Every first Sunday in November, the El Paso County Historical Society inducts deserving El Pasoans into their Hall of Honor. Inductees are considered outstanding men or women of character, vision, courage, and creative spirit. They must have lived in El Paso County and have consistently done the unusual, which deserves to be written or recorded, or have made El Paso County better for having lived in it. Each inductee is distinguished as having influenced over a period of years the course of El Paso County history, or by their singular achievements, have brought honor and recognition to the El Paso community and have directed us toward worthy goals and merit being remembered by all El Pasoans as an exemplary guide to our future.
Among the individuals to enter the 2023 Hall of Honor is Raymond L. Telles, Jr. According to the Society’s website, Telles was born in the Segundo Barrio of El Paso and graduated from Cathedral High School and Texas Western College (UTEP). During World War II, he served as an officer in the U.S. Army and was Chief of the Lend-Lease Program to Latin America. At the end of the war, he served as the liaison officer between the Mexico and United States air forces. He later served in the Korean War, retiring with the rank of colonel.
Pioneer in El Paso politics
Telles was the first Mexican American mayor of a major Southwestern U.S. city. When he died in 2013, at the age of 97, Ramón Rentería wrote the following:
Raymond L. Telles, a pioneer in El Paso politics, a friend and close adviser of President John F. Kennedy, a former ambassador to Costa Rica, and the first Mexican American elected mayor of El Paso, died Friday in Sherman Oaks, California. He was 97.
Telles was best known as the first Mexican American mayor of a major city in the Southwest, long before Henry Cisneros in San Antonio and Federico Peña in Denver.
Over the years, Telles was widely applauded for challenging the political circles dominated by whites in El Paso in the 1940s and 1950s and disproving the notion that Mexican Americans could not be elected to public office or effectively run a city.
Ever modest
Telles devoted his life to public service, serving four times as El Paso County clerk and twice as El Paso mayor (1957-1961). He also devoted more than 30 years of service to the military, as a civilian troubleshooter and an adviser for the federal government.
Ever modest about his El Paso legacy, Telles said in a 2005 interview: “I attempted to unite the people of El Paso. It didn’t make any difference whether you were Hispanic or Anglo or Chinese or whatever.”
His biographer, Mario T. Garcia, once described Telles’ election as the first Mexican American mayor of El Paso in 1957 as a groundbreaking event in the history of El Paso and the history of Mexican American and Latino politics in the United States. An El Paso native, Garcia is a professor of history and Chicano studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“As the Hispanic population of this country continues to grow, Ambassador Telles will surely be recognized as one of the founding fathers of contemporary Latino politics in the United States,” Garcia said in a 2005 interview…
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Great citizen, wonderful man
Bert Williams, who was hired by Telles as the city attorney in the 1960s and was mayor from 1971-73, called the death “tragic.”
“I can’t tell you how shaken I am,” Williams said. “He was a great citizen and a wonderful man. Era un hombre buen hecho…”
Telles was El Paso’s outstanding elder statesman. He always looked like a diplomat, well-dressed in a business suit with a trademark American flag in his lapel. A symbol of dignity, Telles has been most applauded as the leader who gave Mexican Americans a voice in El Paso politics…
Close friend of President Kennedy
Telles was among the highest-ranking Mexican Americans in the federal government in the 1960s. He became a close friend of President Kennedy and part of the president’s inner circle of advisers.
Telles once accompanied Kennedy to El Paso and had been scheduled to travel in 1963 to Dallas with Kennedy, who was about to appoint him ambassador to Mexico. Telles remained ambassador to Costa Rica in the Lyndon Baines Johnson administration after Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
Telles never bragged about his achievements. He preferred instead to talk about his experiences with men in power, locking horns with Johnson and Richard Nixon, the tremendous loss he felt when Kennedy died, and the big disappointment when he lost his only race, against U.S. Rep. Richard White.
He usually credited the men who ran on his People’s Ticket as aldermen ― Ted Bender, Ernest Craigo, Jack White and Ralph Seitsinger ― for helping him accomplish everything he proposed. Telles insisted that the fire and police departments hire more Hispanics.
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Service, loyalty, patriotism and community
Telles was born Sept. 5, 1915, in El Paso to Ramon and Angela Telles, who he said taught him to value service, loyalty, patriotism and community. His father always emphasized the importance of electing honest leaders in government.
Telles was preceded in death by his wife, Delfina, who was married to him for more than 65 years. He is survived by two daughters, Cynthia A. Telles and Patricia Telles-Irvin, both working professionals in academics, and various grandchildren.
Telles received numerous recognitions in his lifetime, including recognition in 2006 as Mayor Emeritus of El Paso.
At that time, then 34th District Court Judge William E. Moody described Telles as “a true pioneer, a true leader, one of the brightest lights that El Paso has ever produced.” Moody originated the idea of honoring Telles in a special way.
In 2008, the El Paso-based Hispanos Triunfadores Awards program presented Telles its lifetime achievement recognition.
In one of the last interviews that he granted, Telles reminisced about growing up in El Paso and his various experiences as a public servant.
“You never know how long you’re going to live,” he said. “But I’ve tried to live a clean life. I never smoked. I never drank.”
The El Paso County Historical Society 2023 Hall of Honor inductees are Raymond L. Telles, Jr., Belle Christie Critchett, Lillian W. Crouch, Charles N. Bassett, Patricia Worthington, and Richard Worthington.
Trish Long may be reached at tlong@elpasotimes.com.
