Beltrán 2010

From Projecting Power

Chapter 1: El Pueblo Unido, Visions in the Chicano and Puerto Rican Movements

Introduction

  • Late 1960/70s Mexican American and PR activists critiqued American politics
  • Used a mix of cultural nationalism, liberal reformism, radical critique, romantic idealism
  • New political vocabulary
  • Emphasized resistance, recognition, cultural pride, authenticity and fraternity (hermanidad)
  • Profound legacy
  • Represent an unexplored part of 1960s new Left radicalism compared to African Americans
  • Short duration of the movements
  • Disproportionate number of political leaders and academics
  • Today's Chicano political elites were members of a "political generation"
  • Cultivation of significant sociopolitical class
  • Produced institutions that continue to shape Latino political and cultural discourse
  • Movement's institutional legacy seen in higher education (civic education promoting Latino identity)
  • Recent rise of Latinos to high-profile political positions increased attention to organizations and radical pasts
  • Example of Governor Cruz Bustamante
  • Right-wing politicians characterizing prominent Latinos as "secret" radicals and racist nationalists
  • Movement collapsed but its legacy seen in coalitions and empowerment

Chicano and Puerto Rican Movements

Chicano Movement

  • Described the most traumatic and profound social movement to occur among Mexicans
  • Chicano movement shifted Mexican American politics and relationship to American society
  • Intense political activity, militant cultural nationalism
  • 1965 - 1975
  • Thousands of participants
  • Mass mobilization, ethnic separatism to socialist internationalism

Prior to the movement (1920 - 1960)

  • Norms of Mexican American politics: Assimilation integration and participation in electoral politics, an "egalitarian ideal"
  • Veered away from American way of politics, "adhered to no doctrine"
  • Political advancement not through mass movements, but getting close with the Democratic Party
  • Organizations: LULAC, American GI forum, Pan American Progressive Association
  • LULAC: League of United Latin American Citizens
    • Distinguished middle-class membership from Mexican newcomers
    • Restricted membership to American citizens
    • Won victories in courts over de jure segregation
    • High school dropout rates were high (50%)
  • Faced barriers to socioeconomic advancement
  • Rise of Chicano movement was a reaction to ongoing inequality and earlier strategies of Mexican American elites
  • Chicano students as community's most politicized and active members
  • Fighting for citizenship rights
  • Blowouts, demonstrations, rallies, sit-ins
  • Protested Vietnam, Anti-war, fought for Chicano studies program
  • Youthful radicalism, shift in group consciousness shaped by labor activism through arts
    • California: Caesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta founded the National Farm Workers Association (later became United Farm Workers of America (UFW)
      • Strikes, nationally publicized, hunger strikes, boycotts
    • Brown Berets
      • LA paramilitary group
      • Encouraged student protest
      • Restoring ownership of common-use land
    • Artistic Renaissance: art, music, literature in 1960s/70s
  • Heterogeneity as the most striking elements of Chicano movement
    • Movement embodied historical, regional, and social diversity
    • Overlap most apparent within student movement
  • Chicanismo
    • Emerging ideology of cultural nationalism
    • Militant version of self-help and racial solidarity
    • Shared history
    • Aztlán concept, sign or symbol mobilized Chicanos into political action
    • Political manifesto: El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán
    • New ideology: self determination and communal empowerment, focused on social inequality, community empowerment, fear of cultural disintegration

Puerto Rican movement

  • Chicano activists mobilizing same time as Puerto Rican (revolutionary nationalism)
  • Puerto Rican politics in 1950s dominated by moderates and middle class
  • Rich history of political radicalism
  • Cigar makers influenced, craftsmen, factory readings
  • Working class radicalism after WWII
  • Massive immigration to the mainland shifted political climate
  • Calls for a radical transformation of US society while promoting independence of Puerto Rico
  • Inspired by growing militancy in the world
  • Significant organizations: Young Lords Party, Puerto Rican Socialist Party, El Comité-MINP, Puerto Rican Student Union, and more
  • Young Lords left the most lasting legacy, captured public attention,
  • Small but heterogeneous portion of the community
  • Former prison inmates, recovering addicts, college students, hospital workers, parents, Vietnam veterans
  • Young Lords as a socialist organization
    • People programs
    • Active base in NY, and northeast
    • Bilingual paper Pa'lante
    • Successful demonstrations (largest anti-colonial street demonstration)
    • Cultural and political solidarity between African Americans and PR: Afro Carribeans, Afro-Boricuas
    • Denise Oliver leader of Young Lords resigned to join the Black Panther Party → interconnected political and racial relationship

Chapter 2: The Incomplete and Agnostic “We”

Introduction

  • Centers on the political assumptions surrounding the Latino movement
  • Movements spoken in Chapter 1 showcase the desire for Democracy to be a form of political participation in which [the people] are included
  • Author claims that the there is an Ethos surrounding America’s democracy mentioning how the country has failed to serve all its people equally
  • The Latino movement has a disturbing unwillingness to accept distinction among its members given the groups emphasis on promoting unity among the most populoried traits ( often white, straight, cis, etc).
  “Those who challenged norms and traditions became culturally and politically suspect” (Pg. 02)
  • Chicana feminists: feminists were vilified and lesbians silence in the name of 'familia'
  • Marginalized communities Not as carriers of difference
  • 3 sections in the chapter
    • Criticisms of community, unity, and homogeneity
    • Democratic resources of third world feminism
    • Democratic and political openness and closure

The Ideal of Community and the Politics of Difference