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The KUT Longhorn Radio Network Presents: Mexican American Experience Collection

Audio recordings including interviews, music, and informational programs related to the Mexican American community and their concerns in the series "The Mexican American Experience" and "A esta hora conversamos" from the Longhorn Radio Network, 1976-1982.

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PROGRAM INFO

Title:
Chicano Politics
Program #
1978-15
Theme:
Politics

Series:
Elections
Host:
Alejandro Saenz
Guest:
José Angel Gutiérrez
Date:
Feb 15, 1978

Chicano Politics

Dr. Jose Angel Gutierrez discusses the current state and future of La Raza Unida Party and Chicano politics. Gutierrez founded the party in 1970 in Crystal City, Texas. Since then the party has run candidates for several major local, state, and federal elections. Despite government harassment and sabotage, Gutierrez explains that they continue organizing around Chicano issues, and have successfully lobbied for a lower voting age and a bilingual ballot, among other issues. In Crystal City, and other cities where Mexican Americans are a majority, the party has made significant gains, including lowering the dropout-rate, increasing the number of students going to college, and organizing urban renewal programs.

Gutierrez explains that the Democratic and the Republican party both support the same economic and social structures that exclude Mexican Americans. He says that Chicanos need to be able to control their own affairs and strategy and he believes La Raza Unida provides that political space. He hopes that La Raza Unida will be able to move from local victories to regional ones. Moreover, they are working to form contacts with other minority groups, separatist groups and progressive organizations. Gutierrez also explains the party’s relations with the Mexican Government, which has provided scholarships and moral support for La Raza’s project. Gutierrez says that Chicanos need to take resources and services wherever they can get them, including from the federal government, with the understanding that those funds will increase the quality of life, but will not lead to community liberation. He also discusses the party’s relations with historically more conservative Mexican American organizations, such as LULAC and the GI Forum.

KEYWORDS

American GI Forum
Angel Moreno
Anthony, Texas
Antonio Morales
Basic Utilities
Bilingual Ballots
Black Power
Blacklisting
California
Carlos Falcon
Carter Administration
Chicago
Chicano Democrats
Chicano Music Cooperative
Chicano Politicians
Chicano Republicans
CIA
Committee for Rural Democracy
Connections between La Raza Unida and the Mexican Government
Cotulla
Counter Intelligence Program
Crystal City
Cuba
Democratic Party
Detroit
Dolph Briscoe
Domestic spying
Dropout Rates
East Los Angeles
Eduardo Morga
Eduardo Valenzuela
Ethnic Solidarity
Farm Workers
FBI
Federal Funds
Frank Shafer-Corona
Frio County
Gays
Gerrymandering
Government Surveillance
Hebbronville, Texas
Hector Flores
Immigration Policy
IRS
John Hill
Jose Angel Gutierrez
La Raza Unida
La Raza Unida Party Accomplishments
Latino Council
Little Joe Hernandez
Luis Deleon
LULAC
Manuel Lopez
MAPA
Medina Rural Electrical Cooperative
Mexico City
Minority organizing
Mohair Cooperative
National Council of La Raza
Palestine
Palestinian Liberation Organization
Panama
Police brutality
Political repression
population growth
Progressive politics
Quebec
Raul Ruiz
Red-Baiting
Reies Lopez Tijerina
Republican Party
Ricardo Zazueta
S.E.R.
San Juan, Texas
Scholarship programs
Separatist Movements
Signing the stub
Southwest Voter Registration Educational Drive
Starr County
Texas
Texas Cooperatives
Third party politics
Transnational activism
Voting age
 

Center for Mexican American Studies | Department of History | The Benson Latin American Collection

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