Raul Ramiro Villarreal
6 linear ft.
A2002-043
1890-1945 (unknown)
Raul Ramiro Villarreal was born and raised in Premont, Texas. He attended public schools there until he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in Korea during the Viet Nam War. While in Korea, he read the military paper Stars and Stripes that reported the activities of all members of the military including Hispanics in the service. Since he felt he had faced discrimination throughout his life he became interested in the discrimination reports he read about in this publication. Upon returning to South Texas in 1969, he enrolled at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi and found a group of Mexican American students who were eager to organize and participate in the growing “Chicano Movement.” His friends included Carlos Guerra, Jose Angel Gutierrez, Lupe Youngblood, and other Chicanos who were struggling for the rights of “La Raza.” He helped in organizing MASO (Mexican-American Student Organization) on the Del Mar campus. Later he transferred to Texas A&I University, in Kingsville, TX, Kleberg County and was actively involved in forming La Raza Unida Club. Upon graduation from the university, he continued his political activism and was briefly a Kingsville City Commissioner. He served for one year (1978) before becoming a victim of a recall election. He returned to his home town of Premont, and organized business ventures, but was not financially successful. He worked for the Texas Rural Legal Aid and for the Jim Wells County Housing Department. He continued to seek political office and to work for equality and justice for “La Raza.”
This collection includes materials distributed to Kingsville City Commissioners in 1978; financial records maintained by Villarreal for his various business ventures; his personal writings about “La Raza”; personal correspondence; newspaper clippings and publications about the Chicano movement, including copies of the underground newspapers, El Chile, Le Matate and other publications.
The collection is arranged into six series: Series I: Political Administrative papers Subseries A: Kingsville/Kleberg County Subseries B: Jim Wells County Subseries C: Chicano Movement Series II: Business, Financial and Employment Records Series III: Correspondence Series IV: Literary/Manuscripts Series V: Printed/Published Materials Series VI: Photographs
South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Open for Research
Permission to publish, reproduce, distribute, or use by any and all other current or future developed methods or procedures must be obtained in writing from South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville. All rights are reserved and retained regardless of current or future development or laws that may apply to fair use standards.
Raul Ramiro Villarreal Papers, A2002-043.XXXX- South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
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A2002-043 gift of A.C. Jaime
Matthew Tallant reprocessed the collection in 2018. Bailey Smith encoded the EAD.