Michael A. Olivas - In Defense of My People: Alonso S. Perales and the Development of Mexican-American Public Intellectuals

In Defense of My People

Alonso S. Perales and the
Development of Mexican-American
Public Intellectuals

Edited by Michael A. Olivas

This volume is made possible through grants from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance; Humanities Texas; and the University of Houstons Center for Mexican American Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Law Center and M. D. Anderson Library.

Recovering the past, creating the future

Arte Pblico Press
University of Houston
4902 Gulf Fwy, Rm 100
Houston, Texas 77204-2004

Cotton Picker document, located in University of Texas-Permian Basin, Dungan
Library, Archives / Special Collections, in personal library of John Bell Shepperd.
Reprinted with permission.

Cover design by Adelaida Mendoza
Cover photo courtesy of Alonso S. Perales Collection,
Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage

Perales, Alonso S.

In defense of my people : Alonso S. Perales and the development of Mexican-American public intellectuals / Michael A. Olivas, editor.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-55885-760-5 (alk. paper)

1. Perales, Alonso S., 1898-1960. 2. Perales, Alonso S., 1898-1960Influence. 3. Mexican AmericansCivil rightsTexasHistory20th century. 4. Mexican AmericansCivil rightsHistory20th century. 5. Mexican AmericansIntellectual life20th century. 6. League of United Latin American CitizensHistory. 7. Mexican AmericansTexasBiography. I. Olivas, Michael A., author, editor of compilation.

F391.P4I6 2013

973'.046872dc23

[B]

2012046350

CIP

The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

2012 by Arte Pblico Press
Printed in the United States of America

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December 21, 2011

To: Alonso S. Perales Conference Organizers
()

From: Vilma S. Martinez

Congratulations and thanks to the University of Houston for organizing a conference on January 13, 2012 to honor the many accomplishments of Alonso S. Perales.

Mr. Perales practiced law in San Antonio, Texas at the International Building. When I was 15 years old, I volunteered to help out at his firm in order to learn what lawyers actually do! (I was presumptuous enough to think I might be able to do that someday.)

What I learned was that lawyers, through their education and training, are able to help people in times of need. Mr. Perales assured that a couple who wanted to adopt a child had this fond wish fulfilled. I saw him comfort and guide through the legal process a young widow from a foreign country who needed to repatriate herself and her husbands body to their homeland.

What I did not know was what a spectacular and singular role he had played in the early days of the Mexican-American civil rights movement. The conference will go a long way towards educating this new generation of leaders concerning his important contributions.

I regret that I cannot be there in person to share these few memories (and learn more about this man who encouraged me to pursue my dream of becoming a lawyer); but I send my very best wishes to the University and Mr. Perales loving family for a most successful conference.

Sincerely,

Vilma S. Martinez

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Alonso S. Perales, The Rule of Law and the Development, of
Mexican-American Public Intellectuals

Alonso S. Perales and His Struggle for the Civil Rights of La Raza through the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
in Texas in the 1930s: Incansable Soldado del Civismo Pro-Raza

Preface and Acknowledgements

Michael A. Olivas

If ever there were an enterprise that is a team effort involving the whole village, it is a scholarly conference and a book project as a result. The logistics of each are daunting, and in different ways, but when they work out they are very satisfying, especially when the whole is greater than the sum of its various parts. Each of the dozen scholars who worked together on this book had known of Alonso Perales, some quite well, but none knew him like we know him now. The papers and materials in the wonderful Perales Collection now housed at the M.D. Anderson Library at the University of Houston will allow many scholars to come to know him in all his manifestations. The Collection will soon become an acknowledged source of information about early Mexican and Mexican American organizations in the United States, political issues in the Southwestern U.S. and especially Texas during the period of 1925-1960.Evident in the papers is the role of various social influences that both served as accommodationist and restrictionist mediators for the rise of the Mexican-American community during this period, including the courts and legislatures, state and local governments, the Catholic Church, inter-American and diplomatic venues, newspapers and other media, and the many other discursive vehicles that Alonso Perales employed to improve the lot of his Raza.

My list of acknowledgements is as long as the list of Perales correspondents. I thank Brown Foundation Professor Nicols Kanellos, who drew me into this project as a follow-up to our successful collaboration that led to the 2006 Arte Pblico Press volume, Colored Men and Hombres Aqu: Hernandez v. Texas and the Emergence of Mexican-American Lawyering, itself a wonderful resource with a different cohort of colleagues. He also provided substantive feedback on my pieces in this project, as did Texas A& M historian Carlos K. Blanton.

The Arte Pblico Press staff included Marina Tristn, Rebeca Reyes, Carmen Pea Abrego, Ashley Hess, Matthew Hall, and Nellie Gonzlez, all of whom helped in one way or the other for the January, 2012 conference. Brown Foundation Director of Research for Recovering the US Hispanic Heritage program, Dr. Carolina Villarroel, guided us at every turn from start to finish of the project. Arte Pblico Press executive editor, Professor Gabriela Baeza Ventura, worked carefully and conscientiously with me and with the authors to edit the large and complex project. From the UH M.D. Anderson Library, Head of Special Collections Pat Bozeman and her many staff members collaborated on this project, and it was their exceptional archival and media skills that made the Collection and this book possible. They include: Valerie Prilop, Nelda Cervantes, Chinh Doan, Rachel Vacek, J. Fisher, Nam-Anh Vu, Michele Reilly, Nicole Westbrook, Dan Johnson, Justin Elbert, Katie Buehner, and Carolyn Meanley. All those who follow in this Collection will follow the archival and digitized paths they carved from the materials.

UH resources were made available by Provost John Antel, Library Dean Dana Rooks, CLASS Dean John W. Roberts, UHLC Dean Raymond T. Nimmer, and IHELG program director Deborah Y. Jones. Carrie A. Criado and John Kling assisted with the media and publicity for the conference. UH History Professors Ral Ramos and Mnica Perales were active participants in the conference, helping coordinate the participation of the more than one hundred persons who attended.

In a class apart are the talented and generous authors who contributed original and creative work for this book. While I approached some of the obvious and usual suspects who had written about Alonso Perales earlier, based on other documentation and second-hand materials, and was delighted when each of them took me up on this offer, we also held a national call for papers that resulted in other scholars, including exceptionally-talented graduate students, applying to be part of this book project. The array of interests and approaches to the material and the man are wideranging and fresh, but all of us know we are only starting our work in this Collection, with more certain to come in the future. It will be fascinating to see how this Collection fills out our early knowledge of the events touched and shaped by Attorney Perales. We also hope that valuable materials will come forward from others, now that the Collection is established.