Mexicano and Latino Politics and the Quest for Self-Determination: What Needs to Be Done

by Armando Navarro

Overview

This book examines the current status of Mexicano and Latino politics in the United States. Political scientist and community activist Armando Navarro maintains that both represent a dysfunctional and failed mode of politics, attributable to their system maintenance and mainstream ideological orientation and approach. As colonial agents, they protect both a United States that is decaying and declining and the degenerative liberal capitalist system. Navarro argues that the United States is not a representative democracy; but in fact, is a “White Corpocratic Dictatorship” controlled by Capital, which is evolving into a Fascist State.

The book provides an in-depth analysis and contention that Mexicanos and Latinos in Aztlán (Southwest) are an “occupied and internal colonized people.” It argues they are the “Palestinians and Kurds” of the United States. His supposition is sustained by the book’s profiles of Mexicano political history, demography, socioeconomics, electoral politics, immigration, and the Triad Crisis (e.g., Second Great Depression, Global Economic Crisis, and Global Capitalist Crisis). Each chapter provides the justification and case for Navarro’s two unique alternative change models, applicable to today’s bankrupt and failed Mexicano and Latino Politics in the twenty-first century. The preferred model is “Aztlán’s Politics of a Nation-Within-a-Nation (APNWN),” which is based on the models of the Mormon Nation of Utah and that of French Quebec. Navarro, therefore, calls for the reformation of the United States’ liberal capitalist system by way of social democracy for the empowerment of Mexicanos and Latinos. His second model is “Aztlán’s Politics of Separatism” (APS), which offers two strategic options, (1) Aztlán (Southwest) becoming a separate and sovereign nation-state or (2) its reannexation and re-integration with Mexico.

Navarro outlines a “plan of action” for building a New Movement designed to attain APNWN or APS. In addition, several ominous forecasts are made, such as the United States being in a state of decline and no longer a hegemonic superpower due to the rise of a multi-polar world. Moreover, Navarro attributes the United States’ decline to the inherent contradictions of global capitalism. His sobering message is that if the current economic conditions are left unchanged, this will produce an “End of Times” scenario—the unleashing of the “Four Horseman of the Apocalypse.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739197356
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	01/15/2015
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	604
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Armando Navarro is a political scientist and professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, Riverside.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Mexicano/Latino Politics: Their Quest for Self-Determination in the Twenty-First Century

Part I: Justification for APNWN and APS
Chapter One: Mexicanos Political Experience in Aztlán: A Historical Narrative of a Conquered, Occupied, and Colonized People
Chapter Two: Re-Mexicanización of Aztlán and Latinoiziación or “Browning” of the United States
Chapter Three: Mexicanos and Latinos in the United States in the Twenty-First Century: Under a State of Siege and State of Crisis
Chapter Four: Profile of Internal Colonial Mexicano/Latino Politics: A People in a Leadership, Organizational, and Electoral Crisis
Chapter Five: 2013 Latino Immigration Reform Debacle
Chapter Six: Triad Crisis: Country, World, and Global Capitalism in Turmoil

Part Two: Alternative Models for Change
Chapter Seven: Aztlán’s Politics of a Nation-Within-a-Nation: Quest for Self-Determination and Reform
Chapter Eight: Global Secessionist Contagion: The Politics of Separatism

Chapter Nine: Aztlán’s Mexicano Historical Antecedents of Separatism: Struggles for Self-Determination
Chapter Ten: Aztlán’s Politics of Separatism: A New Nation-State or Re-Annexation to México?

Epilogue

Editorial Reviews

In the tradition of activists scholars like Ernesto Galarza and Rodolfo Acuna, Professor Armando Navarro produces yet another provocative and timely manuscript on Chicano/Latino politics. This work is not the usual analysis of voter registration rates and vote turnout statistics since the Viva Kennedy Clubs emerged in 1960. Instead, this book is about the future; boldly stated in two models he projects may be the practical scenarios within a couple of decades. Not one to be timid or cautious in making a prognosis, Dr. Navarro presents the reader with thought-provoking models of what could be in a clear style, extensively documented, and engaging critical analyses. What remains is who will read and apply these models? Jose Angel Gutierrez, University of Texas at Arlington, Founder of La Raza Unida Party

Jose Angel Gutierrez

Navarro’s work encompasses a critical analysis of Mexicano/Chicano living histories and personifies the spirit of continued struggle against colonization. Interweaving political history, demography, and socio economic history and conditions, Navarro takes to task the current political state of Raza in the twenty-first century. He spurs you to examine his supposition that as Raza we are an “occupied and internal colonized people.” Yet his writings insist that our communities rethink politics and dare to fashion a model essential to understanding and practicing politics as a means for liberation. His clarity of purpose and political vision is critical to attaining human rights and political self-determination against all odds.

Nita J. Gonzales

Armando Navarro is one of the foremost activist scholars in the Chicana/o community. He is one of the few scholars who know what is to be done to correct the imperfections of a society that prevents Latinos access to education and the political power that is necessary to obtain the human rights we take for granted. As in his previous works, Navarro draws a bight line under the problems and what is to be done, presenting two change models: (1) one examining the Chicano national question; Aztlán’s Politics of a Nation-Within-a-Nation (APNWN); and (2) “Aztlán’s Politics of Separatism” in which he puts the struggle into a historical context. Rodolfo Acuña, California State University, Northridge

Rodolfo Acuña

'The truth and only the truth will set you free.' Armando Navarro’s latest book documents the Chicano Movement’s historical struggle for self-determination in the United States. Navarro, in his historical documented analysis, lays out for Chicanos, this nation’s fastest growing ethnic group, brutal political truths. Navarro’s book is a must read for those who believe in the principle of self-determination, and continue the historical struggle to attain social, economic, and political power for Chicanos in Aztlán.

Herman Baca

Navarro describes this 577-page tome as a 'consequence of forty-six years of activism and forty-some years of scholarship.' The raison d’etre for the book is to answer the question of what needs to be done in the struggle for self-determination in Aztlan, the land that Mexico lost to the US as a result of the 1846–48 Mexican-American War. The intended audiences are Mexicanos and other Latinos who reside today in the region of Aztlan, or what is now known as the American Southwest, home to descendants of Mexicanos who are now an occupied and internally colonized people. Two change models are proposed: Aztlan’s Politics of a Nation-Within-a-Nation (APNWN) and Aztlan’s Politics of Separatism (APS). These models can be applied to any global secessionist struggle (i.e., Palestinians and Kurds). Navarro provides a rich historical analysis spanning the Aztecs to contemporary US foreign policy. The book is recommended for historians and political scientists; the extensive bibliography and endnotes indicate that the book is well researched. Navarro hopes that this accessible, engaging, and challenging book serves as a catalyst for dialogue and action. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections.

Choice Reviews

Navarro describes this 577-page tome as a 'consequence of forty-six years of activism and forty-some years of scholarship.' The raison d’etre for the book is to answer the question of what needs to be done in the struggle for self-determination in Aztlan, the land that Mexico lost to the US as a result of the 1846–48 Mexican-American War. The intended audiences are Mexicanos and other Latinos who reside today in the region of Aztlan, or what is now known as the American Southwest, home to descendants of Mexicanos who are now an occupied and internally colonized people. Two change models are proposed: Aztlan’s Politics of a Nation-Within-a-Nation (APNWN) and Aztlan’s Politics of Separatism (APS). These models can be applied to any global secessionist struggle (i.e., Palestinians and Kurds). Navarro provides a rich historical analysis spanning the Aztecs to contemporary US foreign policy. The book is recommended for historians and political scientists; the extensive bibliography and endnotes indicate that the book is well researched. Navarro hopes that this accessible, engaging, and challenging book serves as a catalyst for dialogue and action. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections.

Choice

Armando Navarro is one of the foremost activist scholars in the Chicana/o community. He is one of the few scholars who know what is to be done to correct the imperfections of a society that prevents Latinos access to education and the political power that is necessary to obtain the human rights we take for granted. As in his previous works, Navarro draws a bight line under the problems and what is to be done, presenting two change models: (1) one examining the Chicano national question; Aztlán’s Politics of a Nation-Within-a-Nation (APNWN); and (2) “Aztlán’s Politics of Separatism” in which he puts the struggle into a historical context. Rodolfo Acuña, California State University, Northridge

Rodolfo Acuña

Navarro describes this 577-page tome as a 'consequence of forty-six years of activism and forty-some years of scholarship.' The raison d’etre for the book is to answer the question of what needs to be done in the struggle for self-determination in Aztlan, the land that Mexico lost to the US as a result of the 1846–48 Mexican-American War. The intended audiences are Mexicanos and other Latinos who reside today in the region of Aztlan, or what is now known as the American Southwest, home to descendants of Mexicanos who are now an occupied and internally colonized people. Two change models are proposed: Aztlan’s Politics of a Nation-Within-a-Nation (APNWN) and Aztlan’s Politics of Separatism (APS). These models can be applied to any global secessionist struggle (i.e., Palestinians and Kurds). Navarro provides a rich historical analysis spanning the Aztecs to contemporary US foreign policy. The book is recommended for historians and political scientists; the extensive bibliography and endnotes indicate that the book is well researched. Navarro hopes that this accessible, engaging, and challenging book serves as a catalyst for dialogue and action. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections.

CHOICE