Pete P. Gallego, President of Sul Ross State University

A Tale of Two Petes

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in the Gallego family. Pete P. Gallego and his father Pete A. Gallego devoted their lives to serving the Alpine community.

 

After serving in World War II, Pete A. Gallego returned to a segregated Alpine, Texas. It baffled him how soldiers of all colors were allowed to fight side by side against the Japanese but could not attain the same education in Alpine schools.

 

Pete A. Gallego believed education was the great equalizer. In 1959, he was the first Latino to serve on the Alpine Independent School District Board and petitioned for Alpine schools’ desegregation. He tracked the graduation rate of Mexican-American students in the Alpine district, making it a goal to close the disparity between them and their Anglo peers.

 

The Gallego family owned a restaurant for 80 years (1917-1997), which became the center of Alpine’s local Latino politics.  As a boy, Pete P. Gallego would sit in nearby booths and listen to their conversations, observing how a group of mundane men could alter an entire political system. 

In 1969, the elder Gallego and 35 other Alpine residents presented their desegregation campaign in Austin. In the fall, Mexican-Americans began their first year at Central School.

 

Boycotts were organized against Gallego’s restaurant as Anglos sought to drive him out of business and out of Alpine. Pete P. Gallego says he remembers as a child receiving death threats over the phone.

 

Gallego didn’t stop though. He constantly checked class rosters to ensure state-mandated integration, and helped fund a number of college educations.

 

Under the auspices of the Catholic church, Gallego even established a credit union for Latinos so they could have the opportunity to expand their businesses. Pete P. Gallego says their living room became a credit union office with people coming in all hours of the day to make payments or borrow money.

The Pete P. Gallego Center at Sul Ross State University

“My father believed education was the opportunity to move up and achieve the American Dream,” says Pete P. Gallego. “You were taught that you’re going to follow whatever career path your parent had. If your dad was a custodian, you were going to be a custodian. My dad didn’t believe that; he believed with an education a child could break away and change their life to better the next generation.”

 

Pete P. Gallego said he wanted to make his own difference, and follow in the footsteps of his father, who died in 2010, of providing people with opportunities for success. 

 

“I was very motivated by the word no,” he says. “It would become my goal to prove those who didn’t believe in me wrong.”

 

At 28, Pete P. Gallego was elected into the Texas House of Representatives. He served for 20 years, during which he was elected chairman and led the Democratic Caucus in his first term. He focused on developing the infrastructure and roads in Alpine, renovating student centers, restoring museums, and adding facilities, such as gyms, to the Alpine public schools.

 

He then served as a member of the United States Congress for two years and is now the president at Sul Ross University.

 

Gallego says he loves every day of his job. He loves interacting with the students who will one day make a difference in the world, and he loves innovating a place that’s going to be more rewarding for the people that attend.

 

“I don’t stop to think about what I’ve done because I’m not done yet,” Pete P. Gallego says. “I want to grow and I think that’s the best feeling is knowing things can always be improved to better the people within society.”

Looking down at the Sul Ross Sate University campus from the hiking trails on Hancock Hill

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