May 29, 2009 05:50 PM UTC

Why did Tancredo say the La Raza's slogan was "All for the Race, none for the Rest?"

• 4 Comments
• by: Danny the Red (hair)

I was curious why Tancredo misstated La Raza’s slogan so I started searching for an answer.

First I had to figure out where the “All for the Race, none for the Rest?” slogan came from since it didn’t seem to have anything to do with the National Council of La Raza, which is the organization to which Sonia Sotomayor belongs to, and which is a well known civil rights organization similar to the NAACP.

The phrase “All for the Race, none for the Rest” seems to be a translation  of “Por La Raza todo, Fuera de La Raza nada”, which translates “For the Race, everything, outside the Race, nothing”.This phrase appears in El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán . The Plan Espiritual de Aztlán (“Spiritual Plan of Aztlán”) is a manifesto advocating Chicano nationalism and self-determination for Mexican Americans. It was adopted by the First National Chicano Liberation Youth Conference, a March 1969 convention hosted by Rodolfo Gonzales’s Crusade for Justice in Denver, Colorado.  This was a group that evolved in to M.E.Ch.A. (Spanish: Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, “Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán”) is a student organization that seeks to promote Chicano unity and empowerment through education and political action, but is often strident in its tone, provactive in positions and offensive in its language.  

M.E.Ch.A. has gone through many evolutions, but it has never been associated with the NCLR.  Which, for Tancredo “all latino organizations look alike” jokes aside, is confusing.  Tancredo is unlikely to be familiar enough with latino/hispanic/chicano organizations and their history (in fact the MEChA rejects the terms Latino and Hispanic)to make that mistake on his own: Tancredo had to be getting his information from someplace.

Where did Tancredo get the idea that La Raza and MEChA were linked?

The tie between MEChA and the NCLR is advanced by “American Patrol” and they site “Everything for the race. Everything outside the race, nothing” as MEChA slogan, which is close enough to what Tancredo to get me interested.  In addition, it was on this website that I discovered that MEChA 30 years ago MEChA formed an organization called La Raza Unida, which has no ties to the NCLR, which existed for a short time and may have led to Tancredo’s confusion.

The Word La Raza, which was coined in the 20’s to help Mexican’s come to grips with their mixed race (Spanish and native) heritage, is common amongst many groups that have no relation with each other, but I can understand why Tancredo would be confused.

What did confuse me was, why is Tancredo getting his information from the American Patrol?

The American Patrol is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and by the Anti Defamation League.  It’s founder, Glenn Spencer, has appeared at events with Klansman and Neo Nazis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G…

Congressman Tancredo, please tell us how you confused the NCLR with MEChA and where you got your information?