William “Willie” C. Velásquez

William “Willie” C. Velásquez was a Chicano social and civil rights activist and founder of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, one of the nation’s largest voter registration efforts, which worked to expand Latino and Hispanic participation. His group popularized the motto Su Voto Es Su Voz (Your Vote is your Voice).

Velásquez was educated at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas (B.A., 1966), where he was one of the founding members of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO). His role in MAYO led to his appointment as Texas’s first statewide Coordinator of El Movimiento Social de la Raza Unida, the precursor of La Raza Unida Party. In 1968, as Boycott Coordinator for the United Farm Workers (UFW), he organized strikes in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. After leaving the UFW he became the founder and director of the Mexican American Unity Council in San Antonio. In 1970, he was named Field Director of the Southwest Council of La Raza. From 1972 to 1974, he concentrated on building the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP). Chartered in 1985, the Southwest Voter Research Institute was established to seek the opinions of the Latino electorate and to make those findings known. Velásquez also served as an editorial advisor to the San Antonio Light.  

Image of Velasquez from the William C. Velasquez Institute.