The Ideology and Goals of The Chicano Civil Rights Movement, 1968-1969

Title

The Ideology and Goals of The Chicano Civil Rights Movement, 1968-1969

Description

Chicano cultural nationalism was clearly expressed in the 1968 El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, written by the Denver, Colorado based Crusade for Justice, an ethnic Mexican civil rights and educational organization founded by Corky Gonzalez. Gonzalez was the author of the 1967 poem I am Joaquin, which expressed a critique of racism that requires assimilation and the denial of one’s roots. It states:

…that social, economic, cultural, and political independence is the only road to total liberation from oppression, exploitation, and racism. Our struggle then must be for the control of our barrios, campos, pueblos, lands, our economy, our culture, and our political life

The Plan promoted cultural nationalism, pride in Mexican culture, and the creation of independent Chicano political and economic institutions, with community control of schools, advocating for self-defense, and supporting militant protest.

The following year, El Plan de Santa Barbara, A Chicano Plan for Higher Education was written by the Chicano Coordinating Council on Higher Education, a group of students at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The 155-page document was created as a blueprint for the development of Chicana/o Studies programs in colleges and universities in the United States. It would also become the foundation for the Chicano student group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA).

In 1969, students from twelve universities met at a conference in Santa Barbara, calling for the unification of all student and youth organizations into one organization to be called the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA). This included the United Mexican American Students (UMAS), the Mexican American Student Conference (MASC), and the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO). These groups represented student chapters from middle schools through the university level.

Both El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán and El Plan de Santa Barbara were later criticized for excluding women and the LGBT community, reflecting the biases of that time. For this reason, the goals of the Plan for achieving inclusivity are viewed as a work in progress, continually modified by generations of Chicanx scholars.

Additional Online Information

The History and Goals of the Chicano Movement

Plan De Aztlan: Early Chicano Activism | Departures | KCET

El Plan de Aztlan - 60s and 70s America

"El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán," Alurista, 1969. Chicano History.

El plan espiritual de Aztlán · ICAA Documents Project

El Plan de Santa Barbara

Identifier

B4SV Exhibit Topic Six: Slide 004