League of United Latin American Citizens - Recent Efforts

Recent Efforts

Towards the end of the 1950s, members decreased their active support for LULAC. Marquez attributes this largely to the group's conservative ideology, which "prompted many of its members to restrict the number of hours they were willing to contribute after many of the goals they had set for themselves seemed to have been achieved." That is, LULAC consistently emphasized the importance of individual success for the improvement of the Mexican American community's status as a whole. By this time, most of the members were predominantly middle-class and upper-class; as race relations began to improve, members did not derive as much benefit from LULAC.

LULAC also faced competition from other, more radical Mexican American groups. The league found it difficult to meet the needs and desires of an increasingly-diverse Mexican American population. Thus, with only social solidarity as a benefit, "while the league's public profile grew in the mid-1960s and the group was involved in a wide range of political activities, these events occurred with decreasing mass participation, increased leadership innovation and a heavy dose of outside financial support”. The mass media continues to seek out the opinions of LULAC leaders and former leaders such as Arnoldo Torres on current events; these leaders are viewed as experts on Latino affairs because of the organization’s rich history.