Alicia R. Chacón, a trailblazing public servant who reshaped El Paso politics and opened doors long closed to Mexican American women, died Tuesday. She was 87.
“Each of us can make a difference, in our neighborhoods, in our communities, and that begins to grow and you can make a difference in the whole country,” Chacón said in a 2017 video autobiography about her life.
Born Nov. 11, 1938, in Canutillo, Chacón graduated from Ysleta High School in 1957, public service and political involvement engrained in her by her mother, who was active in the PTA, and her father, who was involved in local elections.
That early grounding fueled a life and career defined by firsts: In 1970, as a 32-year-old mother of three, she became the first Mexican American elected to the Ysleta Independent School District board. Over the next two decades, she became the first woman elected as El Paso County clerk, the first Mexican American woman on the El Paso City Council; and the first woman elected El Paso County judge.
President Jimmy Carter appointed her the first woman in the country to serve as a regional director of the Small Business Administration.
READ MORE: El Paso trailblazer Alicia Chacón: ‘She opened the doors for all of us
She was elected county judge – the top elected position in county government – in 1990, defeating incumbent Luther Jones in the Democratic primary. She sought re-election in 1994, but lost the Democratic primary to Chuck Mattox. It was her last run for elected office.
Her influence reached far beyond elected office. She served as national chair of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and later as president and CEO of United Way El Paso, which she led for seven years until her retirement.
Chacón championed farmworker rights, bilingual education and other local causes, helping to found the Border Farmworkers Center.
Her name and legacy are emblazoned throughout the community, including YISD’s Alicia R. Chacón International School languages magnet campus in the Lower Valley and the Alicia R. Chacón Courtroom at the Enrique Moreno County Courthouse in Downtown.
She was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in 1986.
Alicia R. Chacon video documentary
In the 2017 autobiography, host Homero Galicia asks Chacón, “What has been driving you all your life?”
“The belief that we’re all equal and that we have to make the world a better place,” Chacón said.
“You’ve had a good life?” Galicia asks.
“Yes, I have.”
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