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Su voto es su voz. Your vote is your voice. These are the electrifying words with which Willie Velásquez (1944-1988) led the movement that forever transformed Latino political power in the United States.
As of 2024, around 36.2 million Latinos were eligible to vote, and in the 2020 elections a record 16.5 million Latinos—that is 54% of the voting eligible Latino population—cast a ballot. In recent years, it has become common for media outlets to release headlines and analyses about the “Latino vote” after major elections. These developments attest to the significance of the growing Latino electorate in the United States today.
But Latino voting power was not always this influential. In fact, until the 1975 Voting Rights Act was passed 50 years ago, Latinos’ right to vote was not explicitly protected by the law.
During this Latinx Heritage Month and 50th anniversary of the 1975 Voting Rights Act, we remember voting rights trailblazer Willie Velásquez, and celebrate the efforts that turned his vision of a more representative democracy into a reality.
A Young Witness to Inequality
Willie Velásquez was born in 1944 in Orlando, Florida, and raised in the Westside of San Antonio, Texas, an area that has been called the Mexican American cultural capital of the United States. He was the oldest of 5 children and his father was a butcher, while his mother worked in the garment industry.
As a young person in the 1940s and 1950s, Velásquez experienced segregation, discrimination, and a lack of Mexican American political representation. Texas was rampant with discrimination in schools and public spaces and, in San Antonio, segregation practices restricted Mexican Americans to certain neighborhoods, particularly the West and South sides. Prior to the 1950s, Mexican Americans lacked representation in elected positions in the state and the city, partially due to restrictive voting practices. Poll taxes (a payment required to be able to vote), gerrymandering (the drawing of voting districts to favor or exclude a certain group), and intimidation at the polls severely limited voting rights for Mexican Americans in Texas.
However, with the outbreak of World War II in 1939, military service opened doors for Latinos, who had largely been relegated to manual labor jobs, and eventually paved the way for a Mexican American middle class. About 400,000 Mexican Americans, including Velásquez’s father, William Velásquez, Sr., served in the U.S. military during the war and became eligible for the education and economic opportunities for veterans created by G.I. Bill.
Velásquez also witnessed major social movements and political advancements for people of color in his youth. In the 1950s and 1960s, the African American civil rights movement gained momentum and national attention, as did the struggle for farmworkers’ rights in California. During this period, a number of desegregation court cases made education more equitable for Mexican Americans and the landmark Supreme Court Case Hernández vs Texas (1954) extended equal protection under the 14th Amendment to Mexican Americans as well. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination in public spaces, schools, and employment, and in 1965, the Voting Rights Act guaranteed the unrestricted and equal right to vote regardless of race (these voting rights protections wouldn’t be explicitly extended to Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans until a decade later).
Activism in College
It was against this backdrop of mass mobilization and civil rights advancements that Willie Velásquez entered college. Velásquez attended St. Mary’s University in the Westside of San Antonio from 1962 to 1966. He majored in economics and pursued graduate study in the same field, working on the side to pay for his education.
In 1966, at age 22, Velásquez became an organizer for the United Farm Workers' Union, the labor union founded by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. He helped organize strikers during the Starr County melon fields protest in South Texas.
That same year, the poll tax was eliminated in Texas. According to the documentary Willie Velasquez: Your Vote is Your Voice, Velásquez enthusiastically went door-to-door throughout his community to make sure everyone knew: voting was now free.
Velásquez’s relentless involvement caught the attention of Congressman Henry B. González, who mentored Velásquez and helped him secure summer internships in Washington D.C.
In 1967, Velásquez joined fellow St. Mary’s University students José Ángel Gutiérrez, Mario Compean, Ignacio Pérez, and Juan Patlán to create the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO). This was part of a nationwide surge in political activity and mobilization of young people on college campuses. Influenced by African American civil rights organizations including the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, MAYO set up political study groups and organized protests.
Unlike previous generations, MAYO emphasized public demonstrations and Chicano pride. The organization focused its activism on eradicating the systems that kept Mexican Americans in poverty, denied them equal access to education, and restricted their political representation. Within two years of its founding, MAYO spread throughout South Texas and, by 1970, MAYO had chapters throughout the Southwest.
MAYO organized dozens of student walkouts throughout South Texas to demand equitable education for Mexican Americans and Mexican American representation in curriculum, faculty, and school leadership. MAYO also led voting registration drives and supported candidates in local elections. For example, in 1969 in San Antonio, the organization supported MAYO co-founder Mario Compean’s bid for mayor. Though he didn’t win, the closeness of the election nearly forced a run-off vote. Building on this momentum the youth organization created the Raza Unida Party (RUP), a third political party dedicated to electing Latinos to office, in 1970.
Finding his own path
Not long after RUP’s creation, Velásquez left the organization. He disagreed with RUP’s aims and strategy, and did not believe that a third political party was an effective way to increase Latino representation. Velásquez also had a break away from his mentor, Henry B. González, who had disagreed with MAYO’s methods. Velásquez decided to forge forward on his own path.
After leaving RUP, Velásquez held positions at various Latino organizations across the Southwest. In 1971, while working for the Southwest Council of La Raza in Phoenix (now known as UnidosUS), he organized the Citizens' Voter Research and Education Project. The initiative was later renamed the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP). In 1974, Velásquez established the SVREP as its own organization dedicated to ensuring that people across the Southwest could fully exercise their right to vote.
Although the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had significantly expanded voting protections, the voting rights of Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos were still unprotected. In the decade following the Voting Rights Act, community activists and organizations like the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) pushed for an expansion of the legislation.
For example, Barbara Jordan, the first Black woman elected to the Texas Senate and first Southern Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress, was instrumental in securing the expansion. In her testimony, Jordan recognized, “Nearly all the forms of discriminatory voting practices suffered by Blacks in the South are being suffered by Mexican Americans in the Southwest.” Advocates for the 1975 extension were particularly focused on striking down the more “subtle discriminatory practices.” These included gerrymandering, voter intimidation at the polls, and English-only voting materials and assistance that affected millions of Spanish-speaking United States citizens.
Thanks to the work of advocates like MALDEF members and Barbara Jordan, the 1975 Voting Rights Act was passed and further expanded voting rights protections. The act specifically recognized that “persons who are American Indian, Asian American, Alaskan Natives or of Spanish heritage” experienced voting rights discrimination and denial of equal opportunity. The act called these groups “language minorities,” and prohibited any procedure that limits, restricts, or denies their right to vote. The act also required bilingual assistance to be offered in districts where a significant amount of the population belonged to a “language minority.”
With Latino voting rights now protected under the law and SVREP established, Willie Velásquez was eager to empower more voters to head to the polls.
Leading a Movement
With the slogan “Su voto es su voz” (“your vote is your voice”), Velásquez led an energetic campaign throughout the Southwest. With his charisma and enthusiasm, Velásquez had a special ability to connect with people of all backgrounds and activate communities. He and his team spent a lot of time on the road, aiming to connect with communities that had a large Mexican American population but lacked political representation. They drove from town to town, building relationships with community leaders who could help organize voter registration and education drives locally to expand SVREP’s reach. Filled with music, food, and community, SVREP’s drives galvanized Latinos to register in unprecedented numbers.
SVREP focused on getting out the vote for local elections, such as those for mayor, city council, or school board. The goal was to have the most direct impact on local day-to-day life and living conditions. Some examples include improved local infrastructure, schooling, and access to other city-provided services and resources.
SVREP also engaged in research and litigation. SVREP’s research wing collected and published information about the Latino electorate and SVREP’s litigation wing successfully partnered with organizations like the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) on dozens of lawsuits regarding voting rights violations and gerrymandering.
Under Velásquez’s leadership, SVREP forever changed the electoral landscape in the United States. During Velásquez’s tenure in the organization, SVREP held over 100 voter registration campaigns annually. The success was tremendous. Thanks to SVREP the number of Mexican Americans registered to vote in Texas doubled between 1980 and 1988. SVREP’s efforts are also linked to the increase in Latino elected officials around the country. The organization was so successful that presidential campaigns began to seek the Latino vote for the first time in history. And if candidates wanted the Latino vote, they knew Willie Velásquez was the guy to talk to.
The Southwest Voter Registration Education Project continues its work today. Since its creation, SVREP has registered 2.7 million Latino voters and trained 150,000 leaders.
A Legacy of Latino Empowerment
Willie Velásquez passed away on July 15, 1988, at age 44, due to kidney cancer. He is remembered as the leader of the movement that has turned millions of eligible voters into active participants in our democracy, forever altering the American political landscape.
In 1995, President Bill Clinton posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, saying “Willie was and is now a name synonymous with democracy in America…And no person in modern America who has run for public office wherever Hispanic Americans live has failed to feel the hand of Willie Velásquez.”
Though we have lost a powerful voice, we can all take up Velásquez’s call to action. In 2024, 41 million members of Gen Z were eligible to vote, and ahead of the 2022 and 2024 elections, 8 million youth became eligible voters. In the Texas Latino community, 193,000 voting eligible Latinos turn 18 every year.
On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we are called to reflect: What is the story of these United States? What are our wishes for the future? From his early efforts with MAYO as a college student to his national voter registration campaigns with SVREP, Willie Velásquez’s trajectory reminds us that young people are part of the story. Whether as part of a student organization at a high school or college campus, a door-to-door effort in our neighborhood, or another community space, young people have the potential to mobilize communities and turn our wishes for the future into action.
