Early life
Perales was born on October 17, 1898, in Alice, Texas to Susana (née Sandoval) and Nicolás Perales. At the age of 6 his father passed away and at the age of 12 he was orphaned. He worked as a child and later married local bookstore owner, Marta Pérez.
Together, they adopted a daughter and two sons. Raised by Crecensio Treviño and Eugenia Naranjo, he attended school in Alice and later graduated from Draughon’s Business College in San Antonio in 1915.
The writings of Alonso S. Perales, displayed here in San Antonio with his wife, Marta, during the 1940s, are on display in the Special Collections of the MD Anderson Memorial Library until March 2025. Source photos – Courtesy of the Perales family.
When World War I broke out, Perales was drafted into the United States Army and worked as a Field Army Clerk. After serving, he received an honorable discharge in 1920. He then took and passed the civil service examination and moved to Washington D.C. where he worked for the Department of Commerce for about a year and a half.
Photo source Family archive – Mr. Alonso S. Perales, son and daughter Marta Perales Carrizales.
While in Washington D.C., he continued his studies, receiving a Master of Arts degree from the National University’s School of Economics and Government. He received his law degree from what would become the George Washington University Law School in 1925. He moved to Texas shortly afterward as one of the first Mexican Americans to practice law in the United States.
Alonso S. Perales Conference & Exhibit: Marta Perales Carrizales speaks about her father.
Vídeo source – YouTube
Career Diplomacy
In the 1920s through the 1930s, Perales served as a diplomat, traveling to the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico, Chile, and the West Indies on various diplomatic missions. Later, in 1945, he served as legal counsel to the Nicaraguan delegation at the United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO), also known as the San Francisco Conference.
This conference took place from 25 April 1945 to 26 June 1945 in San Francisco, California. During this meeting, delegates reviewed the 1944 Dumbarton Oaks agreements and created the Charter of the United Nations.
Photo source – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alonso_S._Perales
Civil right
Perales was active in civil rights advocacy and according to scholars, is one of the most influential Hispanic Americans of his time. He moved back to Texas and dedicated his life to combatting discrimination against people of Mexican descent through law, advocacy, and his writings, including two volumes of En Defensa de mi raza (In Defense of My People), first published in 1937.
These volumes included essays, letters, speeches, and work by other intellectuals on the problem of discrimination in Texas. His book, Are We Good Neighbors?, published in 1948 by Artes Gráficas, examined the discrimination, exploitation, and injustices faced by people of Mexican and Latin American descent throughout the United States.
Are We Good Neighbors? also includes affidavits from the public that detail these incidents of discrimination. In San Antonio, Texas, Perales collaborated with Maury Maverick. And in the 1940s, he petitioned to introduce a bill in the Texas legislature that would prohibit discrimination based on race.
Alonso S. Perales Conference & Exhibit: Raymond Alfonso Perales speaks about his father.
Vídeo source – YouTube
LULAC
During the 1930s, Mexican Americans, as well as other communities of Latin American descent, began organizing in response to Juan Crow, or José Cuervo, laws in Texas. This resulted in the formation of Order of the Sons of America (El Orden Hijos de América) and the Order of the Knights of America (El Orden Caballeros de América), Mexican American organizations with various statewide chapters. Between 1927-1928, Perales and Ben Garza, leader of the Order of the Sons of America Council #4 in Corpus Christi, discussed how to merge these organizations.
In 1929, these organizations, along with the League of Latin American Citizens (headed by Perales), decided to merge to form the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). Perales, thus, joined Garza, Manuel C. Gonzales, Andres de Luna, Louis Wilmot, Rafael Galvan Sr., Juan Galván, Vicente Lozano, José Tomás Canales, Edwardo Idar, Mauro Machado, J. Luz Saenz, Juan C. Solis, and E.H. Marin to found what would become the oldest Hispanic civil rights organization in the country, LULAC. Perales, with the help of Canales and Idar, drafted the LULAC constitution.
Photo source – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_United_Latin_American_Citizens – LULAC’s assimilation ideology emerged during the mass deportations occurring in the Mexican Repatriation.
Perales went on to form LULAC Council 16 in San Antonio, Texas, and served as LULAC’s second president. As president of LULAC, he focused on the creation of 24 new councils across South Texas. According to the LULAC News (LULAC’s official newsletter), Perales helped to cement the organization’s spirit: “LULAC is much indebted to the efforts and sacrifices put forth by these pioneers like Alonso S. Perales. It was this spirit of courage – tenacity, and self-sacrifice – during the early history of LULAC that became known as the ‘LULAC Spirit.’
Among his efforts was also the 1930 defeat of House Resolution 6465, also known as the Box Bill, introduced by U.S. Representative John C. Box, which proposed expanding the Immigration Act of 1924 to include quotas on Mexican immigrants to the United States. Perales, together with his fellow LULACers, Canales and Garza, traveled to Washington D.C. to testify in US congressional hearings against the bill. The bill did not pass.
Honors and Memorial
In 1977, the Edgewood Independent School District in San Antonio named the Alonso S. Perales Elementary School in his honor. In 2011, the Perales family donated his archive to Arte Público Press and its historical arm, Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage program. The collection includes correspondence, historic LULAC papers and publications, photographs, and rare manuscripts.
It is housed at the University of Houston’s MD Anderson Libraries Special Collections. Shortly after the donation, the organization held a Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage academic conference dedicated to the work of Perales. The edited collection of scholarly essays, In Defense of my people: Alonso S. Perales and the development of Mexican-American public intellectuals, edited by Michael A. Olivas, was a result of the scholarship presented at the conference.
Using the collection stated above, A digital humanities project which illustrates visually the spread of these correspondences, documents, pictures, and manuscripts related to Perales and his work as well as information directly related to LULAC. The project is titled The Alonso S. Perales Correspondence.
Work
En Defensa de mi raza, vol. I & II. (Artes Gráficas, 1937)
Are We Good Neighbors? (Artes Gráficas, 1948)
“La Evolución De La Raza Mexicana En Texas,” La Prensa (San Antonio, TX), Sep. 13, 1927.
Further readin
Cynthia Orozco. Pioneer of Mexican American Civil Rights: Alonso S. Perales. (Arte Público Press, 2020).
Michael A. Olivas (ed.), In Defense of My People: Alonso S. Perales and the Development of Mexican-American Public Intellectuals. (Arte Público Press, 2012).
Adela Sloss-Vento, Alonso S. Perales: His Struggles for the Rights of Mexican Americans. (Austin, Texas: Artes Graficas, 1977).
Amy Waters, Yarsinske. All For One, One For All: A Celebration of 75 Years of the League of United Latin American Citizens. (The Donning Company Publishers, 2004).
***
Por Segio Lima.
