Lulac, Mexican Americans, and National Policy.LULAC LULAC League of United Latin American Citizens , Mexican Americans This is a list of notable Mexican-Americans. Athletes Baseball players
abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 1-58544-388-3.) Craig A. Kaplowitz has written a book on an important and under-researched topic, Mexican Americans and the development of civil rights policy from the mid- to late twentieth century. His intent is to explore how Mexican American Mexican American n. A U.S. citizen or resident of Mexican descent. Mex  i·can-A·mer activists in the League of United Latin
American Citizens The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the oldest organization of Hispanic Americans in the United States. With a membership of approximately 115,000, the organization uses education and advocacy to improve living conditions and seek advances for all Hispanic nationality (LULAC) sought federal remedies for racial and ethnic
discrimination Acts of bias based on the race or ethnicity of the victim.Racial and ethnic discrimination have had a long history in the United States, beginning with the importation of African slaves in the seventeenth century. The U.S. . Utilizing data drawn from the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford presidential libraries, Kaplowitz contributes valuable new information on Mexican American activism during the civil rights era. We now know more about the rocky relationship between Mexican American activists and Lyndon B. Johnson, the extension of the Voting Rights Act Voting Rights Act Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1965 to ensure the voting rights of African Americans. Though the Constitution's 15th Amendment (passed 1870) had guaranteed the right to vote regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” to language minorities, and the evolution of bilingual-education policy across three presidential administrations. Kaplowitz fills a void with new information on the Nixon administration and its strategy toward the Mexican American voter. Finally, he pays close attention to the way that LULAC activists demanded policies that moved beyond the black-white binary of race relations race relations Noun, pl the relations between members of two or more races within a single community race relations npl → relaciones fpl raciales in order to address the unique problems faced by Mexican Americans. The major drawback to LULAC, Mexican Americans, and National Policy is its heavy reliance on the extant literature Extant literature refers to texts that have survived from the past to the present time. Extant literature can be divided into extant original manuscripts, copies of original manuscripts, quotations and paraphrases of passages of non-extant texts contained in other works, . The book's originality is modest and, in many instances, only augments a familiar narrative. Kaplowitz does a fine job of placing LULAC politics within its historical context, and the new information he brings to the story is a welcome addition. However, the founding of LULAC, its work in the post--World War II period, and its leadership's activity in the 1960s are well known to students of Latino politics. The use of secondary literature is more evident in his discussion of the civil rights movement's later years. The complexity of the era is richly presented, but discussion of the activities of Mexican American activists is disappointingly weak. These gaps are frustrating as Kaplowitz could have offered more by conducting interviews with surviving LULAC activists or former White House officials, staff members, and aides. A second problem is analytical. Kaplowitz argues that LULAC was a driving force behind the formation of civil rights policy but offers little evidence to demonstrate its political clout. In my own work, I found that LULAC was in serious decline by the early 1960s. Not only were LULAC councils folding, it had no political action committee, team of lobbyists, headquarters in Washington, D.C., or any other resources that might command the attention of high public officials. Kaplowitz does document many contacts between LULAC leaders and various presidents and cabinet members. But if it is true that LULAC was powerless by the 1960s, other intriguing possibilities come to mind. For example, it is more likely that the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford administrations hoped to advance their own agendas by associating with the LULAC name and history. Thus, the interactions Kaplowitz documents were probably not negotiations but initiatives by both major parties to diffuse Chicano Movement radicalism and embrace a growing Mexican American electorate. A related possibility contained in his analysis of the Nixon administration is that Republican activists recognized an opportunity to capture a larger share of the Mexican American vote while Democrats remained mired mire n. 1. An area of wet, soggy, muddy ground; a bog. 2. Deep slimy soil or mud. 3. A disadvantageous or difficult condition or situation: the mire of poverty. v. in a pattern of neglect. BENJAMIN MARQUEZ University of Wisconsin |
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