It is there bigger than the usual “D” Raúl Grijalva attaches to his political career.
“Lifelong Democrat,” is how Grijalva paints himself as he seeks all available advantages to elevate above seven opponents for the Democratic nomination in Congressional District 7.
Grijalva, 54, was among the Chicanos who 30 years ago held contempt for the major parties. He signed up with El Partido Nacional de La Raza Unida and didn’t flip to Democrat until January 1977, according to voter registration records at the Pima County Recorder’s Office.
Grijalva has belittled party switchers as “opportunists” when anticipating challenges during his four successful campaigns for the Board of Supervisors. At gatherings of Pima County’s Democratic elite, the Nucleus Club, Grijalva proclaims lifelong Democratic status.
Similarly, his congressional campaign Web site includes press releases touting his support among women and the endorsement handed out by former Mayor Tom Volgy, a twice-failed congressional candidate. Both state: “A lifelong Democrat, Raul M. Grijalva was born and raised …”
Elected to the Tucson Unified School District governing board in 1974, Grijalva already was traveling the mainstream. He didn’t attend the dramatic first national convention of La Raza Unida in El Paso in the late summer of 1972, when the Tejano, Jose Angel Gutierrez, outwitted Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales and his phalanx of Denver Crusade for Justice toughs, for La Raza Unida’s top spot. Locally, Grijalva sometimes drew criticism from another then-La Raza Unida member Salomon Baldenegro, now a researcher and writer at the University of Arizona.
Grijalva is not the lone chameleon in District 7, where Democrats roughly double the number of Republicans and where Hispanics make up nearly 51 percent of the population. Mark Fleisher, who moved to Tucson from Phoenix, was a Republican less than four years before winning election in January 1997 as chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party.
Al Pina also has gone both ways. He was a Democrat in 1997 when he ran in the non-partisan race for Phoenix City Council. He now proclaims he is “the best thing to happen to Republicans” in Arizona as he battles frontrunner Ross Hieb, a former Yuma City Councilman, for the Republican nomination.
This article appears in Aug 8-14, 2002.
The ‘La Raza’ people are the true racists, yet they project their racism on others of different ethnic backgrounds. Their writings tell all. “Para La Raza todo, Para los demas, nada” translated:”For the (Mexican) Race everything, nothing for all others” The less educated Raza members tend to be full of hatred and violence towards European descendants, even calling them “illegal colonizers” The colonizers, as they call them, entered this land before there were laws of immigration. Therefore they did not come in illegally. Another thing La Raza claims is that they were here 4000 years ago. Not necessarily. The Mestizos who are coming in illegally were never here, nor did their ancestors. Many are from south, central America, indigenous or mixed with European ancestors themselves. If they claim to be indigenous of North America, perhaps they don’t take into consideration the theory that all people came to this continent from the only areas mentioned in the bible..ie: Egypt, Persia (now Iran), Israel, and Africa, the Middle East -Babylon- which according to the bible is the place from where we all came from….there was no mention of North or south America in the bible! So how do the raza people think they were here first, that all others are the invaders? Their ignorance is ludicrous.
They’ve had so-called professors of illegal Mexican descent who claim this was Aztlan ??? There apparently was a place like that when some people came here through the Straight of Asia. According to Wikipedia:” A reputable Professor In 1887, Mexican anthropologist Alfredo Chavero claimed that Aztlán was located on the Pacific coast in the state of Nayarit. While this was disputed by contemporary scholars, it achieved some popular acceptance. In the early 1980s, Mexican President José López Portillo suggested that Mexcaltitán, also in Nayarit, was the true location of Aztlán, but this was denounced by Mexican historians as a political move.[3] Even so, the state of Nayarit incorporated the symbol of Aztlán in its coat of arms with the legend “Nayarit, cradle of Mexicans”. As we can see, people use legends to justify their illegal presence in this country -by saying this is their country, and it is the white people who are here illegally. Clearly, if there were no laws, people didn’t come here illegally, including the people from the South of the USA. But when laws were enacted, and they continued to enter because obviously, this country was better managed by the “Pilgrims”, the hard working, resourceful European colonizers. Then, apparently it was Ok to move from, or to other lands. La Raza is hateful and vindictive. I have been a witness to their virulent hatred for the White people. There is plenty of evidence of the hate the people from South of the US has for the European descendants. La Raza is dangerous to themselves and others because of their mistaken origin. Grijalva is one of those who have constantly spewed hatred for non-Mexicans. Politicians such as him should not be elected to office because they play favorites when they are supposed to be representing all the people equally. Grijalva needs to be removed from office ASAP.