Gutiérrez, José Angel, << goo TYEHR rehs, hoh SAY AHN hayl >> (1944-…), is a Mexican American activist, educator, and writer. In the late 1960’s, he became a prominent political leader of the Chicano movement, a Mexican American civil rights campaign. In 1970, he helped found La Raza Unida Party (United People Party), an organization that worked to elect Mexican Americans to political office. Gutiérrez has participated in many campaigns and events to improve the conditions of the Mexican American community. He has also written extensively on civil rights and political issues. His books include A Gringo Manual on How to Handle Mexicans (1973) and The Making of a Chicano Militant (1998).
Gutiérrez was born in Crystal City, Texas, on Oct. 25, 1944. He graduated from Texas A&I University and earned a Ph.D. degree in political science from the University of Texas at Austin. In the 1970’s, Gutiérrez served as president of the local school board in Crystal City and as a county judge for Zavala County, Texas. During the 1980’s, he taught at colleges in Oregon. He received a degree in law from the University of Houston in 1988. Since then, he has worked as an attorney and as a faculty member in Mexican American studies and political science programs at the University of Texas at Arlington.
