" La Raza Unida is a former Hispanic political party centered on Chicano nationalism. It was created in 1970 and became prominent throughout Texas and Southern California."
Discusses the creation of La Raza Unida Party as a third party force for political power and the importance of political rights. It culminates in the 1972 election and the Raza Unida.
La Raza Unida Party by
Over the years, third parties have arisen sporadically to challenge the hegemony of the United States' two major political parties. But not until the emergence of the Raza Unida Party (RUP) in 1970 did an ethnic group organize to fight for political control at the country's ballot boxes. This book, by noted Chicano movement theorist Armando Navarro, is the most comprehensive study of the party ever put together. La Raza Unida Party traces the party from its beginnings in 1970 to its demise in 1981 -- the events, leaders, ideology, structure, strategy and tactics, successes and problems, and electoral campaigns that marked its trajectory. The book covers political organizing in California, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and the Midwest, as well as RUP's national and international politics and its party profile. In addition, its suggests options for future political arena. Based on 161 interviews, access to numerous documents, letters, minutes, diaries, and position papers, as well as such published sources as contemporary newspaper and magazine accounts and campaign literature, the study is enriched by Professor Navarro's accounts of his own experiences as one of the organizers of the RUP in California. La Raza Unida Party represents the culmination of the story of Chicano militancy that Professor Navarro has related in his earlier books. It goes beyond mere history-telling to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of ethnic-identity political parties and the perils of challenging the two-party dictatorship that characterizes U.S. electoral politics.
Viva la Raza by
Literary Nonfiction. Political Science. Latino/Latina Studies. LGBT Studies. A lively and accessible investigation of Mexican American militancy from the U.S. occupation of Northern Mexico in the 19th century to civil rights struggles in the present era. The authors describe monumental labor battles, survey the Raza youth movement, focus attention on the role of women, and examine issues such as police brutality, the emergence of Chicana/o lesbians and gays, and the role of radical organizations, while also exploring hotly debated theories about the source of discrimination against Chicanos. VIVA LA RAZA reveals the workings of race and nationality in the United States in relation to people of Mexican ancestry, a group that is too little understood though its members comprise this country's second largest population of people of color.
Mi Raza Primero, My People First by
¡Mi Raza Primero! is the first book to examine the Chicano movement's development in one locale--in this case Los Angeles, home of the largest population of people of Mexican descent outside of Mexico City. Ernesto Chávez focuses on four organizations that constituted the heart of the movement: The Brown Berets, the Chicano Moratorium Committee, La Raza Unida Party, and the Centro de Acción Social Autónomo, commonly known as CASA. Chávez examines and chronicles the ideas and tactics of the insurgency's leaders and their followers who, while differing in their goals and tactics, nonetheless came together as Chicanos and reformers. Deftly combining personal recollection and interviews of movement participants with an array of archival, newspaper, and secondary sources, Chávez provides an absorbing account of the events that constituted the Los Angeles-based Chicano movement. At the same time he offers insights into the emergence and the fate of the movement elsewhere. He presents a critical analysis of the concept of Chicano nationalism, an idea shared by all leaders of the insurgency, and places it within a larger global and comparative framework. Examining such variables as gender, class, age, and power relationships, this book offers a sophisticated consideration of how ethnic nationalism and identity functioned in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s.
United We Win by
Clearly, Ignacio M. Garcia has written a sympathetic history of the movement, critically describing conditions of the sixties and seventies and clarifying the outstanding issues and personalities in the Mexican American community of the Southwest. . . Garcia's passionate and insightful contribution cannot be overlooked as a source of factual information and analysis.--New Mexico Historical Review "Garcia's history of La Raza Unida party is a labor of love."--Journal of the Southwest "This book is an insightful, intensive, and interesting report on the origin, development, and demise of the 'party of the united people.' . . . The author['s] most noteworthy contribution may well be in the richness of the details of the party's history and in providing these documented dates, figures, personalities, and events as no one else has or perhaps can." --Southwestern Historical Quarterly "This book is must reading for students of the Chicano-Hispanic community, especially those living in the southwestern U.S. and in the larger cities throughout our country. For this piece of Chicano history is essential to understanding this most important section of our multi-cultural, multi-national U.S. working class." --People's Weekly World
