May Days Past (Raza Studies)

Raza Studies. Like the rest of you, I’ve been wondering how the lead organization lobbying on behalf of special privileges for Mexicans in the U.S.A. manages to get away with calling itself “National Council of La Raza.” Those last two words, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, mean “the race.” The idea, as I had it explained to me, is that by blending the European race with the Mesoamerican, Mexico has brought forth a new race, the mestizo or bronze race, which is claimed to be superior to both the contributing races, I suppose by dint of hybrid vigor. This bronze über-race is “La Raza.”

This notion, if it was explained to me correctly, considerably misrepresents Mexico’s population, around 40 percent of which is unmixed (10-percent pure-European, 30-percent pure-Mesoamerican). Leaving that aside, how do they get away with it? The U.S.A. is currently in a condition of hyper-prudery about race. I get a regular trickle of e-mails telling me I am an evil, evil person for thinking that such a thing as race even exists. In this atmosphere, you would think that an outfit declaring itself, in its very name, to be promoting the interests of The Race, and whose published material shouts an ethic of racial triumphalism, would belong out on the kooky fringes of society along with Aryan Nation and Black Liberation Theology.

Yet La Raza is as respectable as it is possible to be. Its “corporate partners” program lists all the biggest names in U.S. business: Allstate, Ford, Wal-Mart, Xerox. . . . Its spokesmen regularly appear on TV talking-head programs. Presidential candidates line up to address it. On a respectability scale, “The Race” is up there with the Kiwanis, American Cancer Society, and the Episcopal Church.

And still they show not the faintest sign of being embarrassed about their name. “We are The Race,” they seem to be telling us cheerfully. “We’re promoting the interests of The Race. Why would anybody object to that?”

In fact, they are spreading it around. There seems now to be a growing trend towards “Raza Studies” in schools and colleges. (The definite article is sometimes included, sometimes not. On general linguistic principles, this probably means it’s on its way out, like the slowly disappearing hyphen in words like “email.”) Most of us first found out about this from the May 21 column in Tucson Citizen by high-school teacher John A. Ward. Ward’s column has been bouncing around the web for the last few days, generating a lot of comment. Ward, who describes himself as Hispanic, was assigned to teach “a U.S. history course with a Mexican-American perspective” under the aegis of “the Raza/Chicano Studies department.” (And this was five years ago, please note.) When he found out what the course material consisted of, he balked.

The basic theme of the curriculum was that Mexican-Americans were and continue to be victims of a racist American society driven by the interests of middle and upper-class whites.

In this narrative, whites are able to maintain their influence only if minorities are held down. Thus, social, political and economic events in America must be understood through this lens.

This biased and sole paradigm justified teaching that . . . the Southwestern United States was taken from Mexicans because of the insatiable greed of the Yankee who acquired his values from the corrupted ethos of Western civilization.

It was taught that the Southwest is "Atzlan," the ancient homeland of the Aztecs, and still rightfully belongs to their descendants — to all people of indigenous Mexican heritage.

When Ward protested about this material he was called a “racist” — by the administrators of the Raza Studies program! He was reassigned to other classes.

Raza Studies is metastasizing. A Google on the phrase got 14,200 hits even with the Tucson story subtracted out (“raza studies” –tucson –tusd). San Francisco State University offers a B.A. in Raza Studies. It seems to be the only college offering this particular degree, but I doubt that will be the case for long. Watch out for Raza Studies at a high school or college near you. But don’t dare let on you believe there is such a thing as race!

Mexico has brought forth a new race, the mestizo or bronze race, which is claimed to be superior to both the contributing races, I suppose by dint of hybrid vigor. This bronze über-race is “La Raza.”

This notion, if it was explained to me correctly, considerably misrepresents Mexico’s population, around 40 percent of which is unmixed (10-percent pure-European, 30-percent pure-Mesoamerican)

How does it how it escape the attention of the Mechista/Raza/etc naifs that the ruling class of Mexico is overwhelmingly composed of that 10 % unmixed white element of their population? If "La Raza" doesn't even rule in Mexico, how can they expect to rule in the USA?

Of course, the big question is, why does American culture, especially corporate culture, politely countenance and even encourage such overt racism in our midst?

It was taught that the Southwest is "Atzlan," the ancient homeland of the Aztecs . . .

Would these be the same Aztecs who threw virgins down wells, cut the hearts out of living sacrificial victims and butchered neighboring tribes by the tens of thousands?

Gee, that's really an ancestry to be proud of, isn't it?

My native American ancestors actually got along with white people in many cases, saving their lives in some cases and, if they killed them at all, it was something humane like a tomahawk to the back of the head or a rifle shot to the heart.

It was taught that the Southwest is "Atzlan," the ancient homeland of the Aztecs, and still rightfully belongs to their descendants — to all people of indigenous Mexican heritage.

This will come as news to the Navajo, Hopi, Pima, etc. Indians who were the actual indigenous people of the American Southwest.

The Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs never made it further north than what is now Central Mexico.

Lets face it: Mexico is a failing state. And as was said by a former president of Mexico, “so far from God, so close to the US.” How these two uncomfortable facts will play out in the next two decades is anyone’s guess, but one thing is certain: unless illegal immigration is controlled, the violence and chaos that is coming in Mexico will spill over into the entire US.

The idea, as I had it explained to me, is that by blending the European race with the Mesoamerican, Mexico has brought forth a new race, the mestizo or bronze race, which is claimed to be superior to both the contributing races, I suppose by dint of hybrid vigor.

La Raza actually refers to what they believe is a new race of people made up of all of the old races of the world called La Raza Cósmica (the cosmic race) which will eventually absorb all of the old races and create a new worldwide civilization called Universópolis.

In the same way that La Raza claims Atzlan because they are descended from the Aztecs, they can also claim the rest of the world being as they believe this new race is descended from all races. Atzlan isn't the ultimate goal, it is just the beginning.

The people that explained this theory to you seem to have a poor grasp of reality and history.
The idea that current Mexicans are descended from the Aztecs is absurd. Most of the inhabitants of Mexico before Cortez were not Aztecs. In fact, the majority of the population was oppressed by the Aztecs.
As to the prediction that a news race of people will be born, one wonders if the proponents of Aztlan have consulted the Chinese on this matter. And if a new race of people is going to be born, why would they want to use Spanish as their language?

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