Raza Unida, Partido de la

Student Involvement

After Los Cinco failed to be reelected, MAYO took up the mantle of Texas politics and helped create the Raza Unida Party. MAYO fought educational segregation and discrimination from its inception in 1967. It utilized sit-ins and walkouts, and it engaged many youth not yet of voting age who were concerned about the lack of access to college preparatory classes, racially disparate school discipline, and the lack of Chicana/o role models and curriculum.

The party began when MAYO founders Jose Angel Gutierrez and Mario Compean proposed its establishment at the only national convention of MAYO. In 1970, the newly created political party won 15 city council, mayoral, and school board races in Crystal City. In 1972, RUP branched out, running Ramsey Muniz for governor and Alma Canales for lieutenant governor, along with other candidates for state treasurer, the railroad commission, and the statewide board of education. The party spread to California, Colorado, and Wisconsin.

Muniz ran again in 1974 after receiving 6 percent of the vote in 1972. The party also ran representatives for many districts in the state house of representatives. The platform and campaigns run by Raza Unida candidates emphasized their ethnic roots but often paralleled the Democratic Party in many key issues like education, health care, and transportation. Activism in RUP waned after the 1974 electoral losses and the 1976 arrest of Ramsey Muniz on drug charges. In 1978, RUP ran founder Mario Compean for the Texas governorship. Based on the low number of votes that Compean received, the party lost its state funding, from which it could not recover.

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