Raul H. Yzaguirre has been appointed by President Obama to serve as the Dominican Republic Ambassador and has been accepted by the Dominican Government as new American ambassador in the country. He is a Civil Rights activist and currently a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he previously served as the president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (1974-2004).
Raul Humberto Yzaguirre was born on July 22, 1939 in San Juan, Texas; the first son of Mexican American parents Ruben Antonio Yzaguirre, (1906-1985) and Eva Linda Morin-Yzaguirre, (1920-1994). He is married to Audrey H. Bristow and has five children, Regina , Raul Jr., Elisa, Roberto, Rebecca, and Benjamin. His family can trace its Texas ancestry back to the early eighteenth century. He grew up in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. His parents' desire for their son to gain an education beyond their own high school diploma, fostered in Yzaguirre, a drive to succeed.
By age of 15, he was already a community organizer. His first accomplishment was to assist on the Hispanic veterans' organization American G.I. Forum called the American G.I. Forum Juniors.
In 1958, Yzaguirre graduated from Pharr San Juan-Alamo high school, he then enlisted in the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps, where he served for four years and earned certification as a registered Medical Technologist.
After leaving the Air Force in 1962, he enrolled at the University of Maryland on the G.I. Bill, intending to begin a career in medicine. After one year, however, he decided to transfer to George Washington University , where he became involved in student and community activism. With Dr. Hector Garcia as his mentor, he learned from the dedicated physician, community organizer, and civil rights activist how to accomplish his goals.
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson implemented the "Great Society" program. Under this act, the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) was established. Yzaguirre joined the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity. In the same year that saw passage of the Economic Opportunity act, the 26-year old Yzaguirre was working as a community organizer in south Texas . He founded the National Organization for Mexican-American Services (NOMAS) a small nonprofit organization.
In 1968, Yzaguirre received his Bachelor of Science degree, and began his career in Public Policy influenced from the Ford Foundation. The same year the Southwest Council of La Raza was established. A nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization dedicated to reducing poverty, racial discrimination, and improving social (economic) opportunities for Hispanic Americans.
In 1969 he founded Interstate Research Associates, a firm specializing in Mexican-American and education-based studies that Yzaguirre built into a highly respected nonprofit consulting firm now based in Washington , D.C. Yzaguirre eventually served as the organization's Executive Director. The organization grew from a regional advocacy group with 17 affiliates to over 300 that served 41
states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia . He expanded membership that also included Dominicans, Argentines, Cubans, and all other Hispanic subgroups. Eventually, other offices opened in Chicago , Los Angeles , Phoenix , Sacramento , San Antonio , and San Juan ; now it has added offices in New York and Atlanta . In 1973, he returned to Texas .
The Raul Yzaguirre Policy Institute, named after him, operates out of the University of Texas Pan American . Its stated goal is, "To inform policy, and the civic leaders who frame it, for the benefit of the Hispanic community and the nation as a whole." The institute primarily receives corporate and government funding, continuing Yzaguirre's commitment to bringing corporate interests and government interests together.
In 1977, he co-founded the National Neighborhood Coalition, and was the first Hispanic to serve on the executive committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
Yzaguirre has been honored on many occasions for his work, both in and out of the Latino community. In 1979, Yzaguirre was the first Hispanic to receive a Rockefeller Public Service Award for Outstanding Public Service, endowed by John D. Rockefeller Jr. from the Trustees of Princeton University. Yzaguirre also became one of the first Latinos to hold a fellowship at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University 's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
In 1993 almost two decades later, one of the most noted honors of his career came, when the Mexican government presented Yzaguirre with the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor awarded by that country to citizens of another nation. In 1998, Yzaguirre was awarded both the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and the Charles Evan Hughes Gold Medal Award for courageous leadership in Civic and Humanitarian Affairs by the National Conference for Community and Justice. In 2005, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) headquarters building in Washington , D.C. was named after him.
In 2005, Michael Crow the President of Arizona State University appointed Yzaguirre to the position of Presidential Professor of Practice in Community Development and Civil Rights. Yzaguirre served at the North American Center of Transborder Studies (NACTS), which has a goal of advancing teaching and research on North American regional integration by providing a space for professionals in the university, policy, and business communities to share information about the region and encourage instructors to incorporate North American content into their courses.
On September 17, 2009, Yzaguirre was awarded with the PepsiCo Adelante ALMA Award, which was held at Royce Hall in Los Angeles , California .
Raul Yzaguirre has served for three decades representing the interests of his constituents in education, immigration, and in other social policy matters. While he devotes his energies to improving the opportunities for Hispanic Americans, Yzaguirre’s strongest advocacy has been in the arena of education, which he sees as the key to strengthening the Latino family. In honor of his efforts, Texas 's Tejano Center for Community Concerns established charter schools in Houston and Brownsville that bear his name.
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