The Making of a Chicano Militant: Lessons from Cristal (Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography)
Pundits credit George W. Bush's victory in the 1998 Texas governor's race to the support the former president's son won from the state's Mexican American voters. A few decades ago, Texas Chicanos had to build a movement to gain any recognition from the powers that be. Studies of the Chicano movement of the '60s and '70s are limited, so the reflections of an activist like Gutierrez offer useful context and detail. The author was an organizer (later an elected official) in Cristal (Crystal City), Texas; he was among the founding members of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) and of El Partido de La Raza Unida, the political party the movement spawned. His anecdotal memoir, covering 1950 to 1990, reminds readers of the conditions that inspired Chicanos to rebel in the '60s and traces the movement's development and the reasons for some of its successes and failures. Appropriate for larger libraries, particularly those serving Chicano populations.Mary Carroll--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.