Voter project aims for 25,000 new registrations

William C. “Willie” Velásquez, founder of Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, opened an office in 1974 at Guadalupe Avenue and Brazos Street with a folding chair, folding table and telephone. That’s all he needed to register people to vote.

Ralph Velásquez, his younger brother and president and CEO of National Alliance of Craftsmen Association, said, “It was very difficult, but he believed in it.”

Su Voto Es Su Voz — your vote is your voice — has been the motto of Southwest Voter Registration Education Project since 1974. The group is a nonprofit organization whose main objective is to empower Latinos and other minorities by increasing their participation in the American democratic process.

The nonprofit’s new goal is to register 25,000 people by Feb. 1, with the help of clubs, classes, civic organizations and word of mouth.

The student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists is a campus sponsor.

“If every individual got five people to vote, it would be huge,” SVREP project coordinator Jerry Gonzalez said.

Elizabeth Orduna, SVREP education project coordinator and Gonzalez’s wife, said voting is a way for people to raise their voices, develop better opportunities in their communities and find better jobs. “We want to empower communities.”

William Velásquez’s vision was to include Latinos and minorities in the U.S. democratic process. “This country was built on ‘we the people’,” Ralph Velásquez said. “‘We the people’ didn’t extend to all the people.” He said it only extended to “we the people of means” rather than “we the people of hope.”

After World War II, Hispanics who fought in the war came home to find they did not qualify for good jobs. Ralph Velásquez said German prisoners of war who stayed in the U.S. were paid more than Hispanics.

Their mother was a seamstress in a sweatshop and their father was a butcher. Also a retired veteran, their father established a veteran program called the National Brotherhood of Bucking Horses.

Ralph Velásquez said during World War II, millions of Mexican-American citizens from Los Angeles and elsewhere were confused with illegal immigrants and deported to Mexico. In San Antonio, Nazi marches mingled with Fiesta. “There was a lot of fervor still after the war,” he said.

The brothers grew up south of Culebra Road where people were guilty until proven innocent, he said. They compared their dirt yards to the grassy yards across Culebra. When it rained, the caliché (mud) roads flooded their neighborhood. A stench from pack houses — for produce and meat — drifted through the West Side.

Ralph Velásquez said if you crossed Culebra, you would get beaten up. “Before 1954, in the Jefferson area, people were not allowed to sell to Mexicans or Negros,” he said. “They were only used for labor, then after 6 p.m., you had to go.”

There was only one television in the neighborhood. On Friday nights, the kids would gather to watch “Leave it to Beaver.” “The dad always had a briefcase; we thought he was always on the run,” Ralph Velásquez said.

The brothers thought it was all a fantasy because when their mom returned from work, she was tired, sweaty and had muddy shoes; their dad always had blood on his clothes.

In school, counselors did not encourage college. They would say “you can be a mechanic, but not a doctor,” Ralph Velásquez said. “It irked Willie. At a young age, he said, ‘I’ve got to make a difference.’”

So he went to St. Mary’s University where he discovered no one focused on registering people to vote. Registered voters could be called for jury duty. When laborers were brought to court, their peers did not judge them. “They were always proven guilty,” he said. William Velásquez registered people, then “when you went to court, you saw brown and black people in the jury box.”

“Before Willie died, he got 4 million people registered to vote and over 3,900 people of color elected into office,” Ralph Velásquez said. “Every time someone registered to vote, they took a brick out of the wall of oppression.”

In 1976, William Velásquez successfully led a challenge to San Antonio’s at-large elections in which any resident could run for office. That meant all the candidates could be neighbors with no one representing other neighborhoods. Today’s 10 City Council districts are a benefit of his work.

William Velásquez also won 72 of 75 voting cases before the Supreme Court. “The power of one young fellow thinking outside of the box did this because he didn’t want to be put in a box,” Ralph Velásquez said.

His brother’s skills were sought worldwide. The White House sent him to Nicaragua to help set up a voting system. When he died in 1988, presidential candidate Michael Dukakis delivered the eulogy.

The pioneer’s brother wants young people to know they control their destiny. “There is a lot of power students have. What is your generation going to be known as?”