Trujillo, Joseph W.

LULAC: The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is concerned with improvement of the social, political, and economic status of Hispanics in the United States. Their main focuses have been on education and legal reform, citizenship, and the extension of civil and political rights to Hispanics. With approximately 115,000 members throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the largest and oldest Hispanic organization in the United States. LULAC was founded in 1929 in Corpus Christi, Texas as a grassroots collective against discrimination, segregation, and racial violence. LULAC "advances the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide." New Mexico was the second state to form a chapter. Since that time, chapters/councils have been formed in many towns throughout New Mexico.

Joseph Trujillo: This collection of LULAC documents was gathered by Joseph W. Trujillo, who was one of the original organizers of the Los Alamos Council of LULAC (Council # 212). He served as the first elected secretary of Council 212. He was also the LULAC Governor for New Mexico from 1954 to 1955 and later voted the "Outstanding LULAC Man of the Year" at a national LULAC convention. During his tenure as Governor, Trujillo ruthlessly defended the rights of Hispanics in New Mexico, and the number of active councils in New Mexico grew from nine to eighteen.