The term “La Raza“, or “the Race” originated in a book titled “La Raza Cósmica,” written in 1929 by José Vasconcelos. The book’s title translates to “The Cosmic Race,” and was Vasconcelos’ attempt to explain “the ideology of a future ‘fifth race’ in the Americas; an agglomeration of all the races in the world with no respect to color or number to erect a new civilization: Universópolis.”
Vasconcelos believed in supremacy. His writing was founded on the belief that the people of the Spanish empire would create this new race, a race with all the best attributes of the cultures of which it was comprised. He rejected the idea of pure races being better than mixed, and replaced it with the supremacy of the mixed race.
It is this foundation that allows proponents of the term “La Raza” to make the claim, that it isn’t racist:
The phrase has been borrowed by various shades of brown people who celebrate their African, Asian, Native, and European blood with varying equality. There is no one I could marry who would make my children anything other than Raza. Having pride in La Raza means having pride in every continent. The dishes I make in my home have Spanish, Native, and African origins. La Raza is a melting pot of cosmology.
First, is it not racist to say that a mixed race is superior to a pure race? How can it not be? You are still making the claim that one race is better than another, so by definition, the concept of “the Cosmic Race” is racist.
Second, it is clear that Vasconcelos believed the Spanish race to be better than all the race. He bases this belief on the story of Atlantis. From the text of “La Raza Cósmica“:
The architectural ruins of the legendary Maya, Quechua, and Toltec are proof of civilized life that precedes the oldest foundation of the Orient and Europe. As the investigations progress, the hypothesis of Atlantis is affirmed, as the craddle of a civilization that thousands of years ago flourished in the vanished continent and in part of what is now America. To think of Atlantis evoques the memory of its mysterious entecedents. The disappeared hyperboreous continent, that left few clues other than the traces of life and culture that sometimes are found under the snows of Greenland; the lemurian or black race of the South; the Atlantis civilization of the red men; next the appearance of the yellow, and at last, the civilization of the whites. This profound legendary hypothesis is a better explanation for the development of the races than the beliefs of geologists like Ameghino, who place the origin of Man in Patagonia, a land that is well known to be of recent geologic formation. (Emphasis added.)
He used this belief to further his premise, that “The race that we have agreed to call Atlantidae prospered and decayed in America.” From there, it spread around the world, settling in other cultures. He uses this to inspire Latinos, writing, “We will not be great as long as the Spaniard of America does not feel as Spanish as the sons of Spain.” He believed the Spanish race to be essential to this “new race,” providing it with the “territorial, racial, and spiritual factors necessary to initiate the ‘universal era of humanity’.”
Finally, the original intent of a term or symbol is irrelevant to the modern usage of said term or symbol. If we accept the claim that the original definition prohibits something from being racist, then a symbol “meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck” should offend no one. Yet the swastika, used by different religions across the globe for centuries, has been hijacked by extremists to mean something entirely different. So, regardless of its origins, it is the modern usage that matters.
The modern use of “La Raza” has been adopted by the proponents of illegal immigration and by the Reconquista movement. It’s meaning has shifted from a supreme mixed race, to the Latino race and is more mainstream than before. For example, “La Raza” is the name of a radio network in Los Angeles and San Franciso that broadcasts to Spanish speaking audiences. La Raza is also the name of a Hispanic newspaper.
And finally, the National Council of La Raza (The Race), describes itself as “the largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.”
We will look at NCLR in depth tomorrow.
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