Landy Waight
History 7B
Nola M. Hadley Torres
21 September 2015
The Sixties Extra Credit – Viva La Raza! For this assignment I chose to read an interesting section titled “Viva La Raza!” from the Digital History reading. Out of all the readings that were options to choose from this was the most appealing to me. What was appealing to me is that from all the history classes I have taken in my life, whether it was in high school or college, I can barely recall anytime I learned something about Mexicans or Latinos in general, during the sixties. Although the other topics that are usually discussed during this period are extremely important to acknowledge in America’s history (Civil Rights Movement, Feminism, etc.), I also feel that it is important to recognize the events that took place in the Chicano movement. What I learned from this reading that Mexican immigration rose very rapidly, mainly because of the growth of Mexico’s population, which tripled in 50 years (Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. (2015). Viva La Raza. Digital History. 10/28/15. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=14&smtID=1). Since the U.S. had higher wages, many Mexican’s chose to come to the America looking for a better economical opportunity. These immigrants face many challenges, including poverty and discrimination. There were many organizations formed during this period to challenge these problems, one for example was the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). The LULAC was basically a super group of Latino organizations who sought out to assimilate Latinos into American Society (Mintz). The Chicano movements during the sixties impacted the country by allowing society to acknowledge the presence of the Latino in America and the equality they deserve. Congress was forced to respond the requests of Mexican Americans and enacted legislation that would benefit Latinos (Mintz).