Two Mexican Americans, who dedicated their lives fighting for equality and the advancement of Latinos, were presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Thursday at the White House.
Raul Yzaguirre, the founder and former leader of National Council of La Raza is the former leader of UnidosUS. Julieta Garcia, the former president of University of Texas at Brownsville, is the first Latina ever to be elected president of a university.
Yzaguirre was born in Rio Grande Valley ten years apart. Garcia and Yzaguirre took lessons from their South Texas upbringings to reach positions of power. They used these positions to fight discrimination and promote Latinos and other minorities.
Yzaguirre (82), was born in San Juan Texas. He started with a small company with $500,000 and 23 associates. Then he grew the organization into a formidable entity with a $40m budget and 250 members.
This group was instrumental in shaping policies on education, immigration, and voting rights. After 30 years of service, Yzaguirre resigned in 2004.
Under President Barack Obama, he also served as ambassador to Dominican Republic.
Garcia, 73, was born in Brownsville, Texas. She was the president of UT Brownsville and oversaw its merger with University of Texas Pan American, which became UT-Rio Grande Valley. This Latino-serving institution serves mainly Latinos. To create the university, she fought for money from the Permanent University Fund of Texas, which has 2.1 million acres and income from oil and natural gas leases.
UT-Rio Grande Valley is ranked among the top three schools that offer bachelor’s degrees for Latinos.
Yzaguirre, Garcia and 17 others were awarded the medal by President Joe Biden on Thursday. Former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.); Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, U.S. soccer player Megan Rapinoe, Denzel Washington, and, posthumously, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple.
Yzaguirre’s work with UnidosUS focused heavily on bringing together America’s growing Latino population in order to build a stronger political force that could attract the attention of Washington’s power brokers. In 2020, there were 62 million Latinos living in the U.S.
Lisa Navarette, who was a consultant to Janet Murguia of UnidosUS President Janet Murguia and worked with Raul, said that Raul isn’t given enough credit for his visionary work.
Navarrete stated that he already envisioned what the Latino community would look like in the early 1970s.
Yzaguirre’s grandparents raised him and influenced him heavily by his grandfather’s story of almost being lynched in Texas by Texas Rangers after he was out of a curfew imposed at the time by the state on Mexican Americans at that time. According to Stella Pope Duarte’s 2016 biography “Raul H. Yzaguirre : Seated at The Table of Power”, by Stella Pope Duarte,
Yzaguirre was a protégé of Dr. Hector P. Garcia (a Mexican American physician) who founded the civil right group American GI Forum in response to the mistreatment of Mexican American World War II veterans. Navarette claimed Garcia helped Yzaguirre turn his anger at discrimination into activism.
Yzaguirre continues to make an impact in Washington. Charles Kamasaki was a senior advisor at UnidosUS. He recalls Yzaguirre deciding that he would compromise on the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1996. He was unhappy with the bill’s enforcement levels and worked hard to make it better until he finally reached a compromise in 1986 that gave approximately 3 million illegal immigrants a chance to be lawful permanent residents.
Yzaguirre was instrumental in the approval of a National Museum of the American Latino last year.
He also had clashes with the administrations during his tenure. In frustration at its partisanship, delays and he quit the commission on education and Hispanics during the 1990s and pickedet President Lyndon B. Johnson over its lack of Hispanics.
Cecilia Munoz, an ex-Obama domestic policy advisor, said that Ruul taught her so many lessons about integrity that she will carry with her for the rest my life.
Munoz claimed that she was one of the first women to get pregnant at the National Council of La Raza while she was working there. She asked Yzaguirre if that would mean she would stop working at the National Council of La Raza, as many of her colleagues had expected.
He said, “Of course not. We are family-focused and it’s now that we can put our money where the mouth is.” She said that this was 1992 before the Family Leave Act.
Munoz was sent to Yzaguirre’s place when he couldn’t testify in Congress on the 1986 immigration bill. Senator Ted Kennedy’s staff suggested that the council reconsider. However, Yzaguirre instructed Munoz to rise to this occasion.
She said, “He created leaders and I’m among many, many alumni of the organization that followed his lead and made a difference at other organizations and in government.”
Ben Yzaguirre is the youngest of his six children. He said that while he received the medal, his father wanted people to understand that his achievements were “great and moved our community forward. But there is still a lot to do.” To continue making progress, immigration reform and voting rights still require attention.
Yzaguirre was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2013, and he retired. He now lives in Maryland.
UnidosUS released a statement in which Yzaguirre acknowledged the recognition.
He said, “Reflecting back on my life journey, I am proud that we continue to be motivated to make the American Dream a real reality.” Hispanics have been missing from this promise for too long. They were both among the first Americans and the newest Americans historically and still make huge contributions to our society as well as our economy.
Garcia said to NBC News she met Yzaguirre in Washington. She told him she was a long-time admirer of his work and that they became close friends after he learned that her family also had the Yzaguirre surname.
“From that point on, whenever I entered a room in which I was a nobody and Raul a somebody, I would hear him say, “Be careful with my prima,” or cousin.
Garcia was able to win her own battles. Garcia often said that growing up with her brothers prepared her to be a college president and vice-president at a university.
Garcia’s mother was a fifth-generation Texan and died when Garcia turned 9. Her father, a Monterrey native, came to the U.S. when he was a small boy after his family fled the Mexican Revolution. He was from an educated family, and he did well in high school. Her mother was a salutatorian at Harlingen High School in Texas. Garcia explained that her parents couldn’t afford college and were unable to pay for it.
Imagine yourself doing well in school, but not being able to access a university or a college that is nearby. She said, referring to the people she worked with to secure the state Permanent University Fund money for UT-Rio Grande Valley’s medical school.
“Julieta Garcia believes in south Texas’ talents and vitality,” stated Sarita Brown, cofounder and president, Excelencia in Education. This nonprofit Latino advocacy group is a non-profit. She shared her expertise, courage and determination to promote a vision of higher education that serves her community. It is a path we can follow in the future.
Garcia claimed that she spent 22 years at the back of university meetings trying to get a piece of funds for UT Brownsville. The money was not distributed to the school or UT-Pan American, both of which were located in the South Texas region with a high Latino population.
Garcia also took steps to increase access to higher education for Latinos. Under her leadership, the university grew its physics program and added another library to the campus. Through competitions and scholarships, she encouraged students to take up chess, which is not often associated with Latinos.
“We placed a large flag in the UT System. … Garcia stated that UT-RGV was created with the sole purpose of gaining access to the Permanent University Fund. “That opened the door to South Texas higher education for ever more.”
Garcia stated that the number of Latinas at top universities has declined in recent years. She hopes that “teaching next generation to become advocates” can help reverse this trend, even in Texas.
She said, “My job was and will always be to speak about the potential for the human capital within the Valley of Hispanic populations in the United States.”
Imagine a Texas governor who would say, “Aren’t you lucky?” She said, “Look at how many Hispanic Texans we have.” They are bilingual, biliteral, and bicultural. This is a great asset for a global market.
