Catalina Vasquez Villalpando - Early Life

Early Life

Villalpando was born Catalina Vásquez to a poor family in San Marcos, Texas, one of four girls and two boys. Villalpando's father, a lifelong Democrat and migrant worker, used to take her and her siblings out into the fields so they would know what it was like to pick crops for a living. After attending parochial school, Villalpando graduated from San Marcos High School. She subsequently went to work at a jewelry store and as a secretary at Southwest Texas State College where she also attended part time. She did not complete her studies at Southwest, instead- at her father's advice- enrolled at The University of Texas College of Business Administration.

Villalpando's association with Republican Party (GOP) politics began at this time when she took a secretarial position with the Texas Republican Party (TRP) in Austin while attending business school. In 1969, she became an assistant to the local director of the Community Service Administration where she dealt with minority and business issues. Villalpando eventually became director and, later, worked for the now defunct Office of Economic Opportunity.

By the late 1970s, Villalpando was working for the Commerce Department's Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) in Texas. In 1979, Villalpando returned to the private sector taking up the position of vice president for the Mid-South Oil Company. She also organized her own consulting firm, V.P. Promotions, providing public relations to minority-owned savings and loan institutions under a federal contract.