La Raza Unida Party

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments This work is a cumulative project ofyears of research and personal activism; therefore, I am indebted to a number of people for their inspiration and assistance, invaluable to the completion of this study. I want to acknowledge specifically all those who participated in the organizing of the Raza Unida Party. Without their leadership, commitment, sacrifice, courage, and determination to extricate our people from what I call in this book the tyranny of the Democratic and Republican Parties, this book and others as well would have never been written. To Jose Angel Gutierrez and Rodolfo Corky Gonzales, I want to saygracias for the leadership you provided both Raza Unida Party and El Movimiento Chicano and for being an inspiration to me and countless other activists. To the fifty-six RUP leaders I interviewed extensively, I want to extend my most gracious thanks for their time, cooperation, and assistance. In particular, Iwould like to thank Jose Angel Gutierrez, Juan Jose Pena, Mario Compean, Viviana Santiago, Fred Aguilar, Luz Gutierrez, Alberto Luera, Xenaro Ayala, Emesto Vigil, Herman Baca, Emesto Chacon, and Salomon Baldenegro for their guidance and insights, which were helpful in conducting and completing my research. My gratitude also goes to the ninety-five persons I interviewed for my two earlier books. I would like to acknowledge and thank those individuals who directly assisted in the preparation of the book manuscript and in the conduct of my research. I want to extend my most indebted thanks to Maria Anna Gonzales for assisting in the archival research as well as her arduous and meticulbus editing, which greatly strengthened the quality of bbth the analysis and content of the book. I also want to acknowledge Bobbe Needham for the superb job she did in editing the final draft. Also, my thanks to Marcella Ruiz for transcribing the interviews, Pam Norman for assisting in the editing ofthe first draft manuscript, and my research assistants, Rina Gonzales and Jose Perez, who assisted in the archival research. It is important that Ialso recognize the following students, who did research on some aspect of the Raza Unida Party: Laura Araujo, Steven Benavides, Lilia Garcia, Waunetah Goins, Andrea Henson, Kate Lee, Katricia Lee, Jayne Liera, Corina McGraw, Roberto Tijerina, Damien Tryon, Brandon Woods, Copyrighted Material xiv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS and Jorge Avila. I would be remiss if I did not also thank Jean Middleton who did the indexing. In addition, I want to thank Professor Rodolfo Acuna and scholar Ernesto Vigil for reviewing the manuscript and making important and incisive recommendations that greatly improved the book's scholarship quality and content. My thanks also to political scientists Carlos Munoz and Mario Barrera for having taken time from their busy schedules to edit and make suggestions on the introduction.At the University of California, Riverside, I thank for their moral support Dean Carlos Velez-Ibanez of the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. I also want to thank the University of California, Riverside, Ernesto Galarza Public Policy and Humanities Research Bureau and the Academic Senate for the grants that allowed me to conduct my research. Last but not least, I want to acknowledge the love, support, and guidance given to me by my parents, Silvestre and Altagracia Navarro. I want to also thank for their support my brother, Alfonso, and sisters Gloria, Delia, and Lydia; my children, to whom I have dedicated this book; my grandchildren Anthony, Marcella, Cynthia, Alyssa, Brittany, and Alejandra; and my nieces and nephews. To my fellow activists and scholars, I extend my most gTacious appreciation for inspiring me to try to make a difference in bettering the lives of our people during this short journey called life. Gracias! Copyrighted Material ...