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Rosa Rosales:
LULAC’s New National President
Helping others runs in Rosa Rosales’s blood. As the
newly elected president of the League of United
Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Rosales, 62,
recalls growing up in the barrios of San Antonio,
Texas and helping her father and mother advance la
causa of La Union Fraternal Latino Americana, a
mutual aid society which her father, Herminio
Salazar, led for twenty-five years. Rosales, along
with her five sisters, helped the less fortunate
with toy drives and other community events. “One of
the things that stuck in my mind was community
involvement. There was no way of getting out of
being part of the community,” Rosales explains. “My
father was a laborer all his life, but he was a
fighter,” she says, adding that her parents did a
fantastic job raising their children. “They were
very much responsible for shaping who I am today,”
says Rosales. |
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The desire to help others followed her to college at
the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, which she
attended at the age of 30. “I was a late bloomer,”
laughs Rosales, who with three young children in tow,
headed up north to pursue a college degree in
liberal arts. Latinos were scarce on campus, and she
recalls that whenever she encountered a Latino, she
automatically felt drawn to make connections. “I
used to be very timid and shy, but when I’d see
other Latinos, I’d just walk up to them and
introduce myself, she recalls. “I was so happy to
see someone I thought was Latino. It’s that need of
reaching out to your people when you go somewhere
when you don’t see that many brown faces,” she added.
Rosales involved herself in a variety of school
activities, going to local prisons and reaching out
to inmates, helping female prisoners of color get
their GEDs. She also worked with students to ensure
that causes promoted by female students of color
received adequate attention and funding from the
school’s women’s studies department. Joining forces
with other students and applying some pressure to
the university’s administration, Rosales and others
were successful in lobbying for department funds for
diverse causes. “You really have to organize
yourself...belong to something where you don’t go
and speak by yourself. It’s a world of difference
when you speak as part of an organization,”
explained Rosales.
Rosales learned from that lesson and applied it
after she graduated from the university with high
distinction. In 1978, she returned to San Antonio
and became a member of the local LULAC council. She
quickly made her mark in the organization, climbing
to various positions of responsibility. As state
director of Texas LULAC, she filed over 100 lawsuits
to ensure Hispanic representation in school
districts, city councils and county-level
governments. The trailblazing did not end there. She
became the first woman director of LULAC District
15, and later assumed the position of LULAC national
vice president for women.
LULAC is not the only organization fueled by
Rosales’ leadership. In addition to the dozens of
accolades received from LULAC, among them various
women of the year awards, she also founded and
serves as director of the National Association of
Public Employees. Earlier this year, Rosales was
recognized for work with the La Causa Special
Recognition Award Cesar Chavez March for Justice.
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LULAC
National President Rosa Rosales with a young
adult award recipient |
Rosales with
LULAC staff in July 2006 |
As for her current post, which she assumed in July
at the 2006 LULAC National Convention, her vision is
distinct. “I want to carry LULAC to the next level
of activism – addressing issues more effectively in
a stronger way,” said Rosales.
In the area of immigration, Rosales acknowledged
that challenges lie ahead for the group. “One of the
things LULAC has to do, first and most important, is
we need to let our senators and congressman know
that we want a meaningful immigration reform law,”
that addresses civil rights, labor rights and
“treats immigrants with respect and dignity and
affords them a pathway to citizenship.”
She continued, “The power of Latinos is being shown
now. We can organize ourselves into a powerful
voting bloc. We have a long way to go, but we need
to educate our people on the importance of voting.
There are a lot of immigrants that can become
citizens. We need to reach out to everyone who can
become a citizen and who is a citizen to get out the
vote.”
During her presidency, she wants to tackle social
issues, such as the high dropout rate among Latino
students, more aggressively and increase their
visibility. “We need to find programs and the money
to be able to reach out as the largest group of
color,” to search for solutions to lower the dropout
rate, explained Rosales. “We have to have an
educated population. We cannot be concentrated in
cheap labor jobs forever,” she insists. “Everyone
says education is the key to success. That is very
true. If we are not educated, we are not going to be
able to get into the well-paying jobs. We are not
going to be able to address the issues more
effectively.”
The road to leadership of LULAC wasn’t smoothly
paved. Rosales recalls encountering resistance from
other members as she became more and more active in
the organization. She acutely remembers being called
a “loose cannon” by a male LULAC member before
becoming the first female director of District 15.
“That’s when I decided I was going to run,” said
Rosales. “I felt it was time to have a female
director.” But that wasn’t the only reason. “I ran
because I thought I was well-prepared to run the
organization,” she asserts.
Reflecting on her own experience, she offers this
advice to other Latinas: “You need to get organized,
be well informed and continue, continue and continue.
You need to be very patient but at the same time,
never give up.”
Rosales has no intention of doing so herself. And
the family tradition continues: her only
granddaughter Bianca, 12, is already active in the
community. “She’s about to start a youth LULAC
Council,” explained Rosales. “I’ve asked her to get
me some names.”
If history is any guide, it won’t be long before
there’s a new generation of activists in Rosales’s
family. |
