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Columnas, 1970-1971
1971-05-28 ""La Raza"" Page 4
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-4- MEXICAN AMERICANS AND "LA RAZA" To many North Americans the typical Mexican is a sleepy gentleman resting against a cantina wall or cactus plant and hidden under a large sombrero. Today this image, o often conjured up in reference to people of Mexican ancestry who reside in the Southwest U.S., is no more applicable to the Mexican American than is the watermelon eater image applicable to the Afro American; for following on the heels of the black movement is that of the Mexican American. Most Americans are probably familiar with the California grape picker strike, which is, no doubt, the chief national symbol of the emerging Mexican American. However, in recent months much that has happened in the Mexican American community leads many southwesterners to believe that the community is "on its way." The most significant "happening": the birth of LA RAZA UNIDA (the uniting of the race). The Raza Movement was actually an unanticipated outgrowth of an attempt on the part of the federal government to conduct an "off-campus" White House conference in El Paso, Texas, in October, 1967. Although the government's Inter-Agency Committee on Mexican-American Affairs acted to bring various organizations together for the meeting, a number of Mexican Americans felt that the speaker line-up was stacked in favor of a sell-out to the established order. Paralleling the officially sanctioned conference was a rump session convened by those who felt that the established order of things constituted the very crux of their problems. This rump session called for an end to the negation of Mexican-Spanish culture by the Anglo-Saxon social structure that controls the Southwest's basic institutions. Sounding the note of unity and solidarity, the session committed itself to organization of the barrios for educational, economic and political purposes, for developing pride in Mexican culture and for acquiring means to attain the economic and political independence that would assure Mexican Americans an effective voice in state and national affairs. Thus was LA RAZA born. LA RAZA's Texas organizational conference was held in San Antonio on January 6, 1968, the movement's first conference on a statewide basis. Ernest Galarza of San Jose, Calif., a consultant for the Ford Foundation and a noted author, was principal speaker. From his message and from the results of the conference seminars, it became clear that if Mexican Americans are to achieve political and economic goals they must develop meaningful community organization, especially in the poverty-stricken barrios. Dr. Galarza emphasized that action in the political arena should come first, that is, to get registration of voters and campaigns to elect candidates who will serve LA RAZA interests. He declared that LA RAZA is not solely a program of words or projects; nor is it a proclamation of "machismo" (manhood, strength); nor is it strictly a means of cataloguing gripes about conditions (although all agreed that conditions are bad,and sorely need to be alleviated); nor is it a claim to biological superiority. It is a proclamation to society at large that the Mexican American intends to take his place in helping determine the future of his community, state, and nation. Other goals listed by the conference committees were: the introduction of lawsuits where Mexican Americans are deprived of voting rights, establishment of mandatory hot-lunch program on the state level, placement of more bilingual teachers in schools with Spanish-speaking students, abolishment of the Texas Rangers, formation of community organizations with an emphasis on developing pride in ethnic background, application of social pressure on Mexican Americans who attempt to integrate within the non-Latin or Anglo society at the expense of the poorer members of LA RAZA, levying of sanctions (e.g. withholding government contracts) on utility companies found to be discriminatory in employment practices, staffing of poverty programs with Mexican Americans and acceleration of those programs especially in the area of job training, and utilization of the food stamp program. The conference also called for defeat in future elections of judges who have failed to appoint Mexican Americans to grand and petit juries, denial of entry into the "green card" workers who cross the border and work for low wages, support of legislation to bring farm workers under coverage of the National Labor Relations act, along with endorsement of a $1.25 state hourly minimum wage law, support of the Rio Grande Valley farm workers' strike, placement of more Mexican Americans on draft boards, and drafting of young men for military service in proportion to their ethnic group's percentage of the population. The San Antonio conference's climactic moment came when Humble Oil and Refining Co. credit cards were thrown onto the stage of the meeting hall in protest of that company's discriminatory employment practices. According to the conference report, the Humble plants
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-4- MEXICAN AMERICANS AND "LA RAZA" To many North Americans the typical Mexican is a sleepy gentleman resting against a cantina wall or cactus plant and hidden under a large sombrero. Today this image, o often conjured up in reference to people of Mexican ancestry who reside in the Southwest U.S., is no more applicable to the Mexican American than is the watermelon eater image applicable to the Afro American; for following on the heels of the black movement is that of the Mexican American. Most Americans are probably familiar with the California grape picker strike, which is, no doubt, the chief national symbol of the emerging Mexican American. However, in recent months much that has happened in the Mexican American community leads many southwesterners to believe that the community is "on its way." The most significant "happening": the birth of LA RAZA UNIDA (the uniting of the race). The Raza Movement was actually an unanticipated outgrowth of an attempt on the part of the federal government to conduct an "off-campus" White House conference in El Paso, Texas, in October, 1967. Although the government's Inter-Agency Committee on Mexican-American Affairs acted to bring various organizations together for the meeting, a number of Mexican Americans felt that the speaker line-up was stacked in favor of a sell-out to the established order. Paralleling the officially sanctioned conference was a rump session convened by those who felt that the established order of things constituted the very crux of their problems. This rump session called for an end to the negation of Mexican-Spanish culture by the Anglo-Saxon social structure that controls the Southwest's basic institutions. Sounding the note of unity and solidarity, the session committed itself to organization of the barrios for educational, economic and political purposes, for developing pride in Mexican culture and for acquiring means to attain the economic and political independence that would assure Mexican Americans an effective voice in state and national affairs. Thus was LA RAZA born. LA RAZA's Texas organizational conference was held in San Antonio on January 6, 1968, the movement's first conference on a statewide basis. Ernest Galarza of San Jose, Calif., a consultant for the Ford Foundation and a noted author, was principal speaker. From his message and from the results of the conference seminars, it became clear that if Mexican Americans are to achieve political and economic goals they must develop meaningful community organization, especially in the poverty-stricken barrios. Dr. Galarza emphasized that action in the political arena should come first, that is, to get registration of voters and campaigns to elect candidates who will serve LA RAZA interests. He declared that LA RAZA is not solely a program of words or projects; nor is it a proclamation of "machismo" (manhood, strength); nor is it strictly a means of cataloguing gripes about conditions (although all agreed that conditions are bad,and sorely need to be alleviated); nor is it a claim to biological superiority. It is a proclamation to society at large that the Mexican American intends to take his place in helping determine the future of his community, state, and nation. Other goals listed by the conference committees were: the introduction of lawsuits where Mexican Americans are deprived of voting rights, establishment of mandatory hot-lunch program on the state level, placement of more bilingual teachers in schools with Spanish-speaking students, abolishment of the Texas Rangers, formation of community organizations with an emphasis on developing pride in ethnic background, application of social pressure on Mexican Americans who attempt to integrate within the non-Latin or Anglo society at the expense of the poorer members of LA RAZA, levying of sanctions (e.g. withholding government contracts) on utility companies found to be discriminatory in employment practices, staffing of poverty programs with Mexican Americans and acceleration of those programs especially in the area of job training, and utilization of the food stamp program. The conference also called for defeat in future elections of judges who have failed to appoint Mexican Americans to grand and petit juries, denial of entry into the "green card" workers who cross the border and work for low wages, support of legislation to bring farm workers under coverage of the National Labor Relations act, along with endorsement of a $1.25 state hourly minimum wage law, support of the Rio Grande Valley farm workers' strike, placement of more Mexican Americans on draft boards, and drafting of young men for military service in proportion to their ethnic group's percentage of the population. The San Antonio conference's climactic moment came when Humble Oil and Refining Co. credit cards were thrown onto the stage of the meeting hall in protest of that company's discriminatory employment practices. According to the conference report, the Humble plants
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