The gentleman rabble-rouser
In 1958, fresh out of law school, a young lawyer was looking to work in a small town. His choices included Beverly Hills, Santa Cruz and El Centro. He chose El Centro and stayed for 10 years. He went on to serve as vice chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, become the first Latino on the California Supreme Court, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom – our country’s highest civilian honor.
His name: Cruz Reynoso. He was one of 11 children, and his parents were farmworkers. Educated in a segregated elementary school, he started working in the fields when he was 8 years old. Throughout his life, he carried those memories with him, along with his love for his family, pride in his heritage, and a wonderful mind and heart.
Reynoso liked to say he must have been born with a “justice bone.” In elementary school, he met with the superintendent of schools to tell him that segregation was wrong. (The superintendent told him it was a message better delivered by adults.) A few years later he sent a petition to the U.S. Postmaster General protesting the lack of mail delivery in Loma Vista where he lived. The rural barrio got home delivery. And in high school, he complained when Mexican American students he was mentoring weren’t allowed into a junior high school dance because they “might make trouble.” Reynoso believed in democracy. A veteran, Reynoso become a lawyer because he thought he could make a difference. He did.
Shortly after arriving in the Imperial Valley, Cruz joined the El Centro chapter of the Community Service Organization (CSO). Reynoso and his wife volunteered for CSO voter registration drives, and taught citizenship and English classes. One day Hector Burgos, a CSO member from Calexico, complained to Reynoso that he had tried everything to get more Latinos as deputy registrars, but Harry Freed, the local registrar of voters wouldn’t budge. Burgos picketed the courthouse, painted lemons on his car and parked it outside the clerk’s office, saying Freed was a lemon for not allowing more people to register voters, all to no avail. Frustrated, he asked Reynoso for help. California had recently passed the Fair Employment Practices Act. Since registrars were paid 10 cents a registration at the time, Reynoso suggested they might be covered by the new act and helped Burgos file a complaint. The newly established commission sent an investigator to meet with Freed. Incensed that he was being accused of ethnic discrimination, Freed said he would deputize anyone who wanted to register voters! The investigator later told Reynoso that Freed said he knew who was behind the complaint: “It was that gentleman rabble-rouser, Cruz Reynoso!”
In the 1940s and 1950s, schools were segregated, and communities divided in El Centro. African Americans and Latinos lived across the railroad tracks on the east side, whites on the west side. CSO members on the east side of El Centro were upset that there were no gutters, sidewalks or streetlights in their neighborhood. Cruz went to speak with the city manager on behalf of the CSO members. The manager told Cruz that he was pleased community members wanted to do something, and they could tax themselves for neighborhood improvements. The CSO chapter voted unanimously for the tax immediately followed up with a neighborhood petition presented to the City Council. The Council agreed to pay half, including the engineering and legal costs, and the east side got sidewalks and streetlights.
Many years after leaving the Imperial Valley, Reynoso and his wife were driving to Florida. It was New Year’s Eve, and the radio announcer asked listeners to reflect on the places they had been the happiest. Without consulting each other, they both immediately said El Centro.
Streetlights and sidewalks on the east side are only part of the Reynoso legacy in the Imperial Valley. Cruz played a crucial role in the creation of California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA). In the late sixties and early seventies, he served as its statewide director. The Imperial Valley office of CRLA – the Lupe Quintero Justice Center – serves farmworkers and low income members of our community every day.
The Central Union High School District will honor Cruz Reynoso on March 31 to celebrate Cesar Chavez Day. The event will begin at 6 p.m. at the Southwest High School Jimmie Cannon Theater for the Preforming Arts. The documentary film “Sowing the Seeds of Justice” about Justice Reynoso’s life, will be shown. Join Central Union High School District, Southern California Gas Co. and MANA de Imperial Valley to celebrate Cruz Reynoso, the gentleman rabble-rouser with roots in the Imperial Valley.