Onda Latina

PROGRAM INFO

Title:

Louis Wilmot, Founding Member Of LULAC / Elvira ChavarríA: The Future Of The Mexican American Library Project

Program #

1980-42

Themes:

Identity, Politics

Series:

Social Issues

Host:

Linda Fregoso

Guests:

Elvira Chavarría, Louis Wilmot

Date:

Sep 9, 1980

Louis Wilmot, Founding Member of LULAC / Elvira Chavarría: the future of the Mexican American Library Project

Guest Louis Wilmot, one of the founders of LULAC, discusses the organization’s early efforts to address segregation and discrimination through education, and UT librarian, Elvira Chavarría talks about the Mexican-American Collection, which recently acquired a series of LULAC’s historical papers. In the 1920s and 1930s, organizations like LULAC argued that education was the most effective way to address the problems facing Mexican Americans. Wilmot discusses how he came to this conclusion growing up in Corpus Christi and offers a history of LULAC and its predecessor the Order of the Sons of America. He also discusses the organization’s participation in court cases where they sought to protect Mexican Americans who were mistreated by the judicial system. When asked about the plight of educated Mexican Americans who still face discrimination, Wilmot responds that while there may be some discrimination, it is not as bad as it was in the past.

Chavarría then describes some of the documents the Mexican American Collection is interested in preserving. She explains that they want to collect everything they can on Mexican Americans in Texas, the Southwest, and the rest of the United States, in order to build a repository of Mexican American history available to both the UT and larger community. She then describes some of the collections they have already obtained, including the papers of George Sanchez, Alurista and other writers and historical figures.

KEYWORDS

16 de Septiembre
Abelardo B. Delgado
Alurista
Archives
Assimilation
Benson Latin American Collection
Chicano Movement
Children
Cinco de Mayo
Civil Rights
Class
Corpus Christi, Texas
Discrimination
Education
Eleuterio Escobar
Elvira Chavarría
Elvira Chavarría
Equality
Estela Portillo Trambley
Felix Tijerina
George I. Sanchez
Identity
Ideology
Juan Solis
League of United Latin American Citizens
Libraries
Louis Wilmot
Louis Wilmot
LULAC
Mexican American Collection
Mexican American Culture
Mexican American History
Mexican Holidays
Middle Class
Minority Archives
Orden Hijos de America
Order of Sons of America
Political Leadership
Politicization
Politicization
Rómulo Munguía
Rio Grande Valley
Rolando Hinojosa Smith
San Antonio
Santiago Tafolla
Segregation
Supreme Court
U.S. Culture
University of Texas at Austin