Cuarón, Ralph

CUARÓN, RALPH (1924 - 2003). A product of the 1930s and the Left social movements that grew out of the Great Depression, Ralph Cuarón was an important figure in the political activism of Mexican Americans in Los Angeles and Riverside from the 1940s to the 1970s. Cuarón was a consummate organizer and mentor to numerous young activists inside and out the Communist Party orbit. He helped form and support several important activist statewide and regional organizations in the decade following World War II such as the Mexican American Civil Rights Congress (MA-CRC) in 1947, an affiliate of the national CRC; Amigos de Wallace, a national political campaign to support the presidential candidacy of Henry A. Wallace in 1948; the Mexican American National Association (ANMA) in 1949, a national civil rights organization; and the Los Angeles Committee for Protection of Foreign Born (LACPFB), a non-partisan organization defending the rights and liberties of the foreign born in the 1950s.

Born to Mexican parents from the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, Ralph Cuarón grew up in Los Angeles, a city that generally looked askance at its Mexican American population. Though the family was spared from the mass deportation drives that took place during the Great Depression, the racial animus against Mexican Americans and immigrants left a lasting impression on the young Angelino. Most instructive was his experience in the Civilian Conservation Corps in the mountains of San Bernardino. The segregation in the camps and the denial of training and educational opportunities left a bitter taste.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Cuarón chose to join the U.S. Merchant Marine and entered a world of activism that would influence his decision to become a “soldier of the working class.” He engaged in militant labor organizing, took part in clandestine operations to rescue anti-fascist partisans of the Spanish Civil War, joined the National Maritime Union, and became a dues-paying member of the Communist Party USA. Blacklisted in the maritime industry after the war, Cuarón joined a network of Mexican American Communist Party activists in Los Angeles and soon secured employment and a leadership role in the United Furniture Workers of America.

From 1946 to 1955, Ralph Cuarón took part in a number of community actions to bring attention to police brutality, segregation, and human rights abuses. He worked with city officials, such as councilmember Edward R. Roybal, and leaders in the Jewish community to open public facilities to Mexican American youth. The murder of a young Mexican American by Los Angeles police officers in 1948 galvanized the community and elevated Cuarón’s stature as an activist and leader. By the early 1950s, and in the midst of helping to organize the MA-CRC, ANMA, and LACPFB, Cuarón managed to take part in the production and distribution of the film Salt of the Earth. His enthusiasm for the film, a source of great cultural pride, awarded him a role as a background actor. By1954, Cuarón was traveling with the film across the country, showcasing it to audiences in his organizing work.

At times an errant voice within the Communist Party, Ralph Cuarón challenged the organization to focus greater attention on the demands of Mexican Americans. Unwilling to be marginalized within the Party, Cuarón pursued an aggressive stance to expand organizing, recruiting, and leadership development among Mexican Americans. Unwilling to take no for an answer, Cuarón often broke with Party conventions and moved ahead of leadership directives. Despite his differences, he continued to work within the Party and to advance the Mexican question.

The 1960s took Ralph Cuarón in a new direction as he and his family became immersed in a social experiment to build affordable housing in East Los Angeles. Early in the decade, he formed and lead the East Los Angeles Improvement Council, gained a seat on the Housing Committee of the L.A. County Commission on Human Relations, and worked with a local federal representative to help finance his housing project. Cuarón worked closely with Plaza Community Center, a local social service agency, which hosted local meetings regarding housing, welfare programs, education, and police abuse. He worked closely with the center mentoring youth and organizing weekend camping trips. Soon, the Cuarón home became a hub for neighborhood youth who were drawn there by its welcoming environment, intellectual curiosity, and the excitement of engaging in community activism.

When Chicano students walked out of their schools in protest in 1968, one of the largest such mass demonstrations in U.S. history at the time, Ralph Cuarón’s home was converted into a headquarters for the protest movement. That same year, he was arrested and charged with resisting arrest and disturbing the peace on school grounds, an effort by school officials to quell community activism on behalf of the protesting students. Not long after his trial, the Cuarón family moved to Riverside, California.

In 1970, Ralph Cuarón gained employment as a carpenter at a mobile home manufacturer and helped lead a strike to secure better wages. During this time, the family's home was converted into a worker school, Cresta del Sol (Crest of the Sun), where Party leaders, labor activists, and students came to gather, learn, and strategize. In 1974, Cuarón gained employment as a custodial worker at the University of California, Riverside. Within months of his hiring, he became president of Local 3246 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Cuarón led classes on campus in organizing and mentored students, faculty, and community activists until he suffered a heart attack in 1984. That same year, he retired from his long activist career.

Buelna, Enrique M. Chicano Communists and the Struggle for Social Justice. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2019.