Fighting for political power is the fourth episode of the video documentary Chicano. The history of the Mexican-American civil rights movement is how the Chicanos demanded political representation formulation of their part La Rada Unida for a change in the U.S political field. The film begins with five Mexican-Americans elected to political office from the crystal city of Texas After the town. The video also depicts how a protest against the high school cheerleading tradition put the town’s Anglo-American power structure against the Mexican American populace.
For the longest time, the Mexican-Americans accounted for the largest population of Texas City yet had no political power or representation in congress. They had many legal barriers to participation in politics. It was an attempt to put them to power through Los Cinco but it failed (Calderon et al., 2021). The establishment of the League of the United Latin American citizen successfully broke down some barriers such as education, employment, and health services. Unlike the older people who wanted to upload their dignity to the party, the youths were very active and believed that they were the generation to bring change to the facet of political power. The success of the Mexican-Americans in education is due to their history and ability to speak Spanish fluently and freely.
Other than spreading the party’s mission and vision through news, many art forms also helped in the fight for political equity. A new generation of Mexican-American artists, poets, writers, and musicians gave a new definition of the American culture reclaiming their heritage. The La Rada Unida held its first party convention in El Paso. They developed an interest in having their pry rather than a two-party system and the election of their party, where Jose Angela Gutierrez won over Rodolfo (Calderon et al., 2021). Unfortunately, due to attacks by different policies for justice, the organization of the party slowly died.
The idea that Mexican-Americans could not participate politically due to the color of their skin was against their constitutional rights amendment 15. Since the Mexican-Americans took the largest population of the city, they were to be well represented. The Chicano’s civil rights movement, similar to the civil war movement, fought for what was rightfully theirs, including human rights, heritage, and freedom from oppression.
Despite its short life, the movement helped Mexican-Americans gain more political power though it was a small piece. It was beautiful to mention the artistic aspect of the movement; besides official political fighting battles, art played an excellent role (Teitelman, 2020). Even though the party and the movement participated in the distribution of the political dynamics, inspiring the new generation of political activists who fought for democracy and introducing political activists that were much more aware and active, it short-lived.
The film Chicano does an excellent job of explaining the plight of Mexican-Americans throughout history and during the Chicano Movement. The series vividly depicts what it was like to be a brown person in the 1960s (Calderon et al., 2021). The film was well elaborated and indicated the themes through the interviews of the characters. There still are many questions about whether the movement succeeded in the fight for political freedom and to what capacity. However, the Mexican-American population in politics is growing bigger; thus, they will no longer become the minority but the majority in political office.
References
Calderon, A., Fouka, V., & Tabellini, M. (2021). Racial diversity, electoral preferences, and the supply of policy: The Great Migration and civil rights (IZA Discussion Paper No. 14312). IZA Institute of Labor Economics.
Teitelman, E. (2020). The properties of capitalism: Industrial enclosures in the South and the West after the American Civil War. Journal of American History, 106(4), 879-900. Web.