[6] It was settled as a farming and ranching community and was a major railroad stop being 110 miles (180 km) from San Antonio.

The town is also noteworthy in the history of Mexican American political self-determination for the founding of the La Raza Unida Party.

By March 26, 1937, the growers had erected a statue of the cartoon character Popeye in the town because his reliance on spinach for strength led to greater popularity for the vegetable, which had become a staple cash crop of the local economy.

[7] Early in its history, the area known as the "Winter Garden District" was deemed the "Spinach Capital of the World" (a title contested by Alma, Arkansas).

The Spinach Festival is traditionally held on the second weekend in November, and draws former residents (many of them former migrant farm workers) from Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Washington, and beyond.

Although these five elected officials known as "Los Cinco" only held office for two years, many consider this moment the "spark" or starting point of what became known as the Chicano movement.

During the summer interim, government officials and school board members would pass rules and regulations to maintain control of the absentee population.

A faculty committee of the local high school ruled that only one Mexican American cheerleader was allowed and the rest had to be Anglo.

Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough invited three student leaders to come to Washington, DC, to discuss discrimination in their schools.

Texans for the Educational Advancement of Mexican Americans (TEAMA) taught the striking students during the Christmas holidays.

This victory galvanized the community and that spring, "Mexican American candidates swept the school board and city council elections.

By the late 1960s, Crystal City became the location of continued activism in the civil rights movement among its Mexican American majority population, and the birthplace of the third-party political movement known as La Raza Unida Party founded by three Chicanos, including José Ángel Gutiérrez over a conflict about the ethnicity of cheerleaders at Crystal City High School.

La Raza Unida, and related organizations, then won election to most offices in Crystal City and Zavala County in the periods between 1969 and 1980, when the party declined at the local level.

[13] In the 1970s, following protests of charges (essentially nonpayment of services) on the part of La Raza Unida, Crystal City's natural gas supply was shut off by its only supplier.

Crystal City residents resorted to mostly wood-burning stoves and individual propane gas tanks for cooking.

Angel Noe Gonzalez, the former Crystal City Independent School District superintendent who later worked in the United States Department of Education in Washington, DC, upon his indictment retained the San Antonio lawyer and later mayor, Phil Hardberger.

John Luke Hill, the 1978 Democratic gubernatorial nominee, had sought to weaken La Raza Unida so that he would not lose general election votes to a third-party candidate.

In December, Jonas surrendered to authorities after being charged with assault for allegedly manhandling an elderly woman who was trying to enter a city council meeting.