Presidents
- Edward Roybal, 1960 – 1962
- Julius Castellum, 1962
- Eduardo Quevedo, 1963 – 1966
- Bert Corona, 1966 – 1971
- Armando Rodriguez, 1971 – 1973
- Margaret Cruz, 1973 – 1975
- Manuel Lopez, 1975 – 1977
- Eduardo Sandoval, 1977 – 1981
- Julio Calderon, 1981 – 1983
- Fernando Chavez, 1983 – 1985
- Beatriz Molina, 1985 – 1989
- Ben Benavidez, 1989 – 1995
- Hector Brolo, 1995 – 1997
- Ben Benavidez, 1997 – 1999
- Gloria Torres, 1999 – 2001
- Ben Benavidez, 2001 – 2003
- Nativo Lopez,– 2004 to present
MAPA is a civil and Human rights organization that fights against the discrimination and political disenfranchisement of Latinos in particular and low-income people of color in general.
Originally founded to create political empowerment of Mexican-Americans and defend against exploitation and abuses of farm workers in Central California's San Joaquin Valley as well as to remedy the lack of political representation. MAPA continues to be dedicated to the constitutional and democratic principle of political freedom and representation for the Mexican and Hispanic people of the United States of America.
MAPA was "instrumental" in carrying the Democratic Latino vote for John and Robert Kennedy in California, as well as Governor Jerry Brown and has claims to have been instrumental in the election of most Mexican-Americans in elected office at all levels from U.S. Congress to small-town City council.
MAPA opposed any laws in effect, proposed or otherwise it deems discriminatory in nature against, not only, Hispanics; but the population in general and has succeed in overturning laws proven unconstitutional in court.
MAPA opposes racist entities and the existence of organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, National Alliance, Neo-Nazis and other such criminal racist groups and individuals. In recent years it has created alliances with several Civil rights Organization such as American Civil Liberties Union, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAHR, National Council of La Raza and various Asian-American groups and has strived to strengthen ties with Indian tribal communities and other ethnics groups.
MAPA is a progressive organization which advocates for the advancement of the Mexican-American people and Latinos of the United States, first and foremost, but also advocates for the civil and human rights of disenfranchised people of color in general. MAPA has advised other ethnic groups like the Hmong community in the U.S. on the process of political empowerment for their peoples. In 1995, under the leadership of Mr. Ben Benavidez and Toulu Tou, the Hmong American Political Association (HAPA) is born, sister organization to MAPA. It also challenges laws and legislation that it considers to be racist and discriminatory in nature.
Read more about this topic: Mexican American Political Association
Famous quotes containing the word presidents:
“Our presidents have been getting to be synthetic monsters, the work of a hundred ghost- writers and press agents so that it is getting harder and harder to discover the line between the man and the institution.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“All Presidents start out to run a crusade but after a couple of years they find they are running something less heroic and much more intractable: namely the presidency. The people are well cured by then of election fever, during which they think they are choosing Moses. In the third year, they look on the man as a sinner and a bumbler and begin to poke around for rumours of another Messiah.”
—Alistair Cooke (b. 1908)
“Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales. Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the constant omission of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)