A VOICE THAT WON’T BE SILENCED
Deposed LULAC leader Arellanes, whose public actions this year have drawn criticism as much as support, remains determined to preserve Hispanic culture, heritage
Fred Baca couldn’t believe what he was hearing as he watched TV news early one morning in July: According to the newscast, Ralph Arellanes, executive director of the state chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, was calling on the University of New Mexico to do away with its Chicano studies program.
Arellanes claimed the classes taught
Hispanic students self-hate about their Spanish heritage, an anchor reported.
“I almost fell off the couch,” said Baca, then a deputy director of the state chapter of the nation’s oldest Hispanic organization. “It had a picture of him as I recall, and it had the LULAC symbol on the other side of the screen. I thought, ‘Oh my God. Where did this come from? I don’t remember us saying anything like that.’ ”
The controversy that ensued thrust Arellanes, a longtime and high-profile activist who is known as a civil rights advocate and a spokesman for Hispanics in New Mexico, into the spotlight once again — and not in a positive way. It also sparked turmoil within LULAC, contributing to a decision to eliminate the executive director position.
The fallout brought into focus the differing views Arellanes elicits from supporters and critics alike, who note his determination can get things done but also creates antagonism along the way.
“He contributed a lot to LULAC and … we can’t take that away from him,” said Baca, who is now the state director. “But this particular situation with UNM and the Chicano studies really created a bad situation.”
Arellanes, 58, who earlier this year had been at the forefront of the contentious debate over the removal of monuments and statues to Spanish conquistadors in New Mexico, said his words were taken out of context and that he was unfairly treated by the news media.
“A lot of folks have called me, telling me, ‘Thank you, Ralph, for taking the hits on the chin for our community as all of us as Hispanics feel we are all under attack,’ ” he said. “Our culture and heritage are under attack from all sides.”
Hate and propaganda
The blowup started July 20 when Arellanes sent an email to UNM President Garnett Stokes and others, raising concerns “about the history and instruction being taught at UNM through various courses and programs.”
“Hispano students are being taught that the Spanish committed genocide on our Native American brothers and sisters,” he wrote. “We have received reports of Hispanic students being taught ‘self-hate’ and shame for the genocide caused by their ancestors. Many Hispanic students have reported leaving classrooms crying because they have been labeled as ‘genocidal’ and other students being called killers, rapists and many other horrible allegations and comments.”
Arellanes, who requested a meeting with Stokes, signed the email in his roles as New Mexico LULAC executive director and chairman of the national organization’s Social Justice Committee, as well as chairman of the Hispano Roundtable of New Mexico, an umbrella organization originally formed in the mid-1980s.
“We will be calling for the removal of these courses and programs that are teaching our New Mexico students this kind of hate and complete propaganda,” he wrote in the email, under the subject line “UNM Hispano History courses and programs disparaging the Spanish.”
Arellanes also accused several faculty members of leading the “protest, attack and damage” of a sculpture in Albuquerque featuring Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate. A shooting at the event drew national attention.
Arellanes said he had a history of trying to stop “hate speech and propaganda” at the state’s largest university. In 2017, he said, he called then-President Chaouki Abdallah and asked him to cancel an appearance by conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.
“This isn’t my first rodeo in trying to stop the hate at UNM,” he said.
But his most recent contact with UNM riled members of the state LULAC organization.
On July 22, the Associated Press reported Arellanes was “pushing for the state to end its support for Chicano and Native American Studies” in a story picked up by other news outlets.
Arellanes vehemently denied the assertion, though he acknowledged he could’ve worded the email to Stokes differently.
“This letter was simply a request for a meeting,” he said.
Still, he said he didn’t regret sending the email.
“Something had to be said and done about the attacks against our community, culture and heritage,” he said.
After the backlash, Arellanes penned what he called a “peace, unity and healing statement.” In it, he wrote he had worked with UNM as LULAC’s state director in 2012 to help elevate the university’s Chicana and Chicano studies program into a department that awarded degrees.
“Given my work to make this a reality, there is no reason I would want to eliminate or censure these courses and programs,” he wrote.
Arellanes said he was at odds with members of the state LULAC organization even before he sent the email to Stokes.
“One of the fundamental differences I had with some of the LULAC state board members is that they are against our Hispano monuments,” he said, adding some of them didn’t support his opposition to the removal of monuments to Spanish conquistadors or removal a war monument in middle of the Santa Fe Plaza.
The war monument, or obelisk, pays tribute to soldiers who fought against the Confederacy in the Civil War, but it’s also dedicated to those who fought against “savage” Indians, which is what has generated calls for its removal.
‘Never forget where you came from’
Arellanes, the sixth of eight children — seven boys and a girl — was born and raised in Las Vegas, N.M.
“We were a close-knit family,” he said. “I mean, we had no choice. [We lived in a] three-bedroom, two-bath house. One bathroom never really worked, so it was like basically 10 of us in a house with one bathroom.”
His father was a World War II and Korean War veteran who later worked for and retired from the U.S. Postal Service. His mother, originally from Clayton, went to work at the former Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Denver during the war but then returned to New Mexico and worked at the state Capitol.
Arellanes said one of the reasons he supports Chicano studies is that his mother was “basically kicked out of school” in first grade because she only spoke Spanish.
“She had a year to learn English and get up to speed,” he said.
Arellanes said he was raised with a “spirit of supporting your country but also being proud of Hispano veterans.”
He attended New Mexico Highlands University, where he became a “very active” member of what he called the Chicano Club. After earning a bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance and economics, Arellanes said, he got his master’s degree and later went to work at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, where he worked for nearly 30 years.
While at Kirtland, Arellanes became involved in the creation of the Hispano Roundtable of New Mexico in the 1980s amid attacks on affirmative action and a push for English as the nation’s official language, he said.
“That was the purpose of forming the coalition,” he said, “so that we could speak with one loud, large, singular voice on these big national issues that were impacting our state.”
As time went on, Arellanes said he wanted to “formalize” the coalition, and he founded it as a nonprofit in 2014. As partner organizations either dropped off or became inactive, Arellanes said, it turned into a mostly family-run organization. But he emphasized the Hispano Roundtable still has more than 50 partner organizations at the local, state and national level.
Arellanes said his involvement with the National Incorporated Mexican-American Government Employees, or IMAGE, led him to LULAC.
Though initially reluctant, Arellanes said he “joined up, and right away I became the district director for Northern New Mexico.”
In 2010, he said, he became the state director and served four years before he was asked to remain with the organization as executive director, a position he said was created for him and in which he stayed until July. Arellanes said he wasn’t paid for his job as executive director.
‘A tough guy who tackles tough issues’
Baca, who recently became the state LULAC director, said he didn’t see a need to keep an executive director, “so that position was done away with.” Baca said the controversy over Arellanes’ letter to UNM’s president “contributed” to his decision.
Baca acknowledged Arellanes was a driven leader who was influential as LULAC’s state director.
“He did a lot of positive things, and I have to give him credit for that because he contributed a lot,” he said. “He’s got a real passion for seeing that things are done well for the Native American, for the Chicano in New Mexico, for justice.”
Orae Dominguez, past president of the New Mexico Hispanic Culture Preservation League in Albuquerque, said Arellanes “just wants to make sure that the Hispanic voice gets heard.”
“His goal is raising the Hispanic population up any way he can,” he said.
Edward L. Romero, a former U.S. ambassador to Spain and Andorra, said Arellanes has been a leader in safeguarding Hispanic culture in New Mexico.
“He’s drawn criticism from those who don’t really care about our New Mexico history and our Hispanic history,” Romero said. “He’s been at the forefront. He’s been a real soldier. … His voice is probably one of the strongest right now in the advocacy of Hispanics in general.”
Arellanes’ passion, however, can sometimes create a rub.
James Sweeney, a retired U.S. ambassador who was born in Las Vegas, N.M., and knew Arellanes’ family, called Arellanes a “tough guy who tackles tough issues.”
But that toughness comes with a price.
“What do people think of him? Well, the people I know think very positively about him, think he’s very dedicated, very strong personality in his views,” Sweeney said. “And that’s the problem. He’s too strong in his views. He tells it the way it is.”