When I was in grad school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison I got to know a few movimiento people who had been active in La Raza Unida, the Mexican American Youth Organization and MEChA, among others.
One of the most interesting was Mario Compean from Las Wilmas (San Antonio), who, for those of us old enough to remember, was the last Raza Unida candidate for governor of Texas.Mario was working on his PhD in Educational Administration at the UW and acted as a sort of mentor to younger undergrads through the university's Chicano Advocate's office. Those of us from South Texas – and there were Chicanos from throughout the United States there – gravitated around a core group made up of Mechistas and upper classmen. A favorite gathering place was the university's Rathskleller at the student union.
Now, Wisconsin, being a beer-manufacturing state (the beer that made Milwaukee famous, among others), lent itself to the consumption of its products. The Rathskeller started serving beer at 11 a.m.
In the evenings, after classes concluded and a bunch of us gathered to shoot the breeze over a mug of Old Style beer, the tales would start flowing. What follows is one of the better offerings by Compean.
It seems that when La Raza activists would go to the outlying rural communities in Central Texas around Uvalde, Crystal City, etc., a part of the organizing would include the proper manner to conduct a meeting under Robert's Rules of Order. This, of course, would set off a round of protest from independent minded adult migrant workers.
"Y quien es ese Robert?" they would ask when the chair when he called them to order and allowed someone the floor. "Porque manda el?"After a couple of these meetings, people generally caught on and by then the organizers were ready for most questions. That is, until they got to a meeting at a small town held in a church hall.
"La raza was getting into the meeting and following the rules of order until an old man stood up bien enojado and demanded to know why we wanted to get rid of el mocho (someone without an arm or leg)," Compean would say.
"Yo nomas quiero saber porque quieren sacar al mocho," the old man said. "Oigo que saquen el mocho y que saquen el mocho. Que les hizo el mochito pa que lo quieran sacar?"
It took a while for the organizers to understand the man's protest, but when they did, they burst out laughing, much to the man's displeasure.
"No, señor, they're saying that they second the motion, no que saquen el mocho!"
6 comments:
I admire the focus on La Raza in the 60's and 70's....but get real, La Raza is passe. Pride in La Raza is great, but the reality is, all ethnic groups have their own "la Raza" and all are equal to the Hispanic claims of race. La Raza of Crystal City was racist. It is time to get over the past, welcome the new diversity that surely exists in the U.S. these days. Hispanics who seek the benefits of our society (welfare, free education, medical care) need to be willing to "compromise" their "la raza" to get their free benefits.
A joke well told.
A group cannot be racist unless they have/had a position of power with which they
practice/d unfair dominion over another group. Our Raza has never held such in the USA. We may be ethnocentric but racist, no. As long as we allow our struggle for the rights we have today to lose importance, we stand to lose them tomorrow. Our complacency is our own worse enemy.
“La Raza of Crystal City was racist.”
Webster’s dictionary defines racism: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and those racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.
As a Chicano raised in Crystal City I can say that La Raza de Crystal City was certainly not racist as defined by Webster or you. To experience discrimination, humiliation, and the feeling of being a second class citizen is not wished upon others to experience in life. Be thankful that you perhaps have never experience what La Raza fought for and it is wishful thinking that such experiences are something of the past.
La Raza de Crystal City asked for equality not handouts from society. Equality to be educated, to be able to eat in a restaurant, to compete in the job market, to vote for the candidate of your choice are a few of the civil rights that you perhaps don’t need to compromise in today’s society because of the efforts of those who were willing to fight for it in the 60’s and 70’s.
I was a young man in Brownsvill in 1968 and saw the injustice of a small minority holding economic and political power over a much larger majority. So in the spirit of the 60's, I voted a straight Raza Unida ticket. I was ignorant of all the ramifications of that, but it seemed the right thing to do.
El Pinche Gringo
"I have seen the enemy, and it is us!"
The Raza Unida Party is no more, its message lost in the struggle for the almighty dollar. Our intellectuals have jumped ship. The only Raza left are gang-bangers in prison.
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