EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN LOS ANGELES AND ITS EFFECT UPON THE MEXICAN COMMUNITY, 1900-1930

The theme of equal educational opportunity was a major concern of the urban Chicano Movement in the late sixties. Chicanos accused the entire school system of racism and insensitivity towards the Chicano community. Schools, declared the activists, used institutionalized techniques such as intelligence tests and a tracking system to insure that disproportional numbers of Chicano children would be placed in vocational education courses or in classes for the mentally retarded

Indigenous Ecology and Chicanada Coalition Building in the dramatic works of Cherríe Moraga: “Living Models” for a Sustainable Future

Abstract: This study focuses on three recent dramatic works by Cherríe Moraga’s written in the same period as her essay and poetry collection, The Last Generation. Heroes and Saints, Watsonville: Some Place Not Here, and Circle in the Dirt: El Pueblo de East Palo Alto draw from indigenous ecology and the historical archive of Chicano struggle that provide models for a sustainable future she envisions. The author shifts from poetry and essay - the lyrical, reflective mode of self-inquiry and expression for which she is so well known – to a collective dramatic dialogue allowing her to represent the diversity of perspectives that have always existed within and around Chicano communities. Through this plurality she is able to give voice to marginalized perspectives and exhibit the ingeniousness and courage behind a long tradition of Chicano coalition building that will be necessary for global alliances of collective resistance. As Chicano activist theater originated with Luis Valdez’s Teatro Campesino associated with United Farmer Workers Union and later with the Chicano Movement, Moraga’s plays are situated within the tradition of Chicano environmental political struggle. These works are infused with the author’s interpretation of an indigenous ecology that conflates her interlaced political discourses on race, sexuality, gender, community, nationalism, and art with a holistic view of the earth. Contributing to a tradition of Chicano environmental discourse and the global indigenous struggle for sovereignty, her work brings together and challenges the assumptions of ecocriticism, ecofeminism and American environmental and naturalist writing particularly in terms of race and class. In these works, Moraga prioritizes the wellbeing of those who dwell in or work the land as opposed to “pristine” open spaces perceived as untouched by human hands

Color/Identity/Justice: Chicano Trials

This Book Review seeks to rectify in small measure the omission of color from American documents of black/white legal and political struggle. Enlarging the spectrum of struggle beyond the black/white paradigm not only works to correct the historical record of color in law, but also helps to advance the progress of color in society. As a starting point for this revision, the review turns to Ian F. Haney Lopez's new book, Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice. Racism on Trial broadens and deepens the study of indigenous and immigrant legal and political struggle by documenting the defense of the Chicano movement in its rise out of the East Los Angeles Mexican community of California amid the turmoil of the 1960s

Does Chicano Rap Empower the Twenty-First Century Immigrants Rights Movement in the United States

The relationship between Chicano rap and the Twenty-First Century Immigrants\u27 Rights Movement proves that music can be a powerful instrument to communicating the voice of a social movement. Through the rap lyrics of Chicano artists, including Kid Frost, Cypress Hill, Control Machete, Lil\u27Rob, Proper Dos, Akwid, and Kinto Sol, I analyze the frustrations and demands of undocumented Mexican immigrants and Chicanos living in the United States. Therefore, I examine how Chicano rap encourages people to change anti-immigrant United States legislature and social rejection against undocumented Mexicans and Chicanos through political activism. Preserving identity, maintaining unity, fighting to change anti-immigrant legislature, and exposing abuses committed by government officials, Chicano rappers through their powerful music urge people to demand humanitarian immigration reform from the U.S. government in order to ensure human rights, equality, and justice for all. Because the unique Chicano rap lyrics in English, Spanish, and Spanglish, uphold the need for social change, I argue that Chicano rap is filled with prevailing significance that empowers the Twenty-First Century Immigrants\u27 Rights Movement

Crossing Disciplinary Borders: Latino/a Studies and Latin American Studies in the 1990s

Over the 30 years of their existence, studies of Latinos/as in the U.S. and the field of Latin American Studies have emerged largely as divided disciplines. That is, despite what would appear to be similar sensibilities including comparable criticisms of Western hegemony and the neocolonial practices of the U.S., as well as the political, economic, and cultural displacement of similar populations, the two areas of study have more often regarded each other as competitive colleagues rather than complimentary practices. In the following study, I examine the nature of the two disciplines paying particular attention to the political context surrounding their formations and the foundations of their discursive frameworks. I examine changes to these disciplines in the methodological and ideological shifts surrounding the emergence of empirical and postmodern studies, and the relationship between these theoretical shifts and the expansion of globalization. Finally, I conclude with a discussion of the emerging field of transnational and bi-national studies and the opportunities for crossing the disciplinary borders between Latino/as studies in the U.S. and Latin American Studies presented in this literature

Are You An Emissary of Jesus Christ?: Justice, The Catholic Church and the Chicano Movement

In 1969, Católicos Por La Raza (CPLR) emerged as an ethnic protest group against the injustices of the American Catholic Church in San Diego and Los Angeles, California. CPLR was critical of the Catholic hierarchy\u27s inconsistencies in relation to the Chicano community. As one of the wealthiest institutions, the Catholic Church was doing very little for a community that made up the largest part of the Church\u27s membership. For CPLR, the Christian message of justice was not practiced by the leaders of the Church. In Los Angeles, Chicanos were asking why the Archdiocese chose to close a high school in the barrio, due to lack of funds, but could still afford to build a three million dollar cathedral in downtown Los Angeles. In San Diego, Chicanos were asking the Catholic Church to become intimately involved in the everyday struggles of the Chicano community. Within this dialogue emerged a clear concept of justice and its meaning for CPLR members in relationship to the hierarchy of the American Catholic Church