La Raza! Chicano Power!

Fist in the air!

All that scary stuff that struck terror in the hearts of whites back in the early '70s.  Specifically, in

Southern California and Texas, but undoubtedly most of the nation was familiar with La Raza, as something like Mexican Black Panthers.  We suppose your average middle-class white family who stared at "radical" political activism on their TV sets each evening were perfectly glad they lived someplace other than populous cities in Texas or Southern California.

But who were they, really?  What exactly is "La Raza"?  As with all our post topics, the "journey of discovery" applies to the writer as much as it does the reader.

We found a story much more complex than the familiar angry, scary people who want to turn half of (or maybe all of!) the United States into Mexico.  They carried a Mexican flag to a march!

Turns out the truth is much deeper than the modern day activist group.

The roots of "la raza" actually date back at least from 1925, with a book titled, "The Cosmic Race" by Mexican author José Vasconcelos.  From website Inside Mexico:

"The term La Raza originated in the 1925 book, La Raza Cósmica, The Cosmic Race, by the Mexican writer José Vasconcelos. He explained la Raza Cósmica as the product of continuous racial mixing that was already underway in the Latin world. Vasconcelos thought that ultimately all of the people within the former Spanish Empire would be thoroughly blended into a new race."

So, as we understand it, this book was a coming-to-terms with the idea that hundreds of years after the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Mexico, the population was now consisting of people who were descendants of the Spanish, and the indigenous people of Mexico, without a modern day understanding of genetics, the term "race" was applied with arbitrary definitions.

It was meant to give Mexican people an identity of their own.  

Now we fast forward to Texas, 1970.  We see the founding of a new political party, who borrowed the term and called their party "La Raza Unida".  This is the mother of the infamous "La Raza" we still talk about today.

The group was founded by two men-- José Angel Gutiérrez, not exactly a hair-on-fire bomb-thrower type:

"Gutiérrez is a 1962 graduate of Crystal City High School in Crystal City, Texas and served in the US Army.  He has also earned degrees from Texas A&M University--Kingsville (B.A. 1966), St. Mary's University in San Antonio, the University of Texas at Austin (Ph.D. 1976) and the University of Houston Law Center (J.D. 1988). He has done postdoctoral work at Stanford University, Colegio de México, University of Washington, and Centro de Estudios Económicos y Sociales del Tercer Mundo in Mexico City, Mexico."

and Mario Compean, MA.  We weren't able to find a lot of information about Mr. Compean, other than that he worked for Washington State University as a project director, and this very recent interview:

Civil Rights in Black & Brown Oral History Project

The La Raza Unida party operated within the bounds of any fledgling political party, promoting and campaigning for candidates with a like-minded viewpoint, staging demonstrations, etc.  They never promoted violence, anarchy, or the reconquistador philosophy.

That certainly doesn't mean everyone associated with La Raza was a warm and fuzzy huggy-bunny.  La Raza tapped into a lot of simmering anger, especially among young people in an intense reform era, where all sorts of oppressed groups decided not to shut up anymore, and their message wasn't always dressed up in niceties.  

Where is La Raza today?  Does it still exist?

It does.  Both literally and in the form of formal lobbying groups, most prominently the National Council of La Raza, now known as UnidosUS.  The president of UnidosUS, Janet Murguía, recently wrote this article for Huffpost addressing the issue of La Raza and violence.

Violence is Never the Answer

La Raza has a Facebook Page

. . .and an address in San Fernando, California.  We checked Streetview, and the area doesn't look like a business district, so maybe it is incorrect.

As we wind things up, we want to point out that misinformation about La Raza abounds.  A large part of this problem is the existence of "The La Raza Gang", which is involved in criminal activities and We feel certain this gang is not sanctioned by anyone connected with the original La Raza Unida party.

update to add: here is an example of such misinformation.  Most of it comes from (usually right-wing) bloggers.  You will see "pundit" Jim Kouri associate the criminal gang with a quote from José Angel Gutiérrez

La Raza Unida Leader Sentenced to Life in Prison for Racketeering