The Community Union model of organizing in Rio Grande Valley colonias

In theorizing community organizing, Saul Alinsky’s model still forms the dominant narrative in the United States. Yet, countless communities do not map neatly onto this model. In particular, there is growing recognition of César Chávez’s organizing in South Texas and, additionally, how this work differs from Chávez’s more well-known organizing in California. In the 1960s, Chávez created the Community Union model, which forms the basis of contemporary organizing in much of the region’s colonias, extralegal communities within 150 miles of the United States/Mexico border that suffer from a dearth of basic services and infrastructures. By providing these basic services and political support, the Community Union model has become the dominant mode of organizing and engagement in South Texas colonias. Through an insurgent historiography provided by colonia organizers in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, a counternarrative of colonia organizing shows the past, present, and potential future of the Community Union model in South Texas colonias. This counter narrative was composed through archival research on the United Farmworkers and open-ended interviews with colonia organizers conducted between 2014 and 2017. Ultimately, this analysis of the Community Union model suggests that Latinx organizing may be marginalized in organizing literature due to their “everyday” characteristics: slow movements, non-direct actions, and (re)questioning of priorities. From this, the role of organizing theories from organizers on-the-ground becomes central: we cannot assume organizers everywhere operate under universally applied theories. As such, it is important to see organizers as dynamic and context-specific in their motivations and guiding theories.