La Raza Unida Party
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National United Peoples Party
Partido Nacional de La Raza Unida |
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|---|---|
| Chairman | Xenaro Ayala |
| Founder |
José Ángel Gutiérrez Mario Compean |
| Founded | January 17, 1970 |
| Ideology |
Chicano nationalism Mexican American interests |
| Party flag | |
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Partido Nacional de La Raza Unida (National United Peoples Party or United Race Party) is a former Hispanic political party centered on Chicano (Mexican-American) nationalism. It was born in the early 1970s and became prominent throughout Texas and Southern California. It was started to combat growing inequality and dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party that was typically supported by Mexican-American voters. After its establishment in Texas, the party launched electoral campaigns in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and California, though it only secured official party status for statewide races in Texas. It did poorly in the 1978 Texas elections and leaders and members dropped away.
La Raza, as it was usually known, experienced most of its success at the local level in Southwest Texas, most notably when the party swept city council, school board, and mayoralty elections in Crystal City, Cotulla, and Carrizo Springs. Much of the success was attributed to the aggressive grassroots organizing that was concentrated in cities that had the lowest income and education levels.
The Mexican American Youth Organization, MAYO, was begun by five young men studying at St. Mary’s in 1967: Jose Angel Gutierrez, Mario Compean, William Velasquez, Ignacio Perez, and Juan Patlan. As to what united them all in creating this organization, Jose Angel explained “all of us were the products of the traditional Mexican American organizations […]All of us were very frustrated at the lack of political efficacy, at the lack of any broad based movement, and at the lack of expertise”. Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement and by leaders like Martin Luther King Jr and black nationalists like Malcolm X, they reached the conclusion that the actions being taken by the leaders of the Chicano Movement were not doing enough to get results. They decided that they would halt the current approach being utilized by groups like LULAC and the American G. I. Forum, “which by the 1960’s relied on litigation and support from sympathetic Anglos to achieve their goals”. The five men decided that their new tactics would be much more confrontational, utilizing civil disobedience tactics used in the Civil Rights Movement. They decided to incorporate Saul Alinsky’s model of confrontation politics: "And we said that was going to be the strategy[…] use confrontational politics based on information[…] well researched, but also foregoing the use of nice language”. MAYO became dedicated to creating meaningful social change by relying on abrasing, confrontational (but nonviolent) measures. They protested, picketed, and spread their message through newspapers like El Deguello, El Azteca,and La Revolucion. Their tactics earned them criticisms both white and Mexican American political figures who felt that they were being too abrasive in their tactics. Jose Angel became targeted especially after comments he made where he called to “eliminate the gringo”. While he elaborated to say that by gringo he meant “a person or institution that has a certain policy or program, or attitudes that reflect bigotry, racism, discord, prejudice, and violence”, the damage was done. Despite attacks on all sides, MAYO continued to organize protests and boycotts, which is what ultimately led them to Crystal City.
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Wikipedia