View source for La Raza

{{short description|Race philosophy}}
{{About|a term for Latin American ethno-racial identity|other uses|La Raza (disambiguation)}}
{{italic title}}
{{Chicano and Mexican American topics sidebar}}
{{Hispanic and Latino Americans}}
[[File:Monumento a La Raza 03 2014 MEX 8349.JPG|thumb|The ''[[Monumento a la Raza (Mexico City)|Monumento a La Raza]]'' at [[Avenida de los Insurgentes]], [[Mexico City]] (inaugurated [[Día de la Raza|12 October]] 1940)]]
[[File:Flag of the Hispanic peoples.svg|thumb|[[Flag of the Hispanic People]]]]
In Mexico, the [[Spanish language|Spanish]] expression '''{{lang|es|la Raza}}'''<ref>Sometimes over-capitalized as {{lang|es|La Raza}}, or given in all-lowercase as {{lang|es|la raza}}. Pronounced {{IPA|es|la ˈrasa|}}</ref> ('the people';<ref name=cpr>{{cite web|url=https://www.cpr.org/2017/07/13/why-the-term-la-raza-has-complicated-roots-in-the-us/|title=Why The Term 'La Raza' Has Complicated Roots In The US|date=July 13, 2017|access-date=January 3, 2021|publisher=[[Colorado Public Radio]]|author=[[Associated Press]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701130436/https://www.cpr.org/2017/07/13/why-the-term-la-raza-has-complicated-roots-in-the-us/|archive-date=July 1, 2020}}</ref> [[literal translation|literally]]: 'the race'<ref name=cpr/>) has historically been used to refer to the [[mixed-race]] populations (primarily though not always exclusively in the [[Western Hemisphere]]),<ref>[[History of the Philippines (1521–1898)|Filipinos]], and people in the former Spanish colony of [[Equatorial Guinea]] are sometimes included in modern conceptions of the term.</ref> considered as an [[Race and ethnicity|ethnic or racial]] unit<ref>{{cite book |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/redeeming-la-raza-9780190909628?cc=us&lang=en& |title=Redeeming La Raza: Transborder Modernity, Race, Respectability, and Rights |date=2018-07-17 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780190909628 |location=Oxford / New York}}</ref> historically deriving from the [[Spanish Empire]], and the process of [[Mestizaje|racial intermixing]] during the [[Spanish colonization of the Americas]] with the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous populations]] of the [[Americas]].

The term was not widely used in [[Latin America]] in the early-to-mid-20th century but has been redefined and reclaimed in {{lang|es|[[Chicanismo]]}} and the United Farm Worker organization since 1968. It still remains in active use specifically in the context of [[Mexican-American]] identity politics in the [[United States]] ({{crossreference|see [[Chicano]]}}).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/la-raza|title=La Raza}}</ref> This terminology for mixed-race originated as a reference to "La Raza Cosmica" by José Vasconcelos, although it is no longer used in this context or associated with "La Raza Cosmica" ideology by Mexican-American, Native rights movements and activists in the United States.

==History==
<!--"Brown Power", "Brown power", "Brown Power movement", and "Brown Power Movement" redirect to the "History" section title here.-->
[[File:Texto del Monumento a La Raza en Sevilla.jpg|thumb|upright|Text by [[Rubén Darío]] ("{{lang|es|Salutación del optimista}}", 1905) inscribed on the [[Monumento a la Raza (Seville)|Monumento a la Raza]] in [[Seville]] (1929). Translation: 'Illustrious, most fruitful races, fecund blood of [[Hispania]], fraternal spirits, lumious souls, greetings!'<!--Inclitas razas ubérrimas, sangre de Hispania fecunda,/espíritus fraternos, luminosas almas, salve !-->]] 
[[File:Biblioteca del Senado de la Provincia - 52 - Por una raza fuerte, laboriosa, pacifista y soberana.jpg|thumb|upright|Propaganda poster by the Argentine government (1947) advocating a "strong, industrious, peaceful and sovereign race".]]

The term '''{{lang|es|la raza}}''' was in use by 1858 in local California newspapers such as ''El Clamor Publico'' by [[californios]] writing about {{lang|es|America latina}} and {{lang|es|latinoamerica}} ([[Latin America]]), and identifying as {{langx|es|latinos|label=none}} as the abbreviated term for their membership in the newly named Latin America's {{lang|es|la raza}}.<ref name=Gutierrez>{{cite book |last1=Gutierrez |first1=Ramon A. |editor1-last=Gutierrez |editor1-first=Ramon A. |editor2-last=Almaguer |editor2-first=Tomas |title=The New Latino Studies Reader: A Twenty-First-Century Perspective |chapter=What's in a Name? |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/GutierrezPp.1953Notes |date=2016 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |location=Berkeley |isbn=978-0-520-28484-5 |oclc=1043876740 |quote=By the late 1850s, {{lang|es|californios}} were writing in newspapers about their membership in {{lang|es|América latina}} (Latin America) and {{lang|es|latinoamerica}}, calling themselves {{lang|es|latinos}} as the shortened name for their hemispheric membership in a {{lang|es|la raza latina}} (a Latin race). Reprinting an 1858 opinion piece by a correspondent in Havana on race relations in the Americas, ''El Clamor Publico'' of Los Angeles surmised that 'two rival races are competing with each other ... the Anglo Saxon and the Latin one.'{{thin space}} |page=34}}</ref>

The shortened name of {{lang|es|Día de la Raza}} (now often, though not always, with a capitalized ''R'') was used in 1939, when the feast day was celebrated in Zaragoza in combination with a special devotion to the {{lang|es|Virgen del Pilar}} ([[Our Lady of the Pillar]]).  Chilean foreign vice-secretary Germán Vergara Donoso commented that the "profound significance of the celebration was the intimate inter-penetration of the homage to the Race and the devotion to Our Lady of the Pillar, i.e. the symbol of the ever more extensive union between America and Spain."<ref>{{cite web |language=es |first=Gustavo |last=Bueno Sánchez |url=http://www.filosofia.org/ave/001/a224.htm |title=Día de la Hispanidad |work=Filosofia.org}}</ref>

[[Francisco Franco]] wrote a novel under the [[pen name]] "Jaime de Andrade" which was turned into the film [[Raza (film)|''Raza'']] of 1942.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/francisco-franco|title=Francisco Franco - Biography, Facts & Death}}</ref> It celebrates idealized "Spanish national qualities", and exemplifies this usage of {{lang|es|raza española}} as referring specifically to Spanish [[Roman Catholic]] heritage. The ''[[Monumento a la Raza (Mexico City)|Monumento a la Raza]]'' was inaugurated in [[Mexico City]] in 1940. [[La Raza metro station]] in Mexico City was inaugurated in 1978.

The term {{lang|es|[[Chicano]]}} (feminine {{lang|es|Chicana}}) likewise arose in the early 20th century as a designation of [[Mexicans]]. In the 1960s to 1970s, the term became associated with the [[Chicano Movement]] in relation to Mexican-American [[identity politics]] activism.
In the United States, the terms {{lang|es|la Raza}} and {{lang|es|Chicano}} subsequently became closely associated.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Alaniz |first1=Yolanda |last2=Cornish |first2=Megan |title=''Viva La Raza'': A History of Chicano Identity and Resistance |location=Seattle |publisher=Red Letter Press |date=2008 |page=181}}</ref> Various Hispanic groups in the United States still use the term.<ref name="LA Weekly">{{cite web |last=Romero |first=Dennis |url=http://www.laweekly.com/news/dear-trump-fans-la-raza-is-not-a-racist-term-7003572 |title=Dear Trump Fans: La Raza Is Not a Racist Term |date=June 7, 2016 |work=Los Angeles Weekly |access-date=June 7, 2016}}</ref> The [[Raza Unida Party]] was active as a political party representing Mexican-American racial identity politics in the 1970s. The Hispanic advocacy organization [[National Council of La Raza]] was formed in 1968 (renamed to [[UnidosUS]] in 2017).

''[[La Raza (newspaper)|La Raza]]'' was the name of a Chicano community newspaper edited by Eliezer Risco in 1968.  Risco was one of the "LA Thirteen", a group of young Mexican-American men who were political activists identified by the government as being leaders of a Brown Power movement in [[Los Angeles]]. Raul Ruiz joined the staff of ''La Raza'' while a student at [[California State University]], Los Angeles. Other community newspapers of the time were ''Inside Eastside'' and ''Chicano Student Movement''. Ruiz, a key journalist in the movement, eventually became the editor of ''La Raza''.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Chicano Generation: Testimonios of the Movement |last=García |first=Mario T. |publisher=University of California Press |date=2015 |isbn=9780520286023 |location=Berkeley, CA |oclc=904133300}}</ref> It became the most influential Chicano-movement publication in southern California. The publications filled a void: for the most part, there had heretofore been no media coverage of any type for the Brown Power movement and its activities. The movement's own print-media publications were really the only forum that the Brown Power movement had to keep party members informed about what was going on in the movement across the Los Angeles area. The lack of the mainstream media coverage contributed to silencing the movement and its activities, unlike with the [[Black Power]] movement; the latter received much more coverage, which contributed to that movement's success in spreading their message and growing their movement.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/youthidentitypow0000muno |title=Youth, Identity, Power: The Chicano Movement |last=Muñoz |first=Carlos |date=2007 |publisher=Verso |isbn=9781844671427 |edition=rev. and expanded |location=London |oclc=124026434 |url-access=registration }}</ref>

==See also==
* {{lang|es|[[Casta]]}}
* [[Clash of Civilizations]]
* {{lang|es|[[Latinidad]]}}
* [[Pan-Latinism]]
* [[Race and ethnicity in Latin America]]
* [[Race and ethnicity in the United States]]
* [[Racial politics]]
* {{lang|es|[[La raza cósmica]]}}
* [[Panhispanism]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Chicano/Mexican-American}}
{{Hispanics/Latinos}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raza}}
[[Category:La Raza| ]]
[[Category:Culture of Latin America]]
[[Category:Race in Latin America]]
[[Category:Identity politics in the United States]]
[[Category:Racism in the United States]]
[[Category:Racism in Latin America]]