Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 10:06:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: Robert Perrone <perrone1-AT-igc.apc.org>
Subject: M-I: La Raza Unida Party and Chicano Nationalism




So far in the cyber seminar on nationalism there has been little mention of
Chicano nationalism.  In most such discussions, the question of Chicano
nationalism takes a back seat in importance to Black nationalism.  I believe
this is unfortunate because the Chicano struggle for liberation in many ways
predates that of African Americans.  The Chicano national question also
raises the issue of the role of land in any struggle for liberation more
directly than that raised by Black nationalism, since the Chicano people or
their ancestors were actually on the land that now comprises the states of
Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and parts of Colorado and Oregon
before any white settler stepped foot on this continent.  It has been
well-documented that the land now occupied by those states comprised the
most fertile and mineral-rich lands of Mexico, and that the US government
instigated a war with Mexico for the purpose of confiscating that territory.
Only the determined resistance of the Mexican people and their allies
prevented the US government from seizing more Mexican territory.  Chicanos
were and still are as much, if not more of the backbone of the production
process in the Southwest as African Americans were and are in other parts of
the US.  Without the labor of Chicanos the mining wealth of the northern
Mexican territories stolen by the US would not have been realized; in
conjunction with Asian workers, there would be no railroads; and the
reputation of this country as an agricultural Mecca would not stand.

My purpose here is to focus on one aspect of Chicano nationalism, the La
Raza Unida Party (LRUP), mention of which has been made in previous posts on
the national question.

Chicano college students affiliated with the Mexican American Youth
Organization (MAYO) first formed LRUP in south Texas in 1970.  These
students, the most prominent of whom was Jose Angel Gutierrez, were
immediately influenced by the Black civil rights struggle of the 60s, the
land grant disputes in New Mexico led by Reies Lopez Tijerina, the
farmworker's struggle, and the high school walkouts in East Los Angeles in
1968.  They were responding to the total lack of influence Chicanos had in
the political process throughout the towns of southern Texas.  They believed
that decisions effecting Chicanos should be made by Chicanos, which to them
meant control of governing bodies and institutions.  Chicanos comprised
majorities in many of those towns yet the local governing bodies were
completely controlled by Anglos.  Additionally, Chicanos were segregated in
housing, education, and in public facilities.  Historically, throughout
southern Texas, the Texas Rangers had played a similar role as the KKK in
the South, discouraging Chicanos through terror from participating in the
political process.

Their emphasis was on grass roots organizing.  They understood that the
conditions of migrant laborers, many of whom were Chicanos, made
participation in the electoral process difficult.  The thinking among these
young activists was that while it was often difficult to be able to
distinguish between a good and bad Anglo politician, the people definitely
knew a Garcia from a Smith.  Their first efforts proved successful beyond
expectations, as Chicanos took over local school boards and town governments.

Word of their success spread and soon there were LRUP chapters in Colorado
and California.  It was in the barrio of East Los Angeles that LRUP would be
forced to confront the issue of class versus nation.  That will be the topic
of my next installment.

Robert Perrone



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