la raza

a term often mistakenly translated into english as meaning "the race", the true meaning of la raza is much closer to "the people". this term cannot be properly defined in english by a simple one word answer due to language differences. i will explain the definition, but first: other definitions on this site claim that la raza is a racist organization. they are refferring to a group that calls itself "national council of la raza", which they believe is a racist organization; and the people who typed those definitions mistakenly called the group la raza for short, either not knowing that la raza was actually a seperate term, or not knowing the true meaning of the term "la raza". the term originated in the book "La Raza Cosmica" written by José Vasconcelos, a Mexican intellectual (1881-1959). He described la raza cosmica as the product of racial mixing over time that was already in progress (black, white, asian, native american, all becoming racially and culturally mixed due to the events of time, for example the conquest of mexico resulted in mixing of the blood and culture of the natives and the spaniards). He believed that eventually all of the races would be completely mixed into a new race that had the best attributes of all the cultures and would "show us the way" so to speak. the term caught on as simply "la raza" and has come to refer to the people of mexican ancestry(mexican as in from mexico, not specifically the native mexica tribe)wherever they may live at the present time. La raza to us means "our people" of common ancestry the same way a proud U.S. citizen might say "americans" with the intended meaning as his/her people of this country, all sharing a common background. that is the true meaning of "la raza". One may note that in the USA there's a political party called "The United People's Party". That is a proper translation of it's name "The Raza Unida Party", a group created to help support minorities and the poor.