Alma Canales

C. Salinas: Okay. And how did it end up that you were the candidate for lieutenant governor?

A. Canales: I wasn't even old enough to run. I did not meet the age requirement. The age requirement was 30. I was 24. We had recruited a young man that was a lawyer, a professional here in Waco named Ramsey Muñiz.

J. Najera: Oh, he's from Waco! I had forgotten about that!

A. Canales: Big football star at Baylor University. [Right. Right.] But anyway, when we got to San Antonio and it was filing day and we were filling in the the names of what we had for whatever office, there was no lieutenant governor. We didn't have a ticket. We had a governor, but we didn't have a lieutenant governor. And that was going to look kind of... It was going to throw it off. It was... It was a, you know, it was a life and death decision for the Partido. And I put my name in it. There were no women on the ticket [There were no women!] statewide. Statewide, [Oh wow.] there was one that was running for rep in Harris County. She was really good. She died recently, Maria Jimenez. She was a lot heavier than I was. She knew... She had more sophisticated knowledge of things like politics and things, than I did. And it's very hard to run in a local race. So I really respected that lady. She did good, but I was just a figurehead. I was just a fill in the blank so we could... And when somebody asked us... Well, first of all, when they asked the women organizers in the Partido, they demanded that we have women represented. And they said: "Well, you don't have anybody." The guys: "you don't have anybody."They said, "We got Alma." You know, just by virtue of, you know, somebody that was available. And I always tell the story that when I was at the nominating convention, I didn't have the sense to step back, y me quede parada solita. [Laughter.] That's how I got on the ticket.

J. Najera: Everybody said, "not it."

A. Canales: But actually, you know, I mean, we had no choice. And so we explained it to people why I wasn't meeting the age requirement as it's something that needs to change. [Oh, Okay.] Because the median age for Chicanos at that time was way below 30. We were never going to meet the age requirement anyway, So let's challenge it. That, you know, that gave us an organizing tool. We were realistic. We knew that there was going to be a long shot to get... Democrats can't get elected in Texas statewide now. So, what were the chances of Raza Unida? You know, we knew it. It was an organizing ploy. But once you had Raza Unida making the showing that it did. Guess what? They came after Ramsey. [Oh yeah.] I think Ramsey got set up. He didn't like to have to run with me. He didn't like me for a... for a running mate because he and his backers were like, they wanted all the suits and the ties and what have you. I didn't dress like that. I was a little bit hippieish. A little bit... what do you call them? Bohemian. [Bohemian.] So that was a problem. So, we never appeared at the same venue together.

J. Najera: Really? [Gasp and then laughter.]

A. Canales: And those guys down in Houston… When they challenged me being on the ballot, they should have never messed with the women. The women came out and they they put it to the... to the two. The two leaders were mainly Mario Compean and Jose Angel Gutierrez. And they had to give... put those other guys in their place because without the women, there was not going to be a Raza Unida party. And that proved to be the case because as soon as the women started turning away, getting married, leaving, going back to their jobs or professions, whatever. They came after Ramsey; set him up. I don't know that he ever did, whatever he did, I didn't know. I didn't have any privileged information to Ramsey's situation because we weren't close. [Um hm.] But I did think that there was not… As strict as he was he was about riding around with me because he didn't think I was of his caliber in professional [Right, right.] thing. Okay. So, I had to go underground. Right after that election, I did not participate in the election of 74. When Ramsay ran the second time, by then, I did not agree with the direction the Partido was taking because they were doing this slick Madison Avenue kind of advertising and people together. And if you're just going to create a party like the ones we have now, it wasn't going to be what I wanted, what I had in mind as far as my organizing. So I dropped out, had a kid, went home to be a housewife, but I worked locally. I was a PTA mother. I worked in the newspaper with the Hispanic community. I stayed active, very local, and changed my name.

J. Najera: And you've talked a little bit about, you know, like throughout like being a woman and the work and some of the challenges, you know, with your family and your community and even in this progressive spaces, these attitudes that men have had about women leadership. So how did you navigate that? Like, what was your, you know, strategy?

A. Canales: Well, I think sometimes it was... it really was a tactical. Tactics, like in warfare, because sometimes you had to go with what you had and sometimes you had to pull back because some of the negative stuff could be really hurtful. You could hear whispering campaigns like when they were trying to knock somebody down a notch or two, and I had the tendency of speaking up and saying: "Well, that's not true. You're just saying that because she's strong" or whatever, you know, defending the person in some sense. And then you became the target, [Um hm.] and then the animosity was turned towards you. But I was lucky that I was a married woman and my husband was a great defender [Um hm.] because that kept me protected, you know, in a sense. I had a... a good... I had a bodyguard. Remember that movie with a bodyguard? [Whitney Houston.. .] I mean, I lived that. You know, I think that I was lucky because... if they saw somebody that they could target to get them out of the way... And some of the women were really talented. You know, we had Evie Chapa, who wrote all of the party platform. I couldn't have done that.

J. Najera: You probably could have. [Laughter.] I mean, with your background as a writer, yes.

A. Canales: I mean, it took time. I mean, you had to know the issues and you had to lay it out. And you know what we were going to stand for. And, you know, I mean, we... there were some awesome women and some of them went on to be elected, you know, in spite of the men. But there was also a really good contingency of men that stayed with us and defended us, and they put us to work. But we were equals in a sense. [Yes, you need those allies, right?] We were strong allies and we defended them and they... and that's kind of why I didn't go whole hog with the women's movement and the women's issue and the feminist activism that was going on at the time because my concentration, my... my vision was you build the family unit, you build the community, we can win the state because we can build. But when the women's movement came along, the men were like: "Oh, they're going to go off on their own. You know, they're against us" or whatever, you know, fears there were. And some, of course, were dead set against: "No, my women are not going to go participate in all that." But, now I think, you know, it probably could have gone very well. And it has, I think, for the ones that did continue to participate in women's rights issues, and they have kept... they have come out as strong as all the other political statement that we have been able to make with what we had. We didn't have anything. We didn't have any resources. We didn't have the money or the mobility or the... I mean, we were really by the seat of our pants coming up with this stuff, you know, like who ever heard of somebody going statewide? It was a dream.