A Look Back At El Paso’s Chuy de la O

If people Google Chuy de la O today, the results will show that he was credited for playing a part in the 1983 Lone Wolf McQuade movie. That is what most people outside of El Paso know about Chuy. But for the people in El Paso, Chuy was a character that most respected and enjoyed knowing him – not for his appearance in the movie, but because he worked to make El Paso a better place for his neighbors.

For El Pasoans, it wasn’t Jesus “Chuy” de la O, but simply Chuy, or Chuy de la O. Unfortunately, El Paso lacks a cohesive historical record about its Chicano/Hispanic champions and that is especially true about Chuy de la O. Except for a few pictures of Chuy and his movie credit, very little exists in the historical record about him. As his former family and friends get older more of the important details about Chuy are lost to time.

Chuy was best known for helping politicians pass around election leaflets during the election cycles. He would also regularly appear before the city council and county commissioners arguing for tax relief. He was also known for being the unofficial ambassador for El Paso frequently talking up the city to strangers and friends he encountered. But as the activist, Chuy would talk to anyone that would listen to him about the economic peril that El Paso’s poor faced and the hunger many of his neighbors felt. He was a champion for El Paso’s poor.

Chuy was born on June 1, 1927, in El Paso. He was one of 22 brothers and sisters. Due to a medical error, he lost his vision in both of his eyes as a child but would later regain partial vision in one of them. Because of his condition, he attended the Texas School for the Blind until high school.

While he was alive, he would frequently be running for political office if he wasn’t busy chastising an errant politician or advocating for his community. In one of his many campaigns, Chuy sued the local housing authority because as a tenant in public housing, they prohibited him from campaigning, while non-tenants were allowed to campaign.

Chuy Takes On The El Paso Housing Authority Chuy took on the El Paso Housing Authority (HACEP) after the housing authority prohibited him from campaigning where he lived. Chuy was running for city council. He was threatened by HACEP with eviction of he did not stop campaigning on HACEP property. He won the case he filed in 1998 along with a judgement of $2,200.

Roberto S. Vasquez, a native of Juárez who grew up in El Paso, was a candidate for party chair of the El Paso Democratic Party in 2000. He sued HACEP on March 29, 2000, alleging that he was denied his First Amendment rights because HACEP did not allow him to campaign door-to-door on HACEP property. Vasquez wanted to campaign at the Sherman Housing Project.

Chuy, who was a tenant of a HACEP housing project, also joined the lawsuit alleging that his rights were violated because of his economic status. This time, Chuy sued because he argued that as a resident of low-income housing, he was being discriminated against by HACEP because homeowners and private residents of apartments had access to campaign information he was being denied. On March 31, 1999, Vasquez won a temporary restraining order allowing him to canvass door-to-door from 9 in the morning until 8 in the evening on HACEP property. Although Vasquez was allowed to campaign, the judge’s temporary restraining order did not settle the matter for whether HACEP could limit political campaigning in its housing projects.

On November 5, 2001, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that political canvassing could not be prohibited by HACEP. Vasquez had dropped out of the case after the judge in the case ruled in favor of HACEP. However, Chuy appealed the ruling. Chuy said that he appealed the case because he did not believe it was “fair for them to say no,” adding that he “did it for the voters.”

Chuy did not live to see the conclusion of his last case against the housing authority. Because Chuy had passed, his case ended without a decision. However, his widow, Rosalinda de la O and Maria Christina Rivera brought a third case against HACEP. The widow wanted to carry on Chuy’s crusade. While this latest case was pending before the court, HACEP changed its rules to allow political candidates to canvass on HACEP property, effectively ending the case.

Although Chuy’s case and that of his widow did not settle whether low-income housing operators could restrict political canvassing activities on their properties, his challenge to HACEP’s rules served as an example of how to challenge such rules in the future.

Chuy was poor like those he argued for, but he had dreams. One of them was to see Washington D.C. before he died.

Chuy Does D.C. El Paso Times newspaper picture of Chuy de la O with the cardboard cutouts of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, August 7, 1986. In 1986, when Chuy de la O expressed a wish to visit Washington D.C. before he died. Orlando Fonseca organized a group of businessmen and together they bought Chuy a ticket to Washington and paid to let him visit the nation’s capital for three days. On August 4, 1986, Chuy stepped on an airplane for the first time in his life. Wearing a smart dark blue suit provided by the unnamed businessmen and Fonseca, Chuy met with then congressman, Ron Coleman (D-TX).

Wearing his trademark button, “Proud To Call El Paso Home,” Chuy approached the cardboard cutouts of President Ronald and First Lady Nancy Reagan and proudly told the president he was going to call him “Ronnie.” Handing an El Paso sticker and an “Amigo Man” pin to Coleman, Chuy told him that “El Paso tells me to send a message to Ronnie.” Please tell the president that El Pasoans “ask that something be done” about the people from Juárez “taking all the jobs,” and that his “people” were “losing all the industry.”

Chuy then toured the White House wearing a guayabera telling people that he would “like to see more children go to where the tax money goes.” His only disappointed about the three-day trip was that he was “really upset that I didn’t get to see the president.” But he added that his “mission was accomplished.”

Chuy de la O passed on April 2002 at the age of 74. His legacy lives on in his family’s and friends’ memories but, unfortunately, as time passes on his memory fades because El Pasoans to not think to keep Hispanic memories alive in the public record.

A Look Back At El Paso’s Chuy de la O

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