given to the other candidate. The subpoenas were a major event to many of the Chicano voters. Being uneducated, speaking poor English or no English at all, and never having been through this process before, many were intimidated and decided that the best thing to do is to avoid participating in politics and to not vote. The latter was a result of the judge ordering the ballot boxes opened, resulting in Chicanos realizing that their vote was not secret. Mr. Morales suffered the loss of the election and also the loss of his business (construction contractor) since the Anglos had warned him not to become politically active or they would not do business with him.

Mr. Morales also spoke of the problems in absentee ballots. It seems that Chicano activists had noticed that the swing vote in many elections was the absentee voting by Anglos. The Chicanos decided that they would conduct an extensive effort to make sure that Chicanos that could not go to vote on election day were registered to vote absentee. The Anglo establishment was afraid of so many Chicanos voting absentee. Law enforcement officers went out to the Chicanos registered to vote absentee and told them that they better be out of town on election day since they were registered to vote absentee. No Anglos who registered to vote absentee were visited by law enforcement officers telling them to be out of town on election day.

The problem of registration Mr. Morales said also involves the simple practice of having Chicanos place their full address on the registration forms while Anglos can put down only a post office box number. This makes it easy to determine whether a Chicano registrant lives within the city but makes it impossible to determine whether an Anglo lives within or outside the city limits. One can look at the computerized registration list for Frio County and almost all Chicanos have precise street addresses while almost all Anglos have post office boxes. Even when a Chicano wants to give a post office box number, he is required to give his street address.

Mr. Morales also stated that a couple of years back, one of the presiding (election) judges at the polling place would intimidate and embarrass Chicano voters (especially the defenseless and illiterate) by calling them stupid and burros and telling them to leave if they could not speak English. Mr. Morales also talked of law enforcement officers who hang around polling places and tell Chicano voters not to vote.

Mr. Morales also related that during his mayoralty race, the polling place (there is only one voting place in city elections) was changed from the Anglo side to the Chicano side. The voting participation among Chicanos rose to the highest levels ever; for the next election, the polling place was changed back to where it used to be-in the Anglo section. The results for the next election showed a 400 vote decline in Chicano votes.

B. INTERVIEW WITH MR. ADOLFO ALVAREZ, PEARSALL, TEX., FEBRUARY 6, 1975 Mr. Adolfo Alvarez was interviewed in his residence. Mr. Alvarez had two experiences in his political activity that he related to us. He had gone to a political meeting wherein members of the Democratic party were attempting to tell Chicanos all the evils associated with La Raza Unida Party (RUP). Certain allegations were made about RUP that Mr. Alvarez attempted to refute. A couple of days later a delegation of Anglos went to Mr. Alvarez' employer (an Anglo in San Antonio) and asked him to fire Mr. Alvarez because of his involvement in political activity and because he was a gringo-hater. The employer fired him, even though Mr. Alvarez had worked for him for 10 years.

Another episode concerns Mr. Alvarez' run-in with the law. It seems that in a certain party primary for a school board election, the polling place for RUP was in a Chicano area. While people were voting, the wife of the person who was going to be the Democratic candidate for the election, was in her car taking down the names of the Chicanos voting. Mr. Alvarez went over to ask her not to do this because it would intimidate the Chicanos. No verbal threats were made

The polling place is in the Anglo section although the majority of the population is Chicano. The place is across the railroad tracks that separate the Anglo from the Chicano sections. Commentators have pointed out that "living across the tracks" is a much more important psychological barrier than it is a physical one. Crossing it to vote is, for a Chicano, a major step since he feels he is stepping into hostile territory.

7 The intimidation derived from the fact that Chicanos were afraid to vote for RUP and against the wife's husband because the husband was the county doctor. The doctor is the one that takes care of county medical cases. Chicanos were afraid that if they voted for RUP he would not take care of them or would treat them badly. They had been told that this would happen, particularly that the doctor would not come to the hospital to treat them if they needed emergency medical service.

to her, she was not physically threatened and no one even touched her. Two days later Mr. Alvarez was arrested for that episode and charged with assault and battery, burglary, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. Mr. Alvarez, after looking at the jury that would try his case (all Anglos), decided he did not have a chance and pleaded guilty to the two misdemeanor charges and paid a fine of $238.

Mr. Alvarez says he feels very disillusioned about these events, saying "what did I fight in Korea for? I fought for democracy, to get an even chance, and now I can't participate in the political process without losing my job and being arrested."

Mr. Alvarez also related that Chicanos have voting problems because the polling places open late and the voting pace is consciously slowed down to discourage Chicano voters who can't afford to spend too much time away from work. He also states that Anglo employers don't want to let Chicanos off to vote and that the former ask their Chicano employees to work late on election day to keep them from voting in the evening.

C. INTERVIEW WITH HIGINIO SILVA, PEARSALL, TEX., FEBRUARY 6, 1975

Mr. Higinio Silva is a young articulate Chicano businessman. He is one of the Chicano voters subpoenaed in the contested election mentioned above. He was subpoenaed because he had property outside the city limits. He, however, claims to live in the city and that his residence has always been in the city. He stated that the impact of the subpoenas on the Chicano voters was "devastating.” "Apathy has set in" he stated, "and it has become much more difficult to get Chicanos to become politically active and to participate in elections.”

D. INTERVIEW WITH MR. CRISPIN TREVINO, PEARSALL, TEX., FEBRUARY 6, 1975 Mr. Crispin Trevino was interviewed in his residence. Mr. Trevino first said that he had been police chief of Pearsall but was now with the Crystal City police force.

He had run for County Sheriff a couple of years ago opposing an Anglo candidate. During the campaign his wife and family had received obscene and racist phone calls; the caller would also threaten physical harm to the family members (the Trevinos have three small daughters) if he did not pull out of the race.

He also stated that law enforcement officers are used to intimidate Chicano voters. The officers go to predominantly Chicano precincts on election day and start taking pictures of the people going to vote. He also stated that in almost every election some Chicanos are arrested for one reason or another. He stated that up until very recently no Chicanos were allowed inside the court house during election day while the ballots were being conducted. On the other hand, Anglos could wander in and out as they wished.

Mr. Trevino related an episode which indicated to him that the ballots were not secret. When he had been police chief, his duties included collecting the ballot box after voting was completed and delivering the ballot box and the ballot stub box to the court clerk. Only he had the key to the ballot stub box. When he went back later on to check on the counting, the ballot stub box had been pried open, making it possible for someone to compare the ballot with the ballot stub to see how any one person had voted.

E. INTERVIEW WITH MR. RAUL MARTINEZ, COTULLA, TEX., FEBRUARY 7, 1975 Mr. Raul Martinez was interviewed in his office in Cotulla, Texas. Cotulla is in La Salle County about 85 miles southwest of San Antonio. There are approximately 5500 residents in Cotulla and 85 percent of these are of Mexican descent. In the county there are approximately 7500 persons and 75 percent of these are of Mexican descent. According to Mr. Martinez, the average educational level for Cotulla is approximately 3 years. Cotulla and the surrounding areas are heavily agrarian; many of the Chicanos in Cotulla are migrants who go North to work in the fields. They are gone for about 6-9 months and the rest of the year they are essentially unemployed. There are some Chicano college graduates in Cotulla, the majority being teachers at the local schools.

One of the first problems, Mr. Martinez talked about was an annexation issue: allegedly the Cotulla recently annexed an Anglo area; however, the city refused to also annex a Chicano area-the Rodriquez addition. He also mentioned that the at-large method of electing county school board members makes it difficult

to elect Chicanos to that body. Another difficulty is that the elections for city offices and the elections for the school board are held on the same date but in order to vote in both elections you have to go to two different polling places. Many Chicanos (particularly those that don't have cars and the elderly) find it difficult to go to one polling place to vote in one election and then go to another part of the city to vote for another election, especially when the polling places are far apart. Also, the polling places are located in the Anglo section of town (western part) although most of the Chicanos live in the eastern part of the city.

Mr. Martinez also related that there had been an election challenge in Cotulla similar to the one in Pearsall. The Cotulla challenge was against Mrs. Roza Rodriquez who had ran for and seemingly won a position in the city council. The Anglo establishment challenged the election, subpoenaed 150-200 people (all Chicanos), opened the ballot and ballot stub boxes, and the judge awarded the election to the other candidate. Mr. Martinez stated that this is a new technique being used by Anglos to harrass (by the subpoena) and intimidate (by the opening of the ballot and ballot stub boxes) the Chicano majority. The impact in Cotulla has been similar to the impact in Pearsall-Chicanos don't want to become politically active and are afraid to vote freely.

Mr. Martinez spoke about the problems in registering the Chicano electorate. He mentioned that the County Tax Assessor-the person in charge of registration— was arbitrary, capricious, and discriminated against Chicanos. For example, he stated that last year his orgnization had attempted to register Chicano voters who had migrated to the North but who would be back in Cotulla for the election. He managed to get 150 Chicanos to fill out the registration forms. These were voters who had never bothered to register. When these registration forms were presented to the register, she refused to certify all of them on the basis that they were not "properly secured". Mr. Martinez also said that the Collector also discriminated against Chicano voters by sending them blank absentee voting forms while she fills them out for the Anglos and all the Anglo has to do is sign the form. Mr. Martinez said that many times the absentee voting ballots are sent to Chicanos a couple of days before the deadline so that by the time the forms are received its too late to vote. Aside from all these problems, the Chicanos also have a difficult time with the absentee ballots because they are quite complex and they are also only in the English language.

Mr. Martinez mentioned that during elections, local enforcement officials patrol the Chicano precincts flashing guns and billy clubs, threatening and intimidating Chicano voters. Finally, he stated that Chicanos are required to prove citizenship while Anglos are not; also, Chicano voters require a higher proof of residency and identification than Anglo voters. The former are sometimes sent back for more proof 3 or 4 times before they can vote.

I went and asked the Tax Collector for a list of the people who had not been certified to register. She gave me a list of about 14 people-all Chicanos. When I asked her why these people had not been able to exercise their franchise, all she could say was that they were not properly secured. After further questioning, she refused to talk to me anymore.