La Raza

Race philosophy

This article is about a term for Latin American ethno-racial identity. For other uses, see La Raza (disambiguation).

Part of a series on

Chicanos and Mexican Americans

Terms

|  Identity

* Chola/o
* La Raza
* Pachuca
* Pachuco
* Pinta/o
* Xicanx

Concepts

* Anti-Mexican sentiment

History

|  Early-American Period

* Josefa Segovia
* Las Gorras Blancas
* Mexican–American War
* Mutualista
* San Elizario Salt War
* Sonoratown
* Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Pre-Chicano Movement

* 1917 Bath riots
* Bisbee Deportation
* Bloody Christmas
* Bracero program
* California agricultural strikes
* Cantaloupe strike of 1928
* Citrus Strike of 1936
* La Matanza
* Mexican Repatriation
* Operation Wetback
* Plan de San Diego
* Porvenir Massacre
* Sleepy Lagoon trial
* Zoot Suit Riots

Chicano Movement

* Aztlán
* Black-brown unity
* Brown Berets
* Católicos por La Raza
* Tulare labor camps rent strike
* Delano grape strike
* Centro Cultural
* Chicanismo
* Chicano Moratorium
* Colegio César Chávez
* CFMN
* Conferencia de Mujeres
* CRP
* East L.A. walkouts
* Hijas de Cuauhtémoc
* Huelga schools
* Land grant struggle
* Las Adelitas de Aztlán
* Los Siete de la Raza
* Los Seis de Boulder
* MANA
* MAYO
* MEChA
* Occupation of Catalina Island
* PCUN
* Plan Espiritual de Aztlán
* Plan de Santa Bárbara
* Quinto Sol
* Raza Unida Party
* United Farm Workers

Post-Chicano Period

* 1985–1987 cannery strike
* 1992 Drywall Strike
* 2019 El Paso shooting
* Abolish ICE
* Arizona SB 1070
* Castro 2020
* Chicano Art Exhibit
* DACA
* Great American Boycott
* IRCA
* Farah strike
* Justice for Janitors
* Murder of Selena
* Proposition 187
* South Central Farm

Culture

|  Language

* Abrazos, no balazos
* Caló
* Chicano English
* Chicano names
* Órale

Food

* New Mexican cuisine
* Tex-Mex cuisine
* Mexican-American cuisine

Music

* Chicano rap
* Chicano rock
* Chicano soul
* Tejano music

Symbols

* Cal-Style VW
* Homies
* Lowrider
* Lowrider bicycle
* Mexican-American folklore
* Pancho Claus
* Zoot suit

Literature

|  Literature

* Chicana literature
* Chicano literature
* Chicano poetry

Autobiographical

* Always Running
* Living Up the Street
* Who Would Have Thought It?

Novels

* Bless Me, Ultima
* Caballero
* Desert Blood
* From This Wicked Patch of Dust
* Mexican WhiteBoy
* The Dirty Girls Social Club
* The House on Mango Street
* The Rain God
* The Revolt of the Cockroach People
* So Far from God
* Under the Feet of Jesus
* ...y no se lo tragó la tierra

Poetry and Short Stories

* Emplumada
* I Am Joaquin
* Moment of Silence
* Pensamiento Serpentino
* The Moths

Chicano studies

|  Fields

* Chicana feminism
* Chicanafuturism

Organizations

* MAS Programs, Tucson
* NACCS
* UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center

Texts

* Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
* Brown, Not White
* The Church in the Barrio
* This Bridge Called My Back

Theory

* Barrioization
* Coyolxauhqui imperative
* Gringo justice
* Nahui Ollin
* Nepantla
* New tribalism
* Rasquachismo
* Spiritual activism
* Vergüenza
* Youth control complex

Visual art

|  Visual Art

* Chicana art
* Chicano art
* Chicano cinema
* Paño
* Tortilla art

Art Collectives

* Asco
* Culture Clash
* East Los Streetscapers
* Los Four
* Mujeres Muralistas
* Teatro Campesino
* Royal Chicano Air Force

Art organizations

* Centro de Arte Público
* Galería de la Raza
* Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
* Precita Eyes
* Self Help Graphics & Art

Locations

* Balmy Alley
* Chicano Park
* Estrada Courts
* Great Wall of Los Angeles

Law

|  Supreme Court cases

* Botiller v. Dominguez
* Hernandez v. Texas
* San Antonio I.S.D. v. Rodriguez
* Espinoza v. Farah Manufacturing Co.
* U.S. v. Brignoni-Ponce
* Plyler v. Doe
* Medellín v. Texas
* Flores-Figueroa v. U.S.
* Leal Garcia v. Texas
* Mendez v. Westminster
* Bernal v. Fainter
* Perez v. Brownell
* DHS v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal.

Federal Court cases

* Madrigal v. Quilligan

Population

|  Population by City

* Arizona (Tucson)
* California (Los Angeles)
* Illinois (Chicago)
* Michigan (Detroit)
* Nebraska (Omaha)
* Texas
* Dallas–Fort Worth
* Houston

Multiethnic

* Blaxicans
* Californios
* Nuevomexicanos
* Tejanos
* Indigenous Mexican Americans
* Punjabi Mexican Americans

Lists

* Chicano films
* Chicano poets
* Chicano rappers
* Mexican Americans
* Writers
* Bibliography

* United States portal
* Category
* Index

* v
* t
* e

Part of a series on

Hispanic and
Latino Americans

National origin groups

* Argentine Americans
* Bolivian Americans
* Brazilian Americans
* Chilean Americans
* Colombian Americans
* Costa Rican Americans
* Cuban Americans
* Dominican Americans
* Ecuadorian Americans
* Guatemalan Americans
* Honduran Americans
* Mexican Americans
* Nicaraguan Americans
* Panamanian Americans
* Paraguayan Americans
* Peruvian Americans
* Stateside Puerto Ricans
* Salvadoran Americans
* Spanish Americans
* Uruguayan Americans
* Venezuelan Americans

History

Americans by ancestry

* Cuban
* Hispanic
* Isleños of Louisiana
* Mexican
* Puerto Ricans

Political movements

* Chicano Movement
* Latino American politics

Organizations

* Association of Hispanic Arts
* Congressional Hispanic Caucus
* Congressional Hispanic Conference
* LULAC
* MALDEF
* MEChA
* NALEO
* NALFO
* National Council of La Raza
* National Hispanic Institute
* RNHA
* SHPE
* UFW
* USHCC

Culture

* Literature
* Music
* Poetry
* Religion
* Studies

Languages

* English
* Spanish
* Cuban
* Isleño
* Mexican
* New Mexican
* Puerto Rican
* United States Spanish
* Spanglish
* Portuguese
* Portuglish
* Indigenous languages of Latin America

Ethnic groups

* Californio
* Chicano
* Floridanos
* Isleño
* Nuevomexicano
* Puerto Ricans
* Nuyorican
* Tejano
* Asian Hispanic and Latino Americans
* Black Hispanic and Latino Americans
* White Hispanic and Latino Americans
* Punjabi Mexican Americans

Lists

* Communities with Latino majority
* Latino Americans
* Puerto Rico

* Hispanic and Latino Americans portal

* v
* t
* e

The Monumento a La Raza at Avenida de los Insurgentes, Mexico City (inaugurated 12 October 1940) Flag of the Hispanic People

In Mexico, the Spanish expression la Raza[1] ('the people';[2] literally: 'the race'[2]) has historically been used to refer to the mixed-race populations (primarily though not always exclusively in the Western Hemisphere),[3] considered as an ethnic or racial unit[4] historically deriving from the Spanish Empire, and the process of racial intermixing during the Spanish colonization of the Americas with the Indigenous populations of the Americas.

The term was not widely used in Latin America in the early-to-mid-20th century but has been redefined and reclaimed in Chicanismo and the United Farm Worker organization since 1968. It still remains in active use specifically in the context of Mexican-American identity politics in the United States (see Chicano).[5] This terminology for mixed-race originated as a reference to "La Raza Cosmica" by José Vasconcelos, although it is no longer used in this context or associated with "La Raza Cosmica" ideology by Mexican-American, Native rights movements and activists in the United States.

## History

[edit]

Text by Rubén Darío ("Salutación del optimista", 1905) inscribed on the Monumento a la Raza in Seville (1929). Translation: 'Illustrious, most fruitful races, fecund blood of Hispania, fraternal spirits, lumious souls, greetings!' Propaganda poster by the Argentine government (1947) advocating a "strong, industrious, peaceful and sovereign race".

The term la raza was in use by 1858 in local California newspapers such as El Clamor Publico by californios writing about America latina and latinoamerica (Latin America), and identifying as latinos as the abbreviated term for their membership in the newly named Latin America's la raza.[6]

The shortened name of Día de la Raza (now often, though not always, with a capitalized R) was used in 1939, when the feast day was celebrated in Zaragoza in combination with a special devotion to the Virgen del Pilar (Our Lady of the Pillar). Chilean foreign vice-secretary Germán Vergara Donoso commented that the "profound significance of the celebration was the intimate inter-penetration of the homage to the Race and the devotion to Our Lady of the Pillar, i.e. the symbol of the ever more extensive union between America and Spain."[7]

Francisco Franco wrote a novel under the pen name "Jaime de Andrade" which was turned into the film Raza of 1942.[8] It celebrates idealized "Spanish national qualities", and exemplifies this usage of raza española as referring specifically to Spanish Roman Catholic heritage. The Monumento a la Raza was inaugurated in Mexico City in 1940. La Raza metro station in Mexico City was inaugurated in 1978.

The term Chicano (feminine Chicana) likewise arose in the early 20th century as a designation of Mexicans. In the 1960s to 1970s, the term became associated with the Chicano Movement in relation to Mexican-American identity politics activism. In the United States, the terms la Raza and Chicano subsequently became closely associated.[9] Various Hispanic groups in the United States still use the term.[10] The Raza Unida Party was active as a political party representing Mexican-American racial identity politics in the 1970s. The Hispanic advocacy organization National Council of La Raza was formed in 1968 (renamed to UnidosUS in 2017).

La Raza was the name of a Chicano community newspaper edited by Eliezer Risco in 1968. Risco was one of the "LA Thirteen", a group of young Mexican-American men who were political activists identified by the government as being leaders of a Brown Power movement in Los Angeles. Raul Ruiz joined the staff of La Raza while a student at California State University, Los Angeles. Other community newspapers of the time were Inside Eastside and Chicano Student Movement. Ruiz, a key journalist in the movement, eventually became the editor of La Raza.[11] It became the most influential Chicano-movement publication in southern California. The publications filled a void: for the most part, there had heretofore been no media coverage of any type for the Brown Power movement and its activities. The movement's own print-media publications were really the only forum that the Brown Power movement had to keep party members informed about what was going on in the movement across the Los Angeles area. The lack of the mainstream media coverage contributed to silencing the movement and its activities, unlike with the Black Power movement; the latter received much more coverage, which contributed to that movement's success in spreading their message and growing their movement.[12]

## See also

[edit]

* Casta
* Clash of Civilizations
* Latinidad
* Pan-Latinism
* Race and ethnicity in Latin America
* Race and ethnicity in the United States
* Racial politics
* La raza cósmica
* Panhispanism

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Sometimes over-capitalized as La Raza, or given in all-lowercase as la raza. Pronounced [la ˈrasa]
2. ^ a b Associated Press (July 13, 2017). "Why The Term 'La Raza' Has Complicated Roots In The US". Colorado Public Radio. Archived from the original on July 1, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
3. ^ Filipinos, and people in the former Spanish colony of Equatorial Guinea are sometimes included in modern conceptions of the term.
4. ^ Redeeming La Raza: Transborder Modernity, Race, Respectability, and Rights. Oxford / New York: Oxford University Press. 2018-07-17. ISBN 9780190909628.
5. ^ "La Raza".
6. ^ Gutierrez, Ramon A. (2016). "What's in a Name?". In Gutierrez, Ramon A.; Almaguer, Tomas (eds.). The New Latino Studies Reader: A Twenty-First-Century Perspective. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 34\. ISBN 978-0-520-28484-5. OCLC 1043876740. "By the late 1850s, californios were writing in newspapers about their membership in América latina (Latin America) and latinoamerica, calling themselves latinos as the shortened name for their hemispheric membership in a la raza latina (a Latin race). Reprinting an 1858 opinion piece by a correspondent in Havana on race relations in the Americas, El Clamor Publico of Los Angeles surmised that 'two rival races are competing with each other ... the Anglo Saxon and the Latin one.' "
7. ^ Bueno Sánchez, Gustavo. "Día de la Hispanidad". Filosofia.org (in Spanish).
8. ^ "Francisco Franco - Biography, Facts & Death".
9. ^ Alaniz, Yolanda; Cornish, Megan (2008). Viva La Raza: A History of Chicano Identity and Resistance. Seattle: Red Letter Press. p. 181.
10. ^ Romero, Dennis (June 7, 2016). "Dear Trump Fans: La Raza Is Not a Racist Term". Los Angeles Weekly. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
11. ^ García, Mario T. (2015). The Chicano Generation: Testimonios of the Movement. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520286023. OCLC 904133300.
12. ^ Muñoz, Carlos (2007). Youth, Identity, Power: The Chicano Movement (rev. and expanded ed.). London: Verso. ISBN 9781844671427. OCLC 124026434.

* v
* t
* e

Chicano and Mexican American topics

Terms|

* Chicano
* Indigenismo
* Mexican American
* La Raza
* Cholo
* Pachuco
* Pinto
* Blaxican
* Xicanx

Pre-Chicano Movement|

* 1917 Bath riots
* Bisbee Deportation
* Bracero program
* Korean War
* La Matanza
* Mexican Repatriation
* Operation Wetback
* Plan de San Diego
* Porvenir Massacre
* Sleepy Lagoon trial
* Zoot Suit Riots

Chicano Movement|

* Aztlán
* Católicos por La Raza
* Centro de Arte Público
* Chicanismo
* Chicana feminism
* Chicano Blowouts
* Chicano Moratorium
* Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
* PCUN
* Plan Espiritual de Aztlán
* Plan de Santa Bárbara
* Farm workers' rights campaign
* Land grant struggle
* Colegio César Chávez
* Los Siete de la Raza
* Los Seis de Boulder
* Occupation of Catalina Island

Post-Chicano Movement|

* Aztlán
* 1985–1987 Watsonville Cannery strike
* 1992 Drywall Strike
* 2019 El Paso shooting
* Abolish ICE
* Arizona SB 1070
* Castro 2020
* DACA
* Great American Boycott
* IRCA
* Justice for Janitors
* Killing of Adam Toledo
* Murder of Selena
* Party crews
* Proposition 187
* Xicanx

Culture|

* Anti-Mexican sentiment
* Caló
* Chicano art
* Chicano cinema
* Chicano literature
* Chicano names
* Chicano poetry
* Chicano Park
* Chicano rock
* Chicano rap
* Cinco de Mayo
* Estrada Courts murals
* Lowrider
* Mexican-American cuisine
* Mexican-American folklore
* Mexican-American women's fashion
* Mexican muralism
* New Mexican cuisine
* New Mexico music
* Paño
* Regional Mexican
* Skull art
* Teatro Campesino
* Tejano music
* Tex-Mex cuisine
* Tortilla art
* Zoot suit

Chicana/o Theory|

* Barrioization
* Coyolxauhqui imperative
* Gringo justice
* Nepantla
* New tribalism
* Rasquachismo
* Spiritual activism
* Vergüenza
* Youth control complex

Supreme Court cases|

* Botiller v. Dominguez
* Hernandez v. Texas
* San Antonio I.S.D. v. Rodriguez
* Espinoza v. Farah Manufacturing Co.
* U.S. v. Brignoni-Ponce
* Plyler v. Doe
* Medellín v. Texas
* Flores-Figueroa v. U.S.
* Leal Garcia v. Texas
* Mendez v. Westminster
* Bernal v. Fainter
* DHS v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal.

By city and region|

* Arizona
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* California (Los Angeles • San Francisco • San Diego)
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* Utah

Lists|

* Chicano films
* Chicano poets
* U.S. communities with Hispanic majority
* Mexican Americans
* Writers
* List of Hispanic and Latino Americans
* Bibliography
* List of Mexican-American communities
* List of Mexican-American political organizations
* List of Chicano and Mexican monuments and memorials in California

* Category:Chicano
* Category:American people of Mexican descent

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Hispanic and Latino Americans

* Index
* Hispanic and Latino
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North American|

* Californio
* Creoles of Louisiana
* Isleño
* Floridanos
* Mexican
* Punjabi Mexican Americans
* Chicano
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| Caribbean|

* Cuban
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* Nuyorican

|

Central American|

* Costa Rican
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* Panamanian
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South American[a]|

* Argentine
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European|

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Religious groups|

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By region|

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Other|

* Indigenismo
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1. ^ The U.S. Census Bureau excludes Brazilian Americans from the "Hispanic or Latino" category.

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