAC, held poll tax drives and sought to educate the community in what they perceived as their duties and responsibilities as American citizens. However, most significant was their outspoken advocacy of Mexican American rights. LULAC and LAC members tried to encourage Houston employers to cease discrimination against Mexican Americans. Young Mexican Americans in search of employment found that many businesses in Houston would not hire them because of their ethnicity. Plants in the Harrisburg industrial area, adjacent to the barrios, made a practice of posting signs which read "No Mexicans Hired Here". In 1938, LAC and LULAC became embroiled in a controversy at city hall. In response to a proposal to pay a group of water department employees, half of whom were Mexican Americans, for the San Jacinto holiday, a city commissioner was quoted as asking why "Mexicans" should be paid for celebrating the day they were "beaten". Pointing out that they, too, were American citizens, LAC and LULAC immediately spearheaded a protest in front of city council against such prejudicial humor, an effort which garnered a great deal of local publicity. In 1937, the Houston LULAC council hosted the LULAC National Convention and by 1939, LAC and LULAC of Magnolia Park combined to form LULAC Council #60 of Houston.

LULAC Council #60 has been at the forefront of several significant initiatives, among them the Little School of 400, a pre-school program dedicated to teaching 400 basic English words to Spanish speaking pre-school children which later became Project Headstart under the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. Additionally, several national LULAC presidents began as officers in Council #60 including John J. Herrera, Alfred J. Hernandez, and Felix Tijerina.

See the Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas for a detailed description of this long-standing organization. Visit https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/league-of-united-latin-american-citizens