Alicia R. Chac\u00f3n, a trailblazing public servant who reshaped El Paso politics and opened doors long closed to Mexican American women, died Tuesday. She was 87.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach 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,\u201d Chac\u00f3n said in a 2017 video autobiography about her life.<\/p>\n
Born Nov. 11, 1938, in Canutillo, Chac\u00f3n 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
President Jimmy Carter appointed her the first woman in the country to serve as a regional director of the Small Business Administration.<\/p>\n
She was elected county judge \u2013 the top elected position in county government \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Chac\u00f3n championed farmworker rights, bilingual education and other local causes, helping to found the Border Farmworkers Center.<\/p>\n
Her name and legacy are emblazoned throughout the community, including YISD\u2019s Alicia R. Chac\u00f3n International School languages magnet campus in the Lower Valley and the Alicia R. Chac\u00f3n Courtroom at the Enrique Moreno County Courthouse in Downtown.<\/p>\n
She was inducted into the Texas Women\u2019s Hall of Fame in 1986.<\/p>\n
State Sen. C\u00e9sar Blanco of El Paso said Chac\u00f3n leaves a tremendous legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer tireless work and trailblazing spirit changed El Paso for the better. She paved the way for so many while serving on the Ysleta school board, City Council, and as county judge, and always prioritized putting community first,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
In the 2017 autobiography, host Homero Galicia asks Chac\u00f3n, \u201cWhat has been driving you all your life?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe belief that we\u2019re all equal and that we have to make the world a better place,\u201d Chac\u00f3n said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve had a good life?\u201d Galicia asks.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alicia R. Chac\u00f3n, a trailblazing public servant who reshaped El Paso politics and opened doors long closed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-65028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}