University/Organization
Department of History
University of the Incarnate Word
San Antonio, Texas

Title
Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?: LULAC, the 1946 El Paso Copper Strike, and the Start of a Legacy

Synopsis
After WWII, LULAC earned a reputation as an out-of-touch, middle-class, assimilationist organization. When copper workers in El Paso struck in 1946, the local LULAC council did not respond. This paper uses the strike, and LULAC’s lack of response, as a case study to examine how the negative characterization of LULAC emerged in the post-war period.

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