Cristóbal P. Aldrete was born in Del Rio, Texas, on January 16, 1924 to Felipe and Dolores (Pool) Aldrete. After he graduated from Del Rio High School in 1942, he attended the University of Denver where he studied Japanese. During World War II, he served in both the Army and the Air Force as a specialist in radio intelligence. After the war he continued his studies at the University of Texas at Austin where he majored in local government. While at the University of Texas, Aldrete was a founding member of the Alba Club, a club that confronted discrimination and promoted the interests of Spanish-speaking people in Texas. In 1949 on behalf of the Alba Club, he lodged a complaint with the Texas Department of Education against the segregated Del Rio School system that resulted in the accreditation of the schools being withdrawn. Even though this ruling was overturned, by September of 1949, public schools were required by the state to end segregation on the basis of national origin. He received a law degree from South Texas College of Law in Houston in 1951, and returned to Del Rio to practice law. Aldrete married Oralia (Yaya) Vera of Brownsville, Texas, in 1954, and they had five children.
Aldrete was an active member and leader in the American GI Forum (AGIF). He served as State Chairman and acted as a National Legal Advisor for the organization. In his capacity as a legal advisor for the AGIF, Aldrete was one of the five attorneys representing Pete Hernandez in the landmark case of Hernandez v. State of Texas.
While living Del Rio, Aldrete entered into local politics. He served as a member of the Del Rio City Council from 1952 to 1958, as City Attorney in 1958, and as Val Verde County Attorney from 1961 to 1965. In 1962 he received his first national appointment when President Kennedy appointed him to the President’s Committee on Youth Employment. Aldrete resigned from the post of county attorney in 1965 to accept the position of the Regional Manager of the Community Action Programs for the Southwest Regional Office of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO). From 1967 to 1968, Aldrete acted as the special assistant to John M. Bailey, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. In this role he specialized in Mexican American and Spanish-speaking Political Affairs, and he appealed to Hispanic voters to help re-elect President Johnson through voter registration drives and political workshops in the West and Southwest. After President Johnson decided to not run for re-election, Aldrete served as the executive director of the Viva Humphrey for President Campaign.
Aldrete acted as an assistant to Representative Abraham Kazen, Jr. (D-Texas) from 1969 to 1970. He stepped down from that position after a year and became the deputy campaign manager for Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) in 1970. After Bentsen won the race for Senator, he made Aldrete a legislative and executive assistant. In this capacity he served as a representative in legislation and specialized on matters of interests to the Spanish-speaking constituency. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Aldrete to serve as co-chairman of the Southwest Border Regional Commission.
After he left Washington, D.C. in the early 1980s, Aldrete returned to Texas where he served as the executive director of the Texas Senate Hispanic Caucus from 1987-1989. He passed away on September 17, 1991, at the age of 67.
Biographical material, correspondence, printed materials, photographs, and creative works, 1936-1991 (4.6 linear feet), document the life and career of Cristóbal P. Aldrete. The papers are arranged into seven series: Personal and Biographical, Activities and Organizations, Correspondence, Written Works, Collected Materials, Photographs, and Oversized Materials.
Series one, Personal and Biographical (1936-1991), includes biographies, certificates and awards, materials related to his education, newspaper clippings, and invitations and programs that document both Aldrete’s personal life and his career. The subseries Family and Friends (1951-1984) contains creative works, clippings, and letters created by and about his mother, sisters, wife, children, and friends. Within this subseries the bulk of the materials pertain to and were collected by Oralia Aldrete and consists of assorted printed materials and letters. In the subseries Invitations and Programs (1946-1981) are a number of invitations to events hosted by the President of the United States, Presidential Inaugurations, and other events where Aldrete spoke or received an award. The final subseries Newspaper Clippings (1942-1991) gives a broad overview of his achievements, both personal and professional, beginning with an article about Aldrete when he was a senior in high school.
Series two, Activities and Organizations (1948-1982), chronicles his professional life as it contains materials related to his personal political campaigns, his membership in the American GI Forum, and his career with the federal government. The subseries Committees and Appointments (1965-1981) includes clippings about his appointments and his work, correspondence, printed materials and conference proceedings. Significant documents within the subseries GI Forum (1948-1982) include the decision in Hernandez v. State of Texas and a history of the GI Forum from 1948-1972.
Series three, Correspondence (1951-1988), holds both personal and professional correspondence. The bulk of the material in the subseries Personal (1951-1988) is letters written by Aldrete to Oralia from 1951-1953. These letters reveal details about his life at law school, cases he worked on as a lawyer, the GI Forum, City Council meetings, and his efforts to campaign for Adlai Stevenson. Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent for those for whom a more substantial amount of material existed. The remaining correspondence is arranged by date. Within his professional correspondence notable correspondents include Ed Idar, Jr., Hubert Humphrey, and Lyndon Baines Johnson.
Series four, Written Works (1946-1978), is a small series containing handwritten notes, speeches delivered by Aldrete, and pieces he wrote about school segregation and the borderlands.
Series five, Collected Materials (1946-1990), is arranged into four subseries: Campaign Materials, Clippings, Publications, and Subject Files and includes printed material, correspondence, clippings, and publications all pertaining to issues and events that interested Aldrete. The subseries Campaign Materials (1954-1970) includes newspaper clippings, campaign buttons and pins, pamphlets, and bumper stickers. The most extensive collection of campaign materials relates to Hubert Humphrey’s campaign for President since Aldrete served as the Executive Director of the Viva Humphrey campaign. The subseries Clippings (1951-1977) contains various clippings associated with matters of interest to Aldrete like the Mexican American community as well as organizations and committees he was involved in such as the GI Forum and the Democratic National Committee.
Series six, Photographs (1942-1990), has both personal and professional photographs of Aldrete, photographs of his family and friends, and photographs of politicians, political events, committees, organizations, and meetings.
Series seven, Oversized Materials (1951-1970s), includes a campaign poster from Aldrete’s race for City Commissioner, his law degree from South Texas College of Law, and a certificate from the District Court of Del Rio. Materials collected by Aldrete include a photograph of the Governor of Arizona, Raul Hector Castro, a signed photograph of Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe, and photographs of President Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson.
Unrestricted.
Standard copyright restrictions apply.
Cite as: Cristóbal Aldrete Papers, Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas Libraries, the University of Texas at Austin.
Additional materials by and about Cristóbal Aldrete can be found listed in the Miscellaneous Sound Recordings collection, the Eduardo Idar, Jr. Papers, and the George I. Sánchez Papers at the Benson Latin American Collection.
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