Oral history interview with Ofelia de los Santos, 1998 [videorecording].

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Oral history interview with Ofelia de los Santos, 1998 [videorecording].

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49834992

Ms. de los Santos discusses campaigning for Edinburg city council and her council service. She relates the frustrations associated with getting bond packages passed for financing improvements in Edinburg, and lists her greatest accomplishment while serving on the city council as the successful creation of committees to study and recommend what Edinburg should be in the year 2020. She talks about how she became interested in politics and describes some of her early political experiences helping her father campaign for candidates. Ms. de los Santos describes discrimination against women political candidates and sheds light on politics in Edinburg, in particular how difficult it proved for Mexican American and Anglo women to work together. She touches upon her involvement with the Mexican American Democrats and La Raza Unida Party (which she credits with helping women by providing opportunities for leadership), details her activities with Valley Interfaith (an Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) organization), discusses her return to the classroom in 1988 to pursue a law degree, and describes her early law career. Ms. de los Santos reveals her love of the practice of law and her commitment to helping the less fortunate.

1 videocassette (VHS) (1 hr., 9 min.) : col. ; 1/2 in.Transcript : 41 p. ; 28 cm.

eng,

spa,

University of Texas at Arlington, Central Library

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SNAC Resource ID: 7614453

University of Texas at Arlington, Central Library

Related Entities

There are 6 Entities related to this resource.

University of Texas at Arlington. Center for Mexican American Studies

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63c6s61 (corporateBody)

Industrial Areas Foundation

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dg7j0n (person)

The Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), founded in Chicago in 1940, trains citizens to organize their own communities. In the 1950s and 1960s, the IAF organized in Chicago, Los Angeles, Buffalo, and Rochester. Later, it developed national training institutes, fostering a network of community organizations. Saul D. Alinsky (1909-1972) developed the IAF's principles of community organization and citizen participation, expressed in his books Reveille for Radicals (1946) and ...

Valley Interfaith (Organization)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sn5832 (corporateBody)

Santos, Ofelia de los,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6226t8x (person)

Ms. de los Santos was born in 1948 in Edinburg, Texas. She is a graduate of Pan American University (1982) and the University of Houston law school. She served with Valley Interfaith from 1983 to 1986, was elected to the Edinburg City Council in 1994 (re-elected 1996 and 1999) and maintains a private law practice in Edinburg. From the description of Oral history interview with Ofelia de los Santos, 1998 [videorecording]. (University of Texas at Arlington). WorldCat record id: 4983499...

Mexican American Democrats of Texas

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w613112v (corporateBody)

A group of Democrats, formed in 1975, dedicated to increasing the influence of Mexican Americans in the Democratic Party at the state and national levels. Eugene and Sylvia Rodriguez were charter members of the group and both served on the Democratic National Committee in the 1980s. From the description of Mexican American Democrats of Texas collection, 1962-1987. (University of Texas at San Antonio). WorldCat record id: 40792718 Eugene (Gene) and Sylvia Rodrigu...

Raza Unida Party (Tex.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d262nv (corporateBody)

The Raza Unida Party (RUP) was first established as a third political party in Crystal City, Texas, in January, 1970. As an alternative to the two-party system in Texas, Raza Unida sought social, economic, and political self-determination for Chicanos, other minorities, and the disenfranchised through local and, later, state politics. At its start, the party organized around county, local, and school district elections in south Texas; winning city council elections in Cotulla, Carri...