Raul Yzaguirre

Raul Yzaguirre
United States Ambassador to the Dominican Republic
In office November 17, 2010 – May 29, 2013
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Christopher Lambert (Chargé d'Affaires ad interim)
Succeeded by	James "Wally" Brewster Jr.
Personal details
Born	Raul Humberto Yzaguirre (1939-07-22) July 22, 1939 San Juan, Texas, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Audrey Yzaguirre
Alma mater	George Washington University
Profession	Activist
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Air Force
Years of service	1958–1962
Unit	United States Air Force Medical Service (AFMS)

Raul Humberto Yzaguirre (born July 22, 1939) is an American civil rights activist. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as the president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza from 1974 to 2004 and as U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic from November 2010 to May 2013. He has 3 daughters and 3 sons.

Yzaguirre is one of the Hispanic community’s most widely recognized leaders. His involvement in many of the most critical legislative and public policy issues during the three decades he served as President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR)—which was founded in 1968 under the name Southwest Council of La Raza and is now known as UnidosUS—made him a key national leader on behalf of Hispanic Americans. He played a significant role in expanding the economic and political power of Hispanics, spearheaded a major campaign to change how movies and television portray Hispanics, and stood by his principles even in the face of retaliation that sometimes threatened the organization’s very existence.

Raul Yzaguirre devoted his entire life to service focused on one all-encompassing goal: a more just, inclusive, and equitable America. He proudly served his country in the United States Air Force and as U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic. He has been a leader in the civil rights movement for decades, having volunteered at the 1963 March on Washington, as an early advocate of unity between the Black and Hispanic communities, and as a longtime Executive Committee member of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Perhaps his most notable contribution is that what we think of today as the “Latino community” arguably would not have existed if not for him. Yzaguirre helped unite a once fragmented, regional collection of Hispanic-origin subgroups into a diverse yet identifiable community. He then played the key role in ensuring that this previously invisible population was first counted in the 1980 Census. Just as he helped bring disparate Latino subgroups together, his entire career advanced the idea of an America that gains unity and strength from the diversity of its people.

Throughout his tenure at NCLR, he was steadfast in his commitment to the cause of civil rights. His efforts focused on helping to create a society and a government that promote educational opportunity; freedom from discrimination in employment, housing, health care, and the criminal justice system; a just and humane immigration policy; and economic mobility to ensure good jobs, fair credit, access to financial services, and business opportunities for Hispanics throughout the nation.

Early Life

Yzaguirre was born to Mexican-American parents Ruben Antonio and Eva Linda (Morin) Yzaguirre and grew up in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. Yzaguirre states that some of his first memories of social injustice involved what his grandmother called a "race war" in Texas. Mexican Americans lived under a curfew at that time and Yzaguirre's grandfather was almost lynched one night when coming home after dark from his second job.

In 1958, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force Medical Service and served for four years.

He has a B.S. George Washington University.

His name has sometimes been spelled Izaguirre.

National Council of La Raza

During Yzaguirre's 30-year-plus tenure at the helm of the National Council of La Raza (now UnidosUS) from 1974 through 2004, the organization grew from a grassroots organization in Arizona with a $500,000 budget and 13 Affiliates to an American institution recognized as one of the most impactful nonprofits in the U.S., with a $40 million budget, a national network of more than 250 community-based Affiliates, and regional offices throughout the United States.

Early in his career, as documented by social scientists, Yzaguirre played the key role in building a “pan-ethnic” Hispanic/Latino movement and consciousness, at a time when even the thought of cross-ethnic solidarity among Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Central and South Americans was unheard of. To be clear, he never sought to suppress understanding of the Latino community’s diversity; rather he urged both acknowledging differences among groups and embracing the community’s shared values, culture, and interests—the highest traditions of American pluralism.

Consistent with this effort, under his leadership in 1979 NCLR explicitly became a “pan-Latino” organization and led the effort for the creation of the “Hispanic” category on the 1980 Census. While most of us take for granted the fact that the Census formally recognizes what is now the nation’s largest ethnic minority, but for Yzaguirre's sustained advocacy our ability to track the socioeconomic status of this community would at a minimum have been delayed significantly.

Key Impacts

Unsurprisingly, under Yzaguirre NCLR played prominent roles in major changes in practice and policy to improve the socioeconomic status of Latinos, including:

• Development of one of the nation’s largest and most successful homeownership networks and a major network of Affiliate-based charter and independent schools, as well as becoming a key player in important innovations in health, workforce development, and many others.

• Pressed for Immigration reforms that legalized three million previously undocumented people, doubled legal immigration, and created the Temporary Protected Status category providing temporary relief from deportation for millions of Central Americans, Haitians, and many others.

• Expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit and creation of the Child Tax Credit, which together lift millions of children out of poverty, despite neither initiative being universally accepted—even among anti-poverty advocates—at the time.

• An Executive Order on Hispanic Educational Excellence, recognized even decades later as a critical milestone in closing achievement gaps.

Such was the breadth of Yzaguirre’s vision that, under his leadership, NCLR also catalyzed major advancements in arts and culture, including:

• Production and release of among the first feature films that accurately depicted the Latino experience in the U.S., including The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez starring Edward James Olmos and The Milagro Beanfield War, produced by Moctezuma Esparza and directed by Robert Redford.

• Creation of the American Latino Media Arts Awards (ALMA Awards), the first Latino-themed media awards program broadcast on national television.

• Chairing the 1994 Smithsonian panel that produced Willful Neglect, the landmark report that first recommended the creation of a Latino-themed museum on the mall.

In 1968, the Southwest Council of La Raza was organized with funding from the Ford Foundation. By 1972, the organization had changed its name to the National Council for La Raza and moved its offices to Washington, D.C. In 1997, the Ford Foundation, the NCLR's sole funding source, demanded a change in the organization's focus and direction by threatening to withhold funding and forced its president, Henry Santiestevan, out of office.

In 1974, Yzaguirre was elected the second president of the NCLR. The Ford Foundation was pleased with Yzaguirre and continued to be a top donor of the NCLR throughout his term.

Under Yzaguirre, the organization grew from a regional advocacy group with 17 affiliates to over 300 that serve 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. Yzaguirre expanded membership criteria so it was not limited only to ethnic Mexicans, but also included Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Argentines, Cubans, Venezuelans and all other Hispanic subgroups. This paved the way for the National Council for La Raza to open offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Antonio, and San Juan. Since then NCLR has added offices in New York and Atlanta.

Through his tenure Yzaguirre built the NCLR into a 35,000 members organization, with revenues exceeding $3 million, from a combination of contributions from American corporations, philanthropic foundations, federal funding, and private member donations.

He was fired as chair of the Hispanic Advisory Commission to the Immigration and Naturalization Service for publicly criticizing President Carter's immigration reform proposals. Yzaguirre also criticized President George H.W. Bush for his affirmative action stance even after he had agreed to be the first sitting president to appear at an NCLR Annual Conference. Yzaguirre criticized President Clinton for appointing very few Hispanics to key positions and for the 1996 welfare reform law which NCLR considered detrimental to the Hispanic community and resigned as chair of the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans in protest of political machinations.

On November 30, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Yzaguirre to be U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic. His appointment was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 29, 2010. He resigned his service in that post on May 29, 2013, and now resides in Mount Airy, Maryland.

Council on Foreign Relations

Yzaguirre is a lifetime member and serves on the Member Selection Committee of the David Rockefeller-headed Council on Foreign Relations. and was a member of the Independent Task Force on North America.

The Raul Yzaguirre Policy Institute

The Raul Yzaguirre Policy Institute operates out of the University of Texas-Pan American and was named after Yzaguirre. 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. Its new facilities were partially funded with a 2005 Department of Education earmark of $635,000.

The advisory council of the institute represent a who's who of government and corporate elite, including politicians such as Hillary Clinton, John McCain, former President of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo whose role at the institute will be to provides expertise to the "global perspectives" area of work for the institute. As well as corporate leaders of UPS, Coca-Cola and Frito-Lay.

Position at Arizona State University

As part of Michael Crow's commitment to a "New American University" at Arizona State University, he appointed Yzaguirre to the position of presidential professor of practice in community development and civil rights at ASU. One of the boards that he serves on at ASU is 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.

The NACTS is a project of the Pan American Partnership for Business Education, the Council of the Americas, and the Kansas City International Affairs and Trade Office, which is part of North America's SuperCorridor Coalition (NASCO).

U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic

Under President Obama, Raul Yzaguirre served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic from November 2010 to May 2013. As Ambassador, Yzaguirre focused on the commonalities in culture and values between the United States and Latin America. With one million Dominicans in the United States, he highlighted the importance of developing partnerships and advancing mutual goals. He received the Duarte, Sanchez y Mella Medal of Merit, the Dominican Republic’s highest honor, for his effort to strengthen commercial, political, and cultural cooperation between Santo Domingo and Washington. In his own words, “American security and prosperity are dependent on the existence of neighbors who are democratic, just, and prosperous. I believe that doing the right thing for the right reasons is the only long run way to insure stability. We do well by doing well for and to others.”

Select Board Memberships

• At age 16, youngest Board member of the American GI Forum
• Chair of Associated Southwest Investors, a Minority Small Business Enterprise Corporation
• Board member of Advanced Science, Inc.
• Board member of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation
• Originally elected to Common Cause's National Governing Board; re-elected to the Common Cause Board in 1991
• First Latino member of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, served on Executive Committee for 30 years
• Chair of the Independent Sector—the first minority elected to this position
• Board member, United Way of America
• Board member, Sears, Roebuck's & Co.
• Board member, AARP Services Inc.
• Board member, Volunteers of America
• Lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations

Nonprofit Coalitions

• Founded, cofounded, or founding member and/or chair of numerous nonprofit coalitions, including:
• Coalition on Human Needs
• National Immigration Forum
• National Low Income Housing Coalition
• National Community Reinvestment Coalition
• National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy

Latino Organizations Founded/Cofounded

• At age 15, founded the American GI Forum Juniors, an auxiliary of the American GI Forum, the Mexican American veterans/civil rights group
• Cofounder and Chairman, NOMAS (National Organization for Mexican American Services), a student activist group (1965-1969)
• Founder and Executive Director, Interstate Research Associates, the first Mexican American nonprofit research consulting firm; became a multimillion-dollar firm with 11 offices throughout the country (1969–1973)
• Raza Development Fund, by far the nation’s largest and most successful Latino Community Development Financial Institution (1999)
• Founder of the Smithsonian Latino Center to ensure that Latino contributions to arts, sciences, and the humanities are highlighted through public programs, scholarly research, museum collections, and educational opportunities (2007)
• Within the Latino community, cofounded the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, and many others

Awards and Honors

• Rockefeller Public Service Award for Outstanding Public Service, the first Hispanic to receive the award, Trustees of Princeton University (1979)
• First inclusion in Who’s Who in America (1980)
• Common Cause Award for Public Service (1986)
• Fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics, John F. Kennedy School of Government, one of the first Hispanic Fellows (1989)
• Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (1993)
• Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor awarded by the Mexican government to citizens of another nation (1993)
• Namesake for the Raul Yzaguirre Schools for Success in Houston (1996)
• Charles Evan Hughes Gold Medal Award for courageous leadership in civic and humanitarian affairs, National Conference for Community and Justice (1998)
• Medallion of Excellence for Community Service, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (2003)
• John W. Gardner Leadership Award, Independent Sector (2004)
• Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law (2006)
• Smithsonian Latino Center Legacy Award (2007)
• The George Washington University Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award (2012)
• Duarte, Sanchez y Mella Medal of Merit, Dominican Republic Government (2013)
• On July 1, 2022, the White House announced that Yzaguirre would be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Special Recognitions

• Raul Yzaguirre Building, permanent headquarters in Washington, DC for UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza)
• Raul Yzaguirre Head Start Center, Houston, TX
• Raul Yzaguirre Schools for Success, which includes seven campuses in Houston/Brownsville, TX
• Raul H. Yzaguirre Middle School, Pharr, TX

Select Publications

• Congressional Testimony

Testified/submitted statements more than 200 times on civil rights; education, health, housing, and economic policy; immigration; trade; and others over a 30-year career at NCLR

• Op-eds

1. “What’s Wrong with the Immigration Bill?” op-ed, Washington Post, November 24, 1983.
2. “Parting Shots on NAFTA,” op-ed, Los Angeles Times, November 16, 1993.
3. “California Cleansing,” op-ed, Washington Post, May 18, 1994.

• Journal Articles

1. “Ancianos Management Training,” in Aging in America’s Neighborhoods, United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1975.
2. “The Little Feet Took Giant Steps,” Hispanic, 1988.
3. “Hispanic Human Rights Goals for the 1990s,” Journal of Intergroup Relations, Winter 1994.
4. “Accurate Racial/Ethnic Data Should Drive Hispanic Category Review,” Poverty & Race, January–February 1995.
5. “The Fair Housing Act: A Latino Perspective,” Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, 1999.

• Book Chapters

1. “Understanding Bilingual Education,” in A. Gartner, Beyond Reagan: Alternatives for the 1980s, 1984.
2. “The New American Identity,” in F. Hesselbein, The Drucker Foundation: Community of the Future, 1998.
3. “The Two Faces of American Immigration” (May 31, 1994), in J. Gottheimer, Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches, 2009.
4. “Media: Shaping the Images,” in R. Montemayor, Latinos: Right before Our Eyes, 2004.
5. “Foreword,” in T. Atencio et al., Resolana: Emerging Chicano Dialogues on Community and Globalization, 2009.
6. “Liberty and Justice for All,” in H. Cisneros, Latinos and the Nation’s Future, 2009

External links

• National Council of La Raza's website
• Building a North American Community
• En honor de Don Raul
• NCLR's Evolution
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Ready to rumble..