Reflections on the Chicano Movement

Abstract

The Chicano movement was a potent force in American society during the tumultuous decades of the Vietnam War, urban riots, the antiwar movement, and Watergate. One of several politically militant groups that began to challenge the hegemony of the ruling class in the 1960s and 1970s, the movement had several major components: Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers (UFW) in California, Reies-L6pez Tijerina's Alianza de Pueblos Libres (Alliance of Free Peoples) and the land-grants struggle in New Mexico, Rodolfo Corky Gonzales and the Cruzada (Crusade for Justice) in Colorado, and the electoral movement of Jose Angel Gutierrez in South Texas. Out of this movement sprang hundreds of organizations whose purpose was to improve socioeconomic conditions for Mexican-American people. Today the Chicano movement lies dormant while the Latino population continues to grow. Were any of its goals accomplished? If it was a search for identity, then why has the term Hispanic come into widespread use, replacing Chicano? These questions have recently been addressed by several scholars in attempts at synthesis and analysis of this important era for the Chicano community. In United We Win Ignacio Garcia gives us a richly textured history of the meteoric rise of the Raza Unida party (RUP) in South Texas and its all-too-rapid disappearance from the political landscape. His book is based upon previously published and unpublished material, primary information from party members' personal files, and interviews of participants. It takes the reader from the early days of the Mexican