For a few brief months during the presidential campaign of 1960, Mexican Americans caught a glimpse of their own Camelot in the promise of John F. Kennedy. Grassroots "Viva Kennedy Clubs" sprang up not only in the southwestern United States but also across California and the upper Midwest to help elect the young Catholic standard bearer. The leaders of the Viva Kennedy Clubs were confident and hopeful that their participation in American democracy would mark the beginning of the end of discrimination, violence, and poverty in the barrio. Although the dream of attaching their own Camelot to Kennedy's ultimately ended in disappointment, these participatory efforts contributed to an identity-building process for Mexican Americans that led to greater emphasis on Americanization for some and to the more radical rhetoric of the Chicano Movement for others. In "Viva Kennedy," Ignacio M. Garcia surveys the background, development, and evolution of the Viva Kennedy Clubs and their post-election incarnation as PASO, the Political Association of Spanish-Speaking Organizations. He argues that patriotic fervor of the 1940s and postwar economic expansion spurred middle-class Mexican Americans to strive for full inclusion in American society. Ironically, those involved in the Viva Kennedy movement showed their militancy in fighting discrimination even as they upheld America's conservative values. They believed that discrimination could be overcome through government actions that recognized their civil rights and through their own political participation. Garcia describes the post-election problems of the Viva Kennedy reformers, who first saw the Kennedy administration ignore its campaign promises to them and then encountered their own factional squabbles, chronic funding problems, and a growing unease among Anglo Americans wary of Mexican American political power. Based on research and interviews with key leaders of the Viva Kennedy movement such as Ed Idar, Jr., Edward R. Roybal, and Albert Pena, Jr., this study unveils a portrait of a people in transition and provides a nuanced picture of twentieth-century Mexican American history.

This exciting new volume from Armando Navarro offers the most current and comprehensive political history of the Mexicano experience in the United States. Viewing Mexicanos today as an occupied and colonized people, Navarro calls for the formation of a new movement to reinvigorate the struggle for resistance and change. His book is a valuable resource for social activists and instructors in Latino politics, U.S. race relations, and social movements.

In the 1960s and 1970s, an energetic new social movement emerged among Mexican Americans. Fighting for civil rights and celebrating a distinct ethnic identity, the Chicano Movement had a lasting impact on the United States, from desegregation to bilingual education. Rethinking the Chicano Movement provides an astute and accessible introduction to this vital grassroots movement. Bringing together different fields of research, this comprehensive yet concise narrative considers the Chicano Movement as a national, not just regional, phenomenon, and places it alongside the other important social movements of the era. Rodriguez details the many different facets of the Chicano movement, including college campuses, third-party politics, media, and art, and traces the development and impact of one of the most important post-WWII social movements in the United States.

This encyclopedia provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of Hispanic Americans engaged in U.S. politics, from increased visibility as governors and other lawmakers at the local, state, and federal levels to their growing importance as a voting constituency. This encyclopedia comprehensively surveys the evolution of Latina/o engagement in US politics as voters, candidates, lawmakers, and public officials. It is an authoritative resource for public library patrons, high school students, and undergraduates in a variety of curricular studies, including political science, civics, American history, and Latino studies. The set's A–Z entries were carefully selected and crafted to ensure thorough coverage of all of the individuals, organizations, cultural forces, political issues, and legal decisions that have combined to elevate the role of Latinos at the polls, on the campaign trail, in Washington, and in mayors' offices, city councils, school boards, and statehouses all across the country. In-depth essays on the rising prominence of Latino Americans as voters, candidates, public officials, lawmakers, and opinion leaders will provide further context for understanding their impact on modern U.S. political processes and institutions from the perspective of liberals and conservatives alike.

Latinos are the fastest growing population in America today. This two-volume encyclopedia traces the history of Latinos in the United States from colonial times to the present, focusing on their impact on the nation in its historical development and current culture. "Latino History and Culture" covers the myriad ethnic groups that make up the Latino population. It explores issues such as labor, legal and illegal immigration, traditional and immigrant culture, health, education, political activism, art, literature, and family, as well as historical events and developments. A-Z entries cover eras, individuals, organizations and institutions, critical events in U.S. history and the impact of the Latino population, communities and ethnic groups, and key cities and regions. Each entry includes cross references and bibliographic citations, and a comprehensive index and illustrations augment the text.

"A history of Chicana and Chicano militancy that explores the question of whether this social movement is a racial or a national struggle"--Provided by publisher.

“Masterfully researched. . . . There is no book like this either in the field of LBJ literature or in the field of Chicano history.” —Mario T. García, author of Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology, and Identity, 1930–1960 As he worked to build his Great Society, Lyndon Johnson often harkened back to his teaching days in the segregated “Mexican school” at Cotulla, Texas. Recalling the poverty and prejudice that blighted his students’ lives, Johnson declared, “It never occurred to me in my fondest dreams that I might have the chance to help the sons and daughters of those students and to help people like them all over this country. But now I do have that chance—and I’ll let you in on a secret—I mean to use it.” This book explores the complex and sometimes contradictory relations between LBJ and Mexican Americans. Julie Pycior shows that Johnson’s genuine desire to help Mexican Americans—and reap the political dividends—did not prevent him from allying himself with individuals and groups intent on thwarting Mexican Americans’ organizing efforts. Not surprisingly, these actions elicited a wide range of response, from grateful loyalty to, in some cases, outright opposition. Mexican Americans’ complicated relationship with LBJ influenced both their political development and his career—with consequences that reverberated in society at large.

The essayist Adela Sloss-Vento (1901–1998) was a powerhouse of activism in South Texas’s Lower Rio Grande Valley throughout the Mexican American civil rights movement beginning in 1920 and the subsequent Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s. At last presenting the full story of Sloss-Vento’s achievements, Agent of Change revives a forgotten history of a major female Latina leader. Bringing to light the economic and political transformations that swept through South Texas in the 1920s as ranching declined and agribusiness proliferated, Cynthia E. Orozco situates Sloss-Vento’s early years within the context of the Jim Crow/Juan Crow era. Recounting Sloss-Vento’s rise to prominence as a public intellectual, Orozco highlights a partnership with Alonso S. Perales, the principal founder of the League of United Latin American Citizens. Agent of Change explores such contradictions as Sloss-Vento’s tolerance of LULAC’s gender-segregated chapters, even though the activist was an outspoken critic of male privilege in the home and a decidedly progressive wife and mother. Inspiring and illuminating, this is a complete portrait of a savvy, brazen critic who demanded reform on both sides of the US-Mexico border.

A new history reveals how the rise of the Latino vote has redrawn the political map and what it portends for the future of American politics. The impact of the Latino vote is a constant subject of debate among pundits and scholars. Will it sway elections? And how will the political parties respond to the growing number of voters who identify as Latino? A more basic and revealing question, though, is how the Latino vote was forged—how U.S. voters with roots in Latin America came to be understood as a bloc with shared interests. In The Rise of the Latino Vote, Benjamin Francis-Fallon shows how this diverse group of voters devised a common political identity and how the rise of the Latino voter has transformed the electoral landscape. Latino political power is a recent phenomenon. It emerged on the national scene during the turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s, when Mexican American, Puerto Rican, and Cuban American activists, alongside leaders in both the Democratic and the Republican parties, began to conceive and popularize a pan-ethnic Hispanic identity. Despite the increasing political potential of a unified Latino vote, many individual voters continued to affiliate more with their particular ethnic communities than with a broader Latino constituency. The search to resolve this contradiction continues to animate efforts to mobilize Hispanic voters and define their influence on the American political system. The “Spanish-speaking vote” was constructed through deliberate action; it was not simply demographic growth that led the government to recognize Hispanics as a national minority group, ushering in a new era of multicultural politics. As we ponder how a new generation of Latino voters will shape America’s future, Francis-Fallon uncovers the historical forces behind the changing face of America.

In March 1968, thousands of Chicano students walked out of their East Los Angeles high schools and middle schools to protest decades of inferior and discriminatory education in the so-called "Mexican Schools." During these historic walkouts, or "blowouts," the students were led by Sal Castro, a courageous and charismatic Mexican American teacher who encouraged the students to make their grievances public after school administrators and school board members failed to listen to them. The resulting blowouts sparked the beginning of the urban Chicano Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the largest and most widespread civil rights protests by Mexican Americans in U.S. history. This fascinating testimonio, or oral history, transcribed and presented in Castro's voice by historian Mario T. Garcia, is a compelling, highly readable narrative of a young boy growing up in Los Angeles who made history by his leadership in the blowouts and in his career as a dedicated and committed teacher. Blowout! fills a major void in the history of the civil rights and Chicano movements of the 1960s, particularly the struggle for educational justice.