Raoul Cortez

19th president - elected at the 1948 and 1949 conventions. Served two terms.

After an absence of 12 years, the national presidency returned to San Antonio Council #2 when Raoul, a long-time popular figure in the city was elected in 1948. As District 15 Director, he saw the successful conclusion of the Delgado case that ended school segregation of Mexican Americans in Texas.

As LULAC National President, Raoul traveled to Mexico City to talk with President Miguel Aleman and later to Washington, D.C. to talk to President Harry S. Truman. His mission, to speak in behalf of the much abused so-called "wetbacks" entering the United States to seek work. He was credited with influencing improvements in the contractual agreements between the Mexican and the United States governments regulating the 'Bracero Program.'

Raoul owned radio station KCOR in San Antonio, being the first person to promote radio in the Spanish language in the United States. He dreamed was always to be the first to have a Spanish-language television station.