Ramón Samilpa was leader in strike that gave rise to flexing of Chicano political muscle

Funeral services are Friday for Ramón Samilpa Sr., an elder leader of a seminal 1960s labor strike in Austin that some credit for helping to trigger a political awakening among Mexican Americans in Travis County.

Samilpa died in an accident Saturday when he was pinned under his truck in a convenience store parking lot in South Austin. He was 93.

Samilpa was a past president of a local upholsterer’s union which in 1968 launched a strike against the Economy Furniture factory in Austin. The strikers sought better pay and benefits as well as the right to bargain collectively.

The Chicano Huelga (Strike), as it came to be called, endured 28 months, winning the support of thousands who marched in demonstrations and drawing national attention to Austin. At a 1971 Austin rally, thousands came to hear César Chávez, the famed United Farm Workers Union leader.

The strike ended with the workers winning union recognition. The strikers then turned their attention to helping elect the first Mexican-Americans in Travis County. In a 2004 interview with the American-Statesman, strikers recalled that their political ambitions had roots in an Austin City Council decision to deny them a parade permit on the strike’s anniversary, a vote they deemed insensitive to the community.

“Whether people agreed with them or not, I think (the strikers) had a great impetus forward for the Austin Hispanic community,” former state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos said then.

“We pushed to get elected officials like Barrientos and (former Travis County commissioner Richard) Moya, and (former acting Austin Mayor John) Treviño,” Samilpa said in a 2004 interview. “And probably that’s where everything started.”

Moya was elected in 1970; Barrientos won election to the Texas House in 1974 and Treviño won a seat on the City Council in 1975.

“(Samilpa) was a very important individual within the Mexican-American community,” said Gloria Espitia, a neighborhood liaison with the Austin History Center. “When he talked to you, you listened.”

A former migrant worker, a carpenter by trade and a decorated World War II veteran, Samilpa was not an educated man but loved to read, and he worked three jobs to put his children through Catholic school, said daughter Loretta Miri. “That was very important to him,” Miri said of her father, who she said was a devout Catholic and helped to establish San Jose Catholic Church.

Still youthful-looking for his age, Samilpa was energetic and active in a number of interests, including woodworking in his shop at home and his work with the Maria De La Luz Association, which runs the Cementerio Mexicano (Mexican Cemetery) de Maria De La Luz, the 100-year-old cemetery in South Austin.

Samilpa was quite a dancer and recently had injured his knee while dancing a waltz at a fund-raiser, Miri said. He was scheduled for surgery before his fatal accident.

She said her father had gone to the South Austin convenience store Saturday to retrieve his walking cane, which he’d left there earlier. After getting the cane, he got in his truck, but accidentally popped the hood open. When he got out to close the hood, the truck began rolling backward in the direction of gas pumps. Samilpa tried to stop the truck, but was caught underneath, Miri said.

Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Joyce, and 12 children.

Memorial Mass will be Friday at San Jose Catholic Church at 10 a.m. Burial will be at Assumption Cemetery.