LULAC -League of United Latin American Citizens

By RUSSELL CONTRERAS

It’s the country’s oldest U.S. Latino civil rights group. Its members were behind key Supreme Court battles

 and famously hosted President John F. Kennedy in Houston, Texas the night before he was assassinated.

Since 1929, the League of United Latin American Citizens has remained largely active in the American Southwest and Midwest, where the bulk of the nation’s Mexican-American population has historically resided.

But this weekend the civil rights group known as LULAC will host a women’s conference in Boston. It will be its first ever national conference in New England.

Historians say the Boston conference highlights a demographic shift in places like New England, where there has been a recent rise in immigration from Latin America. It’s also an effort, experts say, by the group to expand membership to include immigrants from Central America and the Dominican Republic.

“LULAC is changing. It’s no longer just a Mexican-American organization now,” said Emilio Zamora, a historian at the University of Texas. “There’s a bigger ball game now.” – read more