"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.

From award-winning columnist and favorite talking head Gustavo Arellano, comes this explosive, irreverent, smart, and hilarious Los Angeles Times bestseller. ¡Ask a Mexican! is a collection of questions and answers from Gustavo Arellano that explore the clichés of lowriders, busboys, and housekeepers; drunks and scoundrels; heroes and celebrities; and most important, millions upon millions of law-abiding, patriotic American citizens and their illegal-immigrant cousins who represent some $600 billion in economic power. At a strong eighteen percent of the U.S. population, Latinos have become America's largest minority—and Mexicans make up a large part of that number. Gustavo confronts the bogeymen of racism, xenophobia, and ignorance prompted by such demographic changes through answering questions put to him by readers of his ¡Ask a Mexican! column in California's OC Weekly. He challenges readers to find a more entertaining way to understand Mexican culture that doesn't involve a taco-and-enchilada combo. From lighter topics like Latin pop and great Mexican food to more serious issues like immigration and race relations, ¡Ask a Mexican! ​runs the gamut. Why do Mexicans call white people gringos? Are all Mexicans Catholic? What's the best tequila? Gustavo answers a wide range of legitimate and illegitimate questions, in the hopes of making a few readers angry, making most of us laugh, sparking a greater dialogue, and enhancing cross-cultural understanding.

A wave of revolution swept across the United States in the sixties and the seventies. And across California, Cesar Chavez sparked the Chicano civil rights movement in the barrio, giving prominence to new leaders, new voices, and new demands for freedom from injustice and oppression. For young Javier Gomez, this battle cry would be the beginning of a fight to stand up to injustice in his home of East LA. In Mr. Gs Battle Cry!, author and civil rights activist Javier Gomez chronicles his march into the streets of East LA and beyond as he and his Chicano and Chicana brothers and sisters take up the cause of the civil rights movement and create hope for a better futureagainst great odds. Gomez also explores the history of his people, showing how their culture and their spirit was renewed during this historic era of equality and justice. Javier Gomez was inspired by the Chicano civil rights movement, and today his battle cry endures. Mr. Gs Battle Cry! gives voice to the enlightened individuals who fought, side by side, at protests, and in the streets, against the institutions of injustice that sought to keep the people silent. And today, this cultural revolution has left a living legacy of change, progress, and hope.

In this influential 1925 essay, presented here in Spanish and English, José Vasconcelos predicted the coming of a new age, the Aesthetic Era, in which joy, love, fantasy, and creativity would prevail over the rationalism he saw as dominating the present age. In this new age, marriages would no longer be dictated by necessity or convenience, but by love and beauty; ethnic obstacles, already in the process of being broken down, especially in Latin America, would disappear altogether, giving birth to a fully mixed race, a "cosmic race," in which all the better qualities of each race would persist by the natural selection of love.

A comprehensive study of an ethnic political movement.

In The Women of La Raza, Enriqueta Vasquez brings together her long-time political commitments with her marvelous sense of curiosity and wonder to trace the contributions of women in Mexican and Mexican American history through the centuries, starting with Pre-Columbian indigenous ancestors all the way to the present time.

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.