A Steady Rise for the Brown Republican : Latinos: Mainstream organizations like LULAC are opening their doors and compromising their ideals.

There was a time when U.S. Mexicans were born Catholics and born Democrats. Republicans were considered los coco s, the bogymen.

In the early ‘70s, this mindset began to change. Taking their cue from President Richard Nixon’s strategy of enlarging the GOP share of Latino middle-class voters, brown Republicans bored from within major Latino organizations, founding local chapters that were used as stepping stones to national policy-making positions. Since many of them were businesspeople and professionals with flexible calendars and money to travel, they acquired visibility and power beyond their numbers.

The success of these brown Republicans was facilitated by the left’s abandonment of mainstream Latino organizations; by the popularization of the “Hispanic” label, which, by embracing Cuban-Americans, encouraged greater tolerance for conservative ideas, and by two decades of almost uninterrupted GOP occupation of the White House, which gave brown Republicans the keys to the Latino political kingdom--access to government. Soon los cocos were vying with liberals for the political endorsements of--and policy-making jobs within--Latino organizations.

The most flagrant and successful example of brown Republican infiltration of a major Latino organization has occurred in the 140,000-member League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). The apparent marriage of never-say-die Republicans, Democrats-turned-Republicans and conservative Democrats has given birth to an environment within LULAC that welcomes the likes of the Coors Brewing Co. and GOP elected officials. Twenty years ago, such a development would have been unimaginable.

As it turns out, LULAC’s conversion to toleration, no matter how damaging to the Latino community’s interests, prompted six national Latino associations to call off the historic Chicano Coors Boycott five years ago, after Coors promised affirmative action in hiring and money for Latino groups.

Since then, Coors has flaunted its presence at LULAC functions, according to its critics. They have accused the brewery of being the campaign treasury for brown Republicans seeking LULAC executive positions. So potent was the GOP threat at the 1988 LULAC convention in Dallas that Democratic factions put aside deep differences to close ranks and defeat Republican Rafael Acosta’s bid for the organization’s presidency.

Actually, the fight-back campaign had begun a year earlier, when some members discovered a memo written by LULAC’s then-vice president, Oscar Moran, urging the U.S. Senate to confirm Edwin Meese as attorney general. Officially, LULAC had opposed Meese because of his weak civil-rights record.

Within the last month, the infighting has intensified. Liberals and moderates on LULAC’s national executive board voted 14-10 to suspend its charitable foundation’s board of directors. Many of the ousted directors were Republicans, according to sources on the executive board.

To be sure, Republicans comprise a small minority within LULAC. But they have adroitly used the organization’s local councils to popularize their causes and ingratiate themselves with the GOP’s movers--like Bill Coors. He was guest of honor at last month’s scholarship fund-raiser put on by LULAC’s Orange County chapter.

Coors is hardly a friend of the Latino community, having fought passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. And the Coors foundation and family routinely contribute to right-wing groups that militantly oppose expansion of civil and human rights in the United States. LULAC’s decision to honor Coors represents a clear break with its founding ideals.

The rise of los coco s within LULAC and other Latino organizations should not, however, set off a Latino stampede toward the Democratic Party. After all, Democrats helped prepare the ground for GOP advances in the Latino community by failing to provide a competitive vision.

But the turn-thy-cheek mentality of Latino organizations like LULAC comes at a high price: They are losing their moral authority to speak for low- and moderate-income Latinos. The Latino community thus could face a time when it might have no national forums to voice its needs and grievances.