Anglo power structure mobilized in opposition to Telles' candidacy, particularly a powerful coterie known as the kingmakers, which included bankers, business leaders, and representatives of the El Paso Times, one of the area's leading newspapers. More challenging still, many of the city's poor Mexican Americans were reluctant or unable to pay the $1.75 poll tax required for registration.

For help in overcoming these and other hurdles, Telles turned to his politically savvy younger brother. Richard Telles was not only an effective fund raiser, he had a knack for creative campaigning. For instance, when it was learned that the upcoming election would be the first to include electric voting booths, the younger Telles obtained discarded refrigerator boxes from Mexican-American furniture dealers and fashioned crude likenesses of the polls to acquaintfirst-time voters with the process.

"Richard Telles masterminded that campaign and was in many ways a political genius. He understood the axiom that much of American politics is ethnic politics. Much like in 1948, there was a public campaign that de-emphasized ethnicity, but underneath was a feverish effort to get the Chicano vote out, which they did using, among other things, car caravans to get people to the polls," said Garcia.

On the strength of his extraordinary showing in El Paso's Mexican-American barrio districts, Raymond Telles miraculously defeated incumbent Tom Rogers, a historic upset that proved even more barrier-shattering than Telles' supporters had dared hope possible. Telles ran uncontested in the next mayoral election and came to be embraced by the city's Anglo establishment. He later served as ambassador to