"Ramsey, History and Corpitos," by Emilio Zamora, Ph.D.

Friends:

Happy to share Dr. Emilio Zamora's eulogy to Ramsey at his funeral service that just happened in Corpus Christi, Texas, Ramsey's birthplace. Dr. Zamora teaches in the History Department at the University of Texas at Austin. 

So moving, all of this, Emilio. Just beautiful. May Ramsey rest in peace. Que en paz descanse.

-Angela Valenzuela

Ramsey, History and Corpitos

by

Emilio Zamora, Ph.D.

October 16, 2022

On Saturday, October 15, I travelled to Corpus Christi to offer a eulogy to the recently departed Ramiro “Ramsey” Muñiz’ and to pay my respects to his family during the beautiful rosary they offered for his salvation and in his memory. I wish to share the part of my comments pertaining to his hometown, the place that has given our social movement a disproportionate number of major leaders in Texas and perhaps in the nation. Ramsey was no doubt one of these significant leaders coming out of Corpus. 

Before moving to my remarks on Corpus, I consoled Ramsey’s family and assured them that he is in God’s magnificent Kingdom, with his parents—Rudy G. Muñiz and Hilda Longoria. I offered my prayers so “that the family will find peace and comfort knowing that they you gave the world so much in the person of Ramsey. All of us wish you the everlasting joy of living with the memory of a historic giant manifest as kindness, generosity, a champion for social justice, and loving and dedicated family member.”

In case some of my “facebook friends” may not know, Ramsey was a candidate for governor in 1972 and 1974 under the banner of the Raza Unida Party. Ramsey electrified the party with his enthusiasm and untiring campaign to the point that we should give him much of the credit for the party’s success in democratizing the electoral system in Texas. The progressive Raza Unida Party was instrumental in forcing a conservative flight out of the Democratic Party and into the Republican Party. The result was the start of a two-party state system in Texas, in name and deed, beginning in 1978.

The Party and Ramsey did much more. They encouraged the greater participation of Texans—including Mexican Americans—in the political process as voters, candidates, elected officials and members of the Democratic Party. For instance, Mexican representation in the Texas Legislature, as well as in school boards, city councils and county commissioners courts, increased significantly beginning in the 1970s and 1980s partly because of the Party’s effective challenge and Ramsey’s important role in it. 

Also, the establishment of the Raza Unida Party, the fielding of candidates and the soliciting of votes gave a significant number of young Party activists the necessary training and confidence to prompt and participate in the momentous changes of the 1970s and 1980s. I should add that the Party and its candidates advocated for some of the most progressive ideas at the time, including opposition to the War in Vietnam, support for women’s and workers’ rights, and bilingual-bicultural education, and an end to racial and gender discrimination.

Political repression, internal divisions and a distaste for a progressive party led by Mexicans explain the demise of the Raza Unida Party. Ramsey’s brilliant career as a star athlete in high school and college, and an attorney and major political leader, on the other hand, was cut short, by drug charges and his incarceration for 26 years. Ramsey always claimed that he was a political prisoner, framed for his leadership in the Raza Unida Party. My hope is that history will fully set him free.

I spoke as one of Ramsey’s friends, and as was one of the foot soldiers in the Raza Unida Party, including my service as Party Chair in Travis County in 1977-78—and for a short while—a candidate for State Representative in 1974, and, more recently, a point person in the campaign to gain his release from the dungeon, as he used to say.

Now I turn to Corpus Christi, the place that has given us so many giants in our history. Ramsey, as noted earlier, is only the latest extraordinary historical figure that the South Texas town nurtured and sent out to lead us to a better, more prosperous world that we deserve as a people.

Corpus Christi, you graced us with a Ben Garza, the first National President of LULAC, one of the most honest leaders in our social movement. Mr. Garza was an office of the Sons of America in the 1920s, modest goliath and a successful business person who nevertheless questioned whether he was the best educated person to lead our first and longest running civil rights organization in the country. Alonso Perales, another LULAC co-founder from nearby Alice, and second national president of the organization, convinced him that no one else had the necessary character and honesty to lead the organization in 1929.  

Corpus Christi, you also contributed a Montemayor family whose extraordinary son, Apoloneo “Paul,” led the historic effort to found the famous steelworkers’ union in 1953, local 5022, and used the union platform to advance our social movement through a local chapter of the Political Association of Spanish-Speaking Organizations and the famous Cisneros case, the 1970 legal fight that chipped away against the evils of racial discrimination and segregation against our youth in the schools.

Corpus Christi also gave us the Bonilla family, whose men and women have filled major leadership positions in LULAC for decades. Not even the extraordinary Idar (Nicasio, Clemente, Eduardo, Jovita) family from Laredo comes close to matching the continuous and unswerving service to our community. I knew Mr. Ruben Bonilla best, and can attest to the fact that he represented Corpus Christi as well as any self-sacrificing leader who made a significant difference in our social justice movement beginning in the 1960s.

The García family, especially Dr. Hector and Dr. Clotilde, has also give us much with their leadership in the American G.I. Forum and her work in genealogical research. They were unselfish, bold and confident in recognizing that our purpose on earth is to recognize and act on the equal worth that God bestows in all of us. God bless the García family, we thank Corpus Christi for blessing us with your just and righteous leadership.

In the present moment, you have gifted us the Muñiz family and their wonderful, sacrificing son Ramsey, yet another historic contribution to the development of our people.

I don’t have an explanation for the outsized role that Corpus Christi has played in our history. Maybe God proclaimed you his pueblo amado—similar to the Reverend, Dr. King’s vision of the Beloved Community—when you honored his own sacrificed son by naming your town after him.

Perhaps you have been sufficiently hidden in the proverbial fork in the road, apart from the major thoroughfares that have moved the masses on a North-South axis. This may have helped you avoid much of the racial violence and  lethal racial discrimination of the twentieth century that have stunted and blocked the development of our community in other parts of our state.  This good fortune may have also helped you escape much of the unsettling hardship associated with migrant work by receiving hundreds of thousands of agricultural workers instead of also taking to the road yourselves in search of opportunities. The constant, hurricane-charged Gulf may have also nurtured in you a special place of comfort and beauty, offering respite from the stifling and otherwise toxic air of oppression against our people. 

It could be that your other favored sons and daughters captured and reinforced that special gift of an edifying and life-giving spirit that found expression in vigorous and dedicated service.

Domingo Peña, for instance, used the air waves to inculcate the thought that we should not always take ourselves so seriously. On the other hand, the crowds that love Johnny Canales, the other popular entertainer, recognize and reinforce the symmetry and balance in life, as in “You got it Johnny.” The popular Galván music store directed your attention to the beautiful comforting sounds in life and the communion of the bailes grandes that made you “just Mexican enough.”

Perhaps Selena Quintanilla-Pérez inspired you to be the outsized town with her self-adoring play and boundless joyful, the kind of performance of confidence and beauty that you recognized in her.

I cannot explain why Corpus Christi has given us such special leaders, singular perspective and inspiring outlooks in life. But you have done it. Other places have given us their share, including Jose Tomas Canales, Adela Sloss Vento, Sara Estela Ramirez, Emma Tenayuca, Jovita Idar, Clemente Idar, José de la Luz Sáenz, Alonso Perales, María Hernández, Henry B. Gonzalez, Gustavo García (San Antonio), Carlos Cadena, James de Anda, Antonio Orendain, Gustavo García (Austin),  Willie Velazquez, María Jimenez, Mario Compean, Martha Cotera, Luz Bazán, José Angel Gutiérrez, to name a few. They may have different outlooks and may have even opposed each other, but they have all been giants.

As important as other places may be in giving birth to amazing leaders, no town or city has matched the disproportionate contributions of Corpus Christi. Austin regularly convenes much of our talent, but the roots of activism lie in local areas like Corpus. Bigger cities should be expected to offer us more, but they don’t next to the relatively smaller Corpus Christi.

Thank you Corpus, for the Garza, Montemayor, García, Bonilla and Muñiz families and for everyone else—the persons behind the pulpit, the entrepreneurs, the artists, the teachers, the parents—who no doubt helped you give us so much, including the leaders, the model of sacrifice, and the well springs of hope and inspiration that we need.