better educational facilities and academ-
ic courses on Mexican-American culture
and history. That culture was enriched
through a new wave of Mexican-
American arts and letters, including the
books of José Antonio Villarreal, Rudolfo
Anaya, and Tomás Rivera; the theatrical
performances of Luis Valdez’s Teatro
Campesino; and the murals of artists Judy
Baca and Manuel Martínez.
One organization turned separatist
sentiment into violence. In 1963 ReiesLópez Tijerina founded the Alianza
Federal de Mercedes (Federal Alliance of
Land Grants) to take back by force the
lost land that had belonged to Chicanos
before the U.S.-Mexican War. In 1966
the group occupied part of Kit Carson
National Forest in New Mexico. The
following year they raided Rio Arriba
county courthouse in Tierra Amarilla,
New Mexico, to try to make a citizen’s
arrest of District Attorney Alfonso
Sánchez. More attempted arrests of
prominent officials followed, along with
prison time for Tijerina.
Less dramatically but more suc-
cessfully, the Mexican American Legal
Defense and Educational Fund
(MALDEF), founded in 1968, used
such means as class action litigation and
community education to promote
Mexican-American civil rights. Texas
lawyer Vilma Martínez, MALDEF’s gen-
eral counsel from 1973, helped bring
about passage of the Voting Rights Act of
1975, which gave special consideration to
Hispanic voters. La Raza Unida (The
United People), a Mexican-American
political party, was founded in 1970 by
José Angel Gutiérrez to elect Chicano
candidates to public office.
The Chicano rights movement suc-
ceeded in making Mexican Americans
more self-aware and self-confident, proud
of their heritage and insistent on equal
treatment under the law. It was part of the
larger movement for social change that
marked the 1960s and early 1970s, run-
ning parallel to movements in other
Hispanic-American communities, such
as the Puerto Rican groups Aspira and the
Young Lords. By and large, however,
Hispanic Americans continued to see
themselves not as one large group, but as
many distinct ones—people variously
rooted in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the
Dominican Republic, or the many coun-
tries of South America and Central
America. They had not yet begun to ful-
fill the promise inherent in the name of
the party of the time, la raza unida.194 ATLAS OF HISPANIC-AMERICAN HISTORY
Organization:Brown Berets
Date founded: 1967
Region:Los Angeles metropolitan area
Activities:Defending neighborhoods against crime and police brutality, providing
social services, including education, food drives, and health careOrganization:Movimento Estudientil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA)
Date founded: 1968
Region:National
Activities:Promoting higher education for Chicanos, encouraging communication
among Chicano high school and college students, fighting for the civil and human
rights of Chicano students, promoting cultural awareness and prideOrganization:Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF)
Date founded: 1968
Region:National
Activities:Promoting and protecting the civil rights of Mexican Americans through
class action litigation, community education, and leadership trainingOrganization:National Chicano Moratorium Committee
Date founded: 1970
Region: National
Activities: Protesting U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, in particular the high
number of Latino deaths and casualties during the conflict which the group
attributed, in part, to a lack of Latino representation in commandOrganization:La Raza Unida
Date founded: 1972
Region: National
Activities:A political party with the primary goal of organizing campaigns to get
Chicano and Hispanic candidates elected to public officeSELECTED CHICANO
ORGANIZATIONS