The main instrument for fighting abuses was a "traveling squad" composed of LULAC members who would group together when problems occurred and try to correct them. Sometimes that meant going to a rural area late at night to investigate the killing of a Chicano laborer; sometimes it meant sitting in a town park and striking up conversations with Chicano passerby to organize a new LULAC council; sometimes it meant talking to politicians about the need to correct school segregation problems.

These actions produced good results, but their effects wee limited. What Chicanos needed was a sustained legal attack against racism in the Southwest; but that would take time and, most of all, money, which nobody had.

The final straw came in April 1966. Tijerina was working on a case in Jourdanton, Texas, involving a woman named Munoz who had lost her right leg at the knee in an accident. Tijerina felt that the woman deserved at least $50,000 in compensation. When the opposing party refused to come up with that amount, Tijerina decided to go to trial but stopped short when he realized that the jury panel contained not one Spanish-sur-named person.

Tijerina knew that an all-Anglo Southwest jury was unlikely to give the Chicana woman a fair trial. The common Anglo assumption was the "Mexicans didn't need much money to live on. "Tijerina brought his problem to a local judge who told him to come back in August and promised to provide some Spanish-surnamed jurors to choose from.

That summer, Tijerina received an invitation to a civil rights conference in Chicago from Jack Greenberg, Director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF). A LULAC brother who went in Tijerina's place returned with a favorable report on the work LDF was accomplishing for black people.

In August, Tijerina returned to Jourdanton to try the Munoz case. When the time came to select jurors, he found that he had two Mexican-origin people to choose from: one had been dead for ten years and the other was an undocumented immigrant who had been called by mistake. Tijerina decided to forego the trial and settled the case for a smaller amount.

When he returned to San Antonio, Tijerina was incensed. He was determined to mount a major battle to end jury discrimination in Texas, Hernandez V. Texas had won the Chicano's right to be represented on Texas juries but, because the Supreme Court mandate had not been enforced by further lawsuits, Mexican American jurors were still very scarce. Tijerina and his LULAC brothers talked about lobbying and protesting. Of course, the need to mount a legal challenge was discussed. So was the price tag. A jury discrimination suit could cost close to $10,000.

Tijerina decided to go for higher stakes. Along with Bexar County Commissioner Albert Pena and former City Councilman Roy Padilla of San Antonio, Tijerina traveled to New York in Spring, 1967, and conferred with Bill Pincus, a Ford Foundation representative, at a meeting arranged by Jack Greenberg. Tijerina eloquently set forth the problems Chicanos were experiencing in the Southwest and stressed the need for a Mexican American civil rights organization. At the end of three hours, Pincus was sold. Ford would be willing to consider a proposal for a five-state Mexican American Legal Defense Fund headquartered in Texas. With LDF's help, a seed grant to fund writing of the proposal was obtained from the Field Foundation and work on the new defense fund began.

The task of organizing fell to Tijerina. He and his secretary Rebecca Villareal spent countless hours gathering data for a proposal. That summer, Tijerina piles his family in a car and started out to set up representative MALDEF committees in five southwestern states. Utilizing LULAC contacts, he met with community groups. Local sensitivities and the general activist tenor of the times frequently complicated his task, but with the help of local attorney and community leaders, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Colorado committees were formed. An LDF-sponsored conference held in Fall, 1967, took an important next step. It was the first time that a board cross section of Chicano attorneys interested in civil rights had the opportunity to meet face-to-face. Everyone gained a strong realization of the uniformity of problems they were confronting in the Southwest and important professional links were made that would serve the Chicano community well in future years. Among the participants was a young Chicana named Vilma Socorro Martinez, who was working as an attorney for LDF and who began serving as an important liaison with the budding civil rights organization.

The last committee was put together in Texas in February, 1968. Tijerina announced that a grant of $1 million was being sought for the creation of a civil rights organization. Carlos Cadena was named President of the Board and Tijerina was appointed Executive Director.

For the nest few months, each member of the fledgling Board was highly excited. Cases poured into Tijerina's office and phone calls continually asked, "What's happening?" "When do we get started?" Finally, on May 1, 1968, Pincus arrived in San Antonio for a meeting at the St. Anthony Hotel. The Board members from Texas included Cardena, Tijerina, Albert Armendariz, State Senator Joe Bernal, Gregory Luna, Albert Pena, and Father Henry J. Casso. Herman Sillas, Louis Garcia, Richard Ibanez, and Frank Munoz came from California. Manuel Garcia of Arizona, Dan Sosa of New Mexico, and Jack Greenberg attended. Robert Gonzalez from California and Levi Martinez of Colorado were present by proxy.

Bill Pincus made his announcement: The Ford Foundation had decided to grant to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund a sum of $2.2 million to be spent over five years on civil rights legal work for Mexican Americans; $250,000 of the grant was to go for scholarships to Chicano law students. The board was dumbfounded. Ford had given them over twice what they had asked for. Greenberg pledged support from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and both Pincus and Greenberg were given standing ovation.