Emelio E. Abeyta was born in the Santa Rosa, New Mexico area. His family moved to Littlefield for his father’s work. Abeyta began attending Catholic seminary in Santa Fe, New Mexico and then Ohio as a teenager. He served as a priest in various West Texas towns. While serving in Slaton, Texas, Abeyta ran for school board, becoming the first ethnic Mexican school board member and aiding in the integration of the town’s schools. He left the priesthood to work for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. Afterwards, he attended law school in the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He returned to West Texas, Lubbock, to practice law. In Lubbock Abeyta also ran for a judgeship.

Olga Aguero was born in Wilson, Texas, where she graduated from Wilson High School. After high school, she worked with the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and federal project. Olga Aguero moved to Lubbock where she began working as a writer and add seller for El Editor newspaper. She married the owner and founder of El Editor, Chicano actavist and Raza Unida Party state representative candidate Bidal Aguero. Olga Aguero also worked for the Texas Tech University Press, became the first female president of Lubbock’s LULAC chapter, and now leads El Editor.

Maria Anita Carmona Harrison was born and raised in Lubbock, Texas. She grew up in the city’s Guadalupe neighborhood, and she attended an all “Mexican” school before entering integrated schools in Lubbock. After graduating from Lubbock High School, Carmona Harrison earned a degree in elementary education from Texas Tech University —becoming the first Chicana educated entirely in Lubbock public schools to graduate from the university. She taught in several Lubbock schools.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.