As one of the three largest organizations of its type in the 1920s, its goal was to protect and advance the interests of Mexican-American citizens and their community, seeking to counter discrimination against them.
Limiting their members to native-born US or naturalized citizens, the group was led by Spanish-speaking Mexicans of the upper class, including attorneys, teachers, and entrepreneurs.
The OSA only allowed membership to native born and naturalized citizens of the United States, believing that their interests were different from those of Mexican immigrants.
[3] OSA members concluded that having maintained Mexican culture and ethnicity had hindered their ability to be accepted as equal American citizens.
The organization's purpose was to use its "influence in all fields of social, economic, and political action in order to realize the greatest enjoyment possible of all the rights and privileges and prerogatives extended by the American Constitution.
By 1928 the Corpus Christi Chapter had around 175 members who included Louis Wilmot, Bernardo F. Garza, and Andrés de Luna.
[1] Known chapters created by the original San Antonio Council were in Texas cities including: Somerset and Pearsall by the year 1923 and Corpus Christi by 1924.
[6] Both the San Antonio and Corpus Christi chapters participated actively in civic affairs and civil rights movements.