Lesson 9 Essay

One of the earliest forms of associations among Mexican American and Mexican Immigrants was the mutualista or known as mutual aid association. The Mexican American has distinct communities in different United States with different heritages. They have lived in the United States for certain periods of time. Their interaction with the members of dominant groups has been different. The concept of the mutualista was the mutualista providing the working class and poor with a broad range of benefits and services that was not affordable. Members provided themselves with a number of benefits and services which included funerals, disability, and other types of insurance, cried and cultural events.

The mutualista was also seen as an organization;” an element of continuity to the spasmodic organizational condition” of Mexican American. Chicano nationalism advanced the concept of “LaRaza”, meaning; “the race” or “the people”. The term “La Raza” has been used to describe organizational campaigns of protest in Texas, Mexico and California.

In California, Mexican Americans like Francis P. Ramirez, which is the editor and publisher of the Los Angeles Spanish language weekly. And like a social bandit name Tiburcio Vasquez, which advocated the creation of a new sense of ethnic solidarity among members of what the newspaper variously described as “the Mexican population”. Their use marked the birth of an oppositional strategy that acknowledged the common oppression Mexican Americans suffered in American society while offering an alternative, positive label that countered the stigmatizing status many Americans sought to impose on Mexicans.

In addition to creating general self-help organizations and the concept of LaRaza, Mexican Americans attempted to form labor organizations. This movement was related to their occupational concentration in the employment areas discussed earlier, including agriculture, mining, and the railroads. The American labor movement did not welcome...