La Raza Unida
La Raza Unida Party (RUP) was a militant, anti-American hate group which was established in 1970 at a meeting of 300 Mexican-Americans in Crystal City, Texas by José Ángel Gutiérrez and Mario Compean. La Raza Unida simply means “The Race United.”
La Raza Unida should not be confused with NCLR - National Council of La Raza - which is a different group, although they both have many similar objectives.
In 1972 the First La Raza Unida Party (RUP) National Convention was held and Gutierrez was elected as National Chair of the Party. RUP rejected both the Republican and Democratic Party and created an independent political movement to advance their agenda. Initially they had some successes, but many Mexican Americans refused to run under the RUP banner. In 1978, RUP did poorly at the polls.
While La Raza Unida has engaged in legitimate civil rights issues, its true agenda was revealed at the 1980 convention.(1) RUP declared a policy of Revolutionary Nationalism and the eventual takeover of what they refer to as Aztlan, which is composed of five southwestern states; California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Colorado. RUP wrongly believes that the southwest US was stolen from Mexico.(2)
Jose Angel Gutierrez, ‘professor’ at the University of Texas at Arlington and founder of La Raza Unida: “The border remains a military zone. We remain a hunted people. Now you think you have a destiny to fulfill in this land that historically has been ours for forty thousand years, and we're a new Mestizo nation. And they want us to discuss civil rights. Civil rights! What law made by white men to oppress all of us of color, female and male! This is our homeland. We cannot, we will not, and we must not be made illegal in our own homeland. We are not im-mi-grants that came from another country to another country; we are migrants, free to travel the length and breadth of the Americas because we belong here. We are millions. We just have to survive. We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. It's a matter of time. [laughter] The explosion is in our population.” Audio clip of Gutierrez(5)
Gutierrez, regarded as the movement’s leader, has one objective: Conquer the southwest US and make it a Mestizo nation. In a 1999 interview, he stated:
Q: Does the concept of Aztlán have anything to do with Mexico?
A: Aztlán is one half of the one Mexico that we need to build. This is the Mexico on the other side, north of the Rio Grande, El Rio Bravo. We have been dismembered since 1826 in Texas, and 1848 in the rest of the Southwest. And then after 1853 in La Mesia, from Tucson to the border of California. So the mission of Aztlán is to put back together the original land where our ancestors came from. So our movement, then, has everything to do with the Mexico that exists. And that is, to make it bigger, to return it to its original homeland size.(3)
Q: What relevance does the concept of the Aztlán have for the year 2000 and beyond? Is it a practical concept?
A: Our numbers now are such that we are critical mass throughout the nation. Depending on what state you’re in, we’re on the verge of already being a majority minority. In some places, a majority, and in years to come, probably about one quarter of the entire United States population. We will exercise our rights, which include political sovereignty. So Aztlán will become a reality. It is not our fault that whites don’t make babies, and blacks are not growing in sufficient numbers, and there’s no other groups with such a goal to put their homeland back together again. We do. Those numbers will make it possible. I believe that in the next few years, we will see an irredentists movement, beyond assimilation, beyond integration, beyond separatism, to putting Mexico back together as one. That's Irredentism. One Mexico, one nation.(3)
For all the people who support the creation of Aztlan and uniting with Mexico here are some questions: Most Mexicans come to the US to escape the poverty and dysfunctional Mexican society. Why would Mexicans want to go back to what they escaped from? America is still a good place to live. That’s why Mexicans keep coming to the US. It’s doubtful that a majority of Mexicans would want to live in Aztlan. Soon Aztlan would be as dysfunctional as the rest of Mexico. Then where would Mexicans flee too?
Gutierrez and others like him somehow believe if you have Indian blood in you - Mestizos - you are some sort of superior human who doesn’t have to obey the border between the US and Mexico. This is all a scam for two reasons: First, Gutierrez is only attacking the border with the US, not other countries in Central America, and second, the Indians Gutierrez is talking about NEVER inhabited US territory. Being part Indian doesn’t make you superior or above the law. It means you're part indian.
More questions for the scammers: Why does everyone in this movement have Spanish names? Can you prove you are part Indian? What about Americans who are part Indian? There is no rule on how long someone has to live in a place before they become a ‘native.’ Most Americans have been here over 100 years and many over 200 years. That’s long enough to be a native. We’re staying. YOU can leave.
It’s OBVIOUS that RUP is only using the Indians as an excuse to give moral justification to their desire to reconquer the southwest US for Mexico. Many Mexicans still cannot accept the fact their big army lost wars to Texas in 1836 and then the US in 1846 - wars Mexico was certain they would win. Mexico was responsible for starting both wars!(2) With this type of imperialistic mindset, it is difficult to see how there could be a peaceful resolution.
A number of charter schools are in existence that support, at least indirectly, this anti-American attitude. One example is La Academia Semillas del Pueblo in Los Angeles which is supported by National Council of La Raza and engages in ‘Indigenous Education’: “Semillas students receive instruction in three languages: English, Spanish, and Nahuatl (the indigenous language of Mexico)...” “HUEHUETLAMACHILISTLE, in Nahuatl, is how Semillas refers to Aztec cultural, environmental, historic and cosmic knowledge systems. Huehuetlamachilistle names the cosmovision or as best translated into English the wisdom about the universe and the relations among all that exists within it as experienced over time by Peoples indigenous to North America.” “In addition to a core expertise on Aztec culture, our educators have learned from the elders and oral traditions of the Haudenosaunee Confederation of Nations, the Zuni Pueblo, the Quiche Maya, and the Inca of Ecuador, all of which have struggled to straddle the challenge of ancient memory and modern reality.”(4)
Nahuati was the Aztec language, not Mexico’s. They seem to have forgotten that it was the Spanish who destroyed the Aztec, Mayan and Inca empires.
La Raza Unida opposed Proposition 187 in California in 1994, where the state was spending over $3 BILLION a year in aid to illegal aliens. Proposition 187 had this introduction on the ballot: “The People of California find and declare as follows: That they have suffered and are suffering economic hardship caused by the presence of illegal immigrants in this state. That they have suffered and are suffering personal injury and damage caused by the criminal conduct of illegal immigrants in this state. That they have a right to the protection of their government from any person or persons entering this country unlawfully.” Proposition 187 passed by 59 to 41 percent but was eventually declared unconstitutional by liberal judges after being challenged in court by La Raza and the morally clueless Clinton administration. Clinton was more interested in getting more voters for the Democratic party then doing what was right.
Although La Raza Unida officially no longer exists, it’s ideas continue to be promoted by Mexican American imperialists. Supporters of the La Raza Unida message must be exposed for the evil goals they are advancing - and confronted. Americans need to prepare themselves for any possibility.
"It's a game - it's a game of power - who controls it. You (to MEChA students) are like the generals that command armies. We're in a state of war. This Proposition 187 is a declaration of war against the Latino/Chicano community of this country. They know the demographics. They know that history and time is on our side. As one community, as one people, as one nation within a nation as the community that we are, the Chicano/Latino community of this nation. What this means is a transfer of power. It means control." Armando Navarro, member of La Raza Unida, Prof. Ethnic Studies, UC Riverside at Latino Summit Response to Prop 187, UC Riverside, 1/1995(7) Picture of Navarro.(8)
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“We recognize that the barriers to our integrating into this society and to uplifting ourselves is the gringo. The gringo whose put the barriers who makes us - you know - drop out of school, who keeps us in bad health, who doesn’t pay us good wages, who prohibits our union and so on and so on and so on. So until we get rid of those elements, we’re not going to progress, we’re not going to be free. So yes, the gringo must go.” Jose Angel Gutierrez from PBS Chicanos! Documentary in 1996.(9)