[ConservativeStandUP]

La Plaza de LA RAZA??? The Plaza of the RACE? What is that like Cholo-land??

[elbucko]

What is that like Cholo-land??

Si!

[Clemenza]

As in "La Raza Cosmica" and early 20th Century semi-fascist concept developed by the Mexican Professor, Jose Vasconcelos, who claimed that the Mestizo was superior because they combined the best of the European and the Indian.

[Criminal Number 18F]

"La raza" means the race, yeah. But it also has a lot of freight in Mexico, as an idiom. See, one of the most explosive facts in Mexican society is the stratification of the races. Instead of a "colour bar" like Apartheid, they have a "colour continuum".

The more European blood you have, the more money and power you have. It's a nearly linear correlation. The more Indian blood you have, the more poverty and suffering you can count on. Similar.

In the past, this has caused social unrest and even revolution and guerilla wars in Mexico.

"La Raza" is a Mexican fiction that keeps the lid on this pressure cooker. It is the official party line, parroted by all but actually believed by none, that there are no different admixtures of Mexican bloodlines, and everybody is equally mixed... Mestizo... which is The Race.. "La Raza".

So it means "race" in the sense of the English word, too, and you are not mistaking the racist separatism and exclusion it implies. But it also has this meaning of "Mexican unity." Razistas like Bustamante consider themselves the brothers of Vicente Fox and other Mexicans, not Americans. Anyone who identifies as American, no matter if his name is 100% Mexican, is "fuera de la raza".

What does it mean to be outside of the elect race? I suggest you ask the Jews of Eastern Europe, if you can find any. They'll have an interesting perspective on Bustamante's racial agenda.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F