Raul Humberto Yzaguirre (born July 22, 1939) is an American civil rights activist.

Yzaguirre states that some of his first memories of social injustice involved what his grandmother called a "race war" in Texas.

Mexican Americans lived under a curfew at that time and Yzaguirre's grandfather was almost lynched one night when coming home after dark from his second job.

[citation needed] In 1968, the Southwest Council of La Raza was organized with funding from the Ford Foundation.

[3] Under Yzaguirre, the organization grew from a regional advocacy group with 17 affiliates to over 300 that serve 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.

Yzaguirre expanded membership criteria so it was not limited only to ethnic Mexicans, but also included Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Argentines, Cubans, Venezuelans and all other Hispanic subgroups.