![]() One of the major tenants of La Raza's initial platform was to improve conditions in educational institutions for minority students in Los Angeles. "Mis Amigos Chicanos, the time has come to stop apologizing for being Mexicans.We must unify, organize and mobilize the entire Mexican Community into political and militant action." Educational reform and the East L.A. This first issue also included an editorial written by Richard Vargas which encapsulated the newspaper's mission: The first issue of La Raza was published in September, 1967 and included Corky Gonzalez's landmark poem I Am Joaquín. Risco and Robinson oversaw the writing and production of the issues while Luce provided the resources and equipment. During the first eight months of publication, the paper issues were typed and printed in the church basement. It was at this meeting where the title "La Raza" was chosen for the paper, as the group felt that this phrase appealed to the highly diverse Mexican-American population in Los Angeles. La Raza was officially founded in mid-1967 by Luce, Risco, Robinson, and a small group of staff members in the basement of Luce's church, the Church of the Epiphany in Lincoln Heights. Risco, who wanted to direct his efforts towards helping the urban population rather than farm workers, eventually had a falling out with Chavez, and soon after the trio of Luce, Risco, and Robinson began the process of creating the newspaper. The three recognized the need for a voice to represent the urban Chicano population in Los Angeles and began to conceive of what would eventually become La Raza. The three initially met in early 1967 while Robinson and Risco were working for Cesar Chavez on El Merciado, the Chicano farmworker's union newspaper, when Chavez asked Luce to provide housing and food to farm workers. The founding of La Raza was spearheaded by Episcopalian Reverend John Luce, Cuban-born activist Elizier Risco, and Ruth Robinson, Risco's girlfriend. The archive is currently held at the Chicano Studies Research Center at UCLA. ![]() The staff at La Raza, meanwhile, became increasingly active and even militant members of the Chicano movement, helping to organize marches and clashing with officials.īy the time the magazine was shut down in 1977, an archive of 25,000 images capturing some of the most prominent events in the Chicano movement had been amassed. La Raza took an ardently anti- Vietnam War stance, joining in the surge in the underground press prompted by backlash to the war. Īs the newspaper's popularity grew, so did the scope of its coverage, and it began to go beyond Los Angeles to discuss national and international issues from a Chicano perspective. ![]() In June 1970, the publication changed to a 20-page magazine format to gain more revenue and provide its readers with more content. The paper quickly grew in popularity, though, as the growth of the Chicano movement prompted the dispersal of copies of La Raza across the United States. During its first three years, La Raza was published as an eight-page tabloid. church with the objective of driving community organization for the Chicano movement, which was still on the rise, and improving awareness of the Mexican-American experience in Los Angeles, which the editors felt was neglected by the large media outlets. La Raza was founded in the basement of an East L.A. Taking a photojournalistic approach, the editors and contributors at La Raza were able to capture images of police brutality, segregation, and protests that rallied support to the Chicano cause. The paper played a seminal role in the Chicano Movement, providing activists a platform to document the abuses and inequalities faced by Mexican-Americans in Southern California. La Raza was a bilingual newspaper and magazine published by Chicano activists in East Los Angeles from 1967-1977.
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