We are free and sovereign to determine those tasks which are justly called
for
by our house, our land, the sweat of our brows, and by our hearts.
Aztlán
belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the
crops
and not to the foreign Europeans. We do not recognize capricious frontiers
on
the bronze continent.
Brotherhood [and sisterhood] unites us, and love for our brothers [and
sisters] makes us a people whose
time
has come and who struggles against the foreigner "gabacho" who exploits
our
riches and destroys our culture. With our heart in our hands and our hands
in
the soil, we declare the independence of our mestizo nation. We are a
bronze
people with a bronze culture. Before the world, before all of North
America,
before all our brothers [and sisters] in the bronze continent, we are a
nation, we are a
union of free pueblos, we are Aztlán.
Program Nationalism
Nationalism as the key to organization transcends all religious,
political, class, and economic factions or boundaries. Nationalism is the
common denominator that all members of La Raza can agree upon.
Organizational Goals
1. UNITY in the thinking of our people concerning the barrios, the
pueblo, the campo, the land, the poor, the middle class, the
professional-all
committed to the liberation of La Raza.
2. ECONOMY: economic control of our lives and our communities can
only
come about by driving the exploiter out of our communities, our pueblos,
and
our
lands and by controlling and developing our own talents, sweat, and
resources.
Cultural background and values which ignore materialism and embrace
humanism
will contribute to the act of cooperative buying and the distribution of
resources and production to sustain an economic base for healthy growth
and
development Lands rightfully ours will be fought for and defended. Land
and
realty ownership will be acquired by the community for the people's
welfare.
Economic ties of responsibility must be secured by nationalism and the
Chicano[/a]
defense units.
3. EDUCATION must be relative to our people, i.e., history,
culture,
bilingual education, contributions, etc. Community control of our schools,
our
teachers, our administrators, our counselors, and our programs.
4. INSTITUTIONS shall serve our people by providing the service
necessary for a full life and their welfare on the basis of restitution,
not
handouts or beggar's crumbs. Restitution for past economic slavery,
political
exploitation, ethnic and cultural psychological destruction and denial of
civil
and human rights. Institutions in our community which do not serve the
people
have no place in the community. The institutions belong to the people.
5. SELF-DEFENSE of the community must rely on the combined strength
of
the people. The front line defense will come from the barrios, the campos,
the
pueblos, and the ranchitos. Their involvement as protectors of their
people
will be given respect and dignity. They in turn offer their responsibility
and
their lives for their people. Those who place themselves in the front
ranks for
their people do so out of love and carnalismo. Those institutions which
are
fattened by our brothers to provide employment and political pork barrels
for
the gringo will do so only as acts of liberation and for La Causa. For the
very
young there will no longer be acts of juvenile delinquency, but
revolutionary
acts.
6. CULTURAL values of our people strengthen our identity and the
moral
backbone of the movement. Our culture unites and educates the family of La
Raza
towards liberation with one heart and one mind. We must insure that our
writers, poets, musicians, and artists produce literature and art that is
appealing to our people and relates to our revolutionary culture. Our
cultural
values of life, family, and home will serve as a powerful weapon to defeat
the
gringo dollar value system and encourage the process of love and
brotherhood.
7. POLITICAL LIBERATION can only come through indepen-dent action
on our
part, since the two-party system is the same animal with two heads that
feed
from the same trough. Where we are a majority, we will control; where we
are a
minority, we will represent a pressure group; nationally, we will
represent one
party: La Familia de La Raza!
Action
2. September 16, on the birthdate of Mexican Independence, a national
walk-out
by all Chicanos [and Chicanas] of all colleges and schools to be sustained
until the
complete
revision of the educational system: its policy makers, administration, its
curriculum, and its personnel to meet the needs of our community.
3. Self-Defense against the occupying forces of the oppressors at every
school,
every available man, woman, and child.
4. Community nationalization and organization of all Chicanos [and
Chicanas]: El Plan de Aztlán.
5. Economic program to drive the exploiter out of our community and a
welding
together of our people's combined resources to control their own
production
through cooperative effort.
6. Creation of an independent local, regional, and national political
party.
A nation autonomous and free - culturally, socially, economically, and
politically- will make its own decisions on the usage of our lands, the
taxation of our goods, the utilization of our bodies for war, the
determination
of justice (reward and punishment), and the profit of our sweat.
El Plan de Aztlán is the plan of liberation!
[El Plan de Aztlán]
[
El Plan de Santa Barbara]
[
MEChA Philosophy]
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