La Raza and Aztlan Flag Raising in Chicano Park - Racial Aspects

The flags of Aztlan and La Raza are raised every year at Chicano Park in San Diego, during the Park Day celebration. Aztlan is the American Southwest, which Chicano militants claim as their national territory. They say Chicano Park is the first part of Aztlan to be taken from the USA.

The three-faced figure in the second flag symbolizes the mestizo race (La Raza), which has been created by the mixture of the white Hispanic with the Indian. “La Raza” is a racial supremacy doctrine that was formulated by Jose Vasconcelos in his book “La Raza Cosmica” (the cosmic race), published in 1925.

Vasconcelos was a revolutionary, a very prominant educator and philosopher, as well as a virulent hater of the USA. He was also the most important propagandist for the Nazis in Latin America at the beginning of World War II. The Nazis exploited his mestizo racial theory to try to gain influence in Latin America via promotion of “La Raza” racialism in an attempt to gain allies to fight the USA in the war.