League of United Latin American Citizens

The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is a Latino anti-discrimination organization. It was established on February 17, 1929, in Corpus Christi, Texas, largely by Hispanic veterans of World War I who sought to end ethnic discrimination against Latinos in the United States. LULAC was a consolidation of smaller, like-minded civil rights groups already in existence. With a goal of achieving assimilation, the organization initially admitted only American citizens as members. The organization has a national headquarters, active councils in many states, and a professional staff.

Philosophy

LULAC follows an assimilation ideology which emerged among cholos groups around the time of the Great Depression in the United States. During this time, the population of Mexican descendants in the United States went through a demographic shift. The government deported an estimated 500,000 Mexican nationals and Mexican Americans (including some American citizens) during the Great Depression in order to reduce competition with American workers. The proportion of native-born Americans among those who remained made up a higher proportion of the ethnic Mexican population than had been the case in previous decades, and they grew up in United States culture. Benjamin Marquez asserts, "This demographic shift favored the rise of a more assimilated political leadership". Unlike earlier organizations, such as the mutual-aid associations (mutualistas) and labor-based groups (which emphasized the pan-Mexican cooperation among recent immigrants from Mexico, Mexican national residents, and Mexican Americans to combat economic, cultural, and political discrimination), LULAC admitted as members only ethnic Mexicans who were United States citizens.