The Five Paths to Power: José Ángel Gutiérrez and the Continuing Work of the Chicana and Chicano Movement, by Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D. May 31, 2026

The Five Paths to Power: José Ángel Gutiérrez and the Continuing Work of the Chicana/o Movement

by 

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

May 31, 2026

Dr. Jose Angel Gutierrez LEAD Conference Presentation, San Bernardino, 2014 video

An apt quote for today's essay is by the late, great William Faulkner (2011),

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity.”

For those of us who still understand ourselves as part of the Chicana and Chicano Movement like myself—or as heirs to its unfinished struggle—the work of Professor José Ángel Gutiérrez remains indispensable. 

Gutiérrez, a founder of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO), a key architect of La Raza Unida Party, and one of the most important political thinkers and organizers of the Movement, has long insisted that social change does not happen through sentiment alone. It requires strategy, organization, memory, courage, and power.

In his important essay, “The Chicano Movement: Paths to Power,” Gutiérrez identifies five major strategies through which Chicanas and Chicanos sought to transform the conditions of their lives: revolt, litigation, protest, electoral work, and coalition/alliance building (Gutiérrez, 2011). These were not abstract categories. They were forged in barrios, schools, courtrooms, fields, streets, city halls, and statehouses. They emerged from communities tired of being ignored, segregated, undereducated, politically marginalized, and treated as foreigners in lands where our people had deep historical roots.

These five paths remain urgently relevant today, as follows:

1. Revolt: Refusing the Terms of Our Subordination

By “revolt,” we should not understand only dramatic rebellion. At its deepest level, revolt is the refusal to accept the legitimacy of an unjust order. It is the moment when a community says: no more.

For the Chicano Movement, revolt meant refusing second-class citizenship. It meant rejecting school systems that punished Spanish-speaking children, political systems that excluded Mexican American voters, and cultural systems that taught our people shame instead of dignity. 

For Gutierrez, revolt was a psychological, cultural, and political awakening. It began when people stopped asking politely for recognition and began asserting their right to exist, speak, organize, and govern.

Today, revolt is still necessary because the conditions of erasure have not disappeared; they have merely changed form. We see it in attacks on Ethnic Studies, anti-DEI legislation, book bans, curriculum censorship, voter suppression, immigrant criminalization, and the ongoing attempt to make Mexican American history seem controversial in the very places where it is foundational.

For Chicanas and Chicanos today, revolt means refusing silence. It means refusing to let others define our history, our language, our children, our communities, or our future. It means recognizing that dignity begins when we stop internalizing the stories told about us and begin telling the truth about ourselves.

2. Litigation: Using the Law Without Worshiping It

The Chicano Movement understood the courts as one terrain of struggle. Litigation challenged discriminatory schooling, voting practices, jury exclusion, employment discrimination, and the denial of language rights. Legal strategies mattered because unjust systems often hide behind the appearance of legality. Court cases can expose contradictions between democratic ideals and institutional practices.

But Gutiérrez’s framework also reminds us that litigation is only one path—never the sole path. The law can be a shield, but rarely is it sufficient by itself. Courts can affirm rights, but communities must organize to make those rights real. Legal victories can be delayed, narrowed, ignored, or reversed when they are not backed by public pressure and organized power.

This lesson is crucial today. As civil rights protections are weakened and universities, schools, and public agencies comply in advance with political intimidation, litigation remains necessary. Communities must challenge unconstitutional policies, discriminatory governance, and violations of academic freedom and equal protection. But legal strategy must be joined to public education, organizing, documentation, and movement-building.

Wikipedia

We need lawyers, yes. But we also need witnesses, scholars, students, parents, artists, clergy, workers, and community organizations who can make visible what the law alone may not see.

3. Protest: Making Injustice Public

Protest was central to the Chicano Movement because injustice often survives

by being normalized. Walkouts, marches, boycotts, rallies, pickets, and public demonstrations made private suffering visible. They turned isolated grievances into collective demands.

The Crystal City walkouts, the East Los Angeles blowouts, the Chicano Moratorium, farmworker marches, and countless local demonstrations taught a powerful lesson: When institutions refuse to listen, people must create a public moral crisis that cannot be ignored.

Protest still matters today because so much harm is bureaucratized. Programs are “consolidated.” Offices are “restructured.” Books are “reviewed.” Faculty lines are “reallocated.” Students are gaslit—told that nothing has been lost even as the histories, departments, programs, and communities that sustained them are dismantled before their very eyes.

Protest interrupts this language of management. It says plainly what official language conceals. It names erasure as erasure. It names intimidation as intimidation. It names political interference as political interference.

For those of us who carry the memory of the Chicana/o Movement, protest is not a performance. It is public pedagogy. It teaches people what is happening, who is responsible, what is at stake, and what collective courage looks like.

4. Electoral Work: Power Must Be Contested Where Decisions Are Made

Gutiérrez’s role in La Raza Unida Party remains one of the great examples of Chicano political imagination. La Raza Unida did not simply ask the major parties to be kinder to Mexican Americans. It challenged the assumption that our communities should remain loyal to political institutions that ignored them.

Electoral work matters because budgets, school boards, city councils, county commissions, state legislatures, and governing boards shape everyday life. Who gets represented? Which schools get funded? Which histories get taught? Which neighborhoods get protected? Which communities get policed? These are political questions.

Today, Chicana/o Movement politics must again take electoral work seriously—not as a substitute for organizing, but as one of its necessary expressions. We need candidates rooted in community, accountable to movement values, and prepared to defend public education, voting rights, labor rights, immigrant rights, academic freedom, bilingual education, and Ethnic Studies.

We also need political education. Voting alone is insufficient if people do not understand the structures that govern their lives. Electoral work must include voter registration, candidate recruitment, policy analysis, community forums, school board engagement, and accountability after elections.

The lesson of Gutiérrez is not simply “run for office.” The lesson is: build independent political power that is rooted in community.

5. Coalition and Alliance Building: No One Wins Alone

The Chicano Movement was never as solitary as some histories suggest. It intersected with Black freedom struggles, Indigenous sovereignty movements, labor organizing, antiwar activism, feminist struggles, student movements, and immigrant justice work. Coalition was not always easy, but it was necessary.

Gutiérrez’ fifth path—coalition and alliance building—may be the most urgent today. The forces attacking Chicana/o studies, African American studies, gender studies, immigrant communities, voting rights, labor rights, and public universities are not operating in isolation. They are coordinated. Our response must be coordinated as well.

This means building principled alliances across Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian American, immigrant, LGBTQ+, labor, student, faculty, faith, and community organizations. It means understanding that an attack on one field of knowledge is an attack on all communities whose histories challenge domination. It means recognizing that Ethnic Studies, bilingual education, civil rights, and academic freedom are not “special interests.” They are democratic necessities.

Coalition does not require sameness. It requires clarity, mutual respect, and a shared commitment to confronting systems of power. The Chicana/o Movement teaches us that solidarity is not charity. It is strategy. It is also a moral practice.

Why These Five Paths Matter Now

We are living through a renewed struggle over memory, belonging, and power. Across the country, and especially in Texas, we see efforts to narrow what can be taught, studied, named, funded, or publicly defended. The attack on DEI, Ethnic Studies, bilingual education, immigrant rights, and academic freedom is not accidental. It is part of a larger effort to discipline institutions and communities that have challenged racial hierarchy.

This is why Gutiérrez’ five paths remain so instructive. They remind us that movements need more than outrage. They need multiple strategies operating together.

Revolt gives us the courage to reject injustice.

Litigation gives us tools to challenge it.

Protest gives injustice a public face.

Electoral work contests power where decisions are made.

Coalition building ensures that we do not fight alone.

For those of us who still claim the Chicana and Chicano Movement, the question is not whether the movement is over. The question is whether we are willing to carry its unfinished responsibilities into the present.

To be part of this movement today is not simply to remember the past with pride. It is to defend the conditions that make dignity, knowledge, representation, and self-determination possible. It is to teach our children that they come from people who fought back. It is to insist that our communities are not marginal to democracy; we are central to its unfinished promise.

José Ángel Gutiérrez gave us not only a history, but a strategic vocabulary. His five paths remind us that power itself is not automatically democratic. Communities and movements can organize power toward very different ends. 

As Katherine Stewart’s (2025) analysis of white Christian nationalism makes clear, movements can also build legal, electoral, institutional, and coalitional power in ways that narrow democracy, impose hierarchy, and exclude those who do not conform to their worldview.

That is why Gutiérrez’ framework remains so important. His analysis is not a celebration of power for its own sake. It is a call to build power from below in the service of dignity, equality, self-determination, and democratic life. 

The Chicana/o Movement sought greater justice in schools, fields, workplaces, neighborhoods, universities, and governing institutions. Its struggle was rooted in the lives of working people, students, women and men, families, and communities who had long been exploited, ignored, and told to wait.

These five paths are not romantic slogans. They are demanding forms of work. They require study, discipline, courage, organization, and historical memory. They also require us to ask, again and again: power for whom, and toward what end?

For those of us who still claim the Chicana and Chicano Movement, Gutiérrez' answer remains clear. We build power not to dominate others, but to make freedom, dignity, and justice more possible for all.

Reference

Faulkner, W. (2011). Requiem for a Nun. Vintage.

Gutiérrez, J. Á. (2011). The Chicano Movement: Paths to power. The Social Studies, 102(1), 25–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/00377996.2011.533043

LEADCSUSB. (2014). Keynote address—“Chicano rights movements: Then and now”—Season 5 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7kZCz5p_7I&t=2092s

Stewart, K. (2025). Money, lies, and God: Inside the movement to destroy American democracy. Bloomsbury Publishing.

The West Virginia teacher's strike is what real resistance looks like

Old-fashioned, union protest works.  This is democracy in action.

Taking to the streets, picketing on the sidewalks, and charging into the Capitol itself, the strike turned the public commons into a counter space for “we the people.”

Thanks to Dr. Tony Baez for sharing. 

-Angela

The West Virginia teacher's strike is what real resistance looks like

Jeff Biggers

This kind of resistance does not allow onlookers to look away, especially in an age of social media. It brings the story to those who have refused to read it

Sat 10 Mar 2018 10.34 EST

‘The strike in West Virginia has powerfully revived this historic tactic for the rest of the nation.’ Photograph: Robert Ray/AP

‘The strike in West Virginia has powerfully revived this historic tactic for the rest of the nation.’ Photograph: Robert Ray/AP

The victorious strike by teachers in West Virginia did not only result in a long overdue pay raise. With the exuberance of a nine-day teach-in, the teachers and their supporters have taught the nation a compelling lesson on the historical role of a true resistance.
Taking to the streets, picketing on the sidewalks, and charging into the Capitol itself, the strike turned the public commons into a counter space for “we the people.”
One by one, the roughly 20,000 teachers in West Virginia essentially forced lawmakers – and the nation – to stop our daily routine and address the growing education crisis on the terms of those most devoted to ensuring the best outcomes for our children: our teachers.
This is why strikes, more than one-day protests, often bring lasting victories. It took an uncompromising walk-out to get West Virginia lawmakers to recognize that our inability to commit to a living wage and decent health benefits for our teachers mirrors our negligence in investing in classrooms for our children.
Instead of a fleeting protest, the hardship of the open-ended West Virginia strike reflected the urgency of our times and the long-haul commitment of the teachers for an enduring resolution, not a compromise or some sort of fleeting gain.
With an estimated 10% of the American workforce reportedly in a union, the legacy of striking might have become a lost tactic to some. As the son of a union teacher and the grandson of a union coal miner, I believe the West Virginia teachers have renewed a strategic call for other movements engaged in what we have called a “resistance” against the onslaught of policies decisions and regulatory rollbacks by the Trump administration.
The time has come to employ strikes in other areas.
When it comes to dealing with the inexorable grip of the National Rifle Association lobby on our gun policies or the undue influence of the oil, gas and coal lobbies on our energy and climate plans, for example, wide-scale strikes by students, teachers and all concerned citizens may be our last best hope for policy changes today.

Imagine how quickly we could begin to deal with gun control, if all pre-school employees, teachers and staff walked out and went on an indefinite strike – and the large majority of supporters, according to most polls, joined them.
Imagine how swiftly we could start the process of transitioning to renewable energy alternatives, low-carbon transportation designs, local food and regenerative agricultural policies, if all school employees, teachers and students refused to teach and study in schools powered by carbon emission-spewing fossil fuels that are destabilizing our planet.
The strike in West Virginia has powerfully revived this historic tactic for the rest of the nation.
Addressing the same egregious combination of low wages and underfunded schools in bottom-rung states like Arizona and Oklahoma, teachers are wearing red in solidarity this week and negotiating the terms of their own possible walk-outs to raise attention to the instability of school districts that have been gutted by disastrous funding policies.
This is a tactical lesson of resistance that reminds us that our schools have always served as the front lines of the challenges of inequality facing our communities.
This kind of resistance does not allow onlookers to look away, especially in an age of social media. It brings the story to those who have refused to read it. It forces everyone to take part in the national discussion, and engage in the still small possibility of justice.

Jeff Biggers is the author of the forthcoming book, Resistance: Reclaiming an American Tradition

A Labor Day Message on the Benefits of Labor Unions

Happy Labor Day!  Here is a post from Blogger Glen Brown and the benefits of labor unions.  Best wishes, as well, to the McDonald's workers strike in Britain that you can read about here:
McDonald's workers to go on strike in Britain for first time
Here's another important piece I just came across, too.

The Rollback of Pro-Worker Policies Since Trump Took Office Is Staggering by Helaine Olen.

The answer is always the same one.  Don't get angry.  Join a union! Organize!
Become part of the solution. 
-Angela

glen brown: Labor Day:

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2017

Labor Day

“[Strong] Unions struggled to eliminate abuses of early industrial society and improve workers’ lives by seeking higher wages and better working conditions for their members… [They] became an integral part of industrial society because they did not seek to destroy capitalism but, rather, to make employers more responsive to their employees’ needs and interests…” (Jerry H. Bentley and Herbert F. Ziegler, Traditions & Encounters).

·         Strong unions raise wages of unionized workers by roughly 20% and raise compensation, including both wages and benefits, by about 28%.

·        Strong unions reduce wage inequality because they raise wages more for low-and-middle-wage workers than for higher-wage workers, more for blue-collar than for white-collar workers, and more for workers who do not have a college degree.

·       Strong unions set a pay standard that nonunion employers follow. For example, a high school graduate whose workplace is not unionized but whose industry is 25% unionized is paid 5% more than similar workers in less unionized industries.

·       The impact of strong unions on total nonunion wages is almost as large as the impact on total union wages.

·       The most sweeping advantage for unionized workers is in fringe benefits. Unionized workers are more likely than their nonunionized counterparts to receive paid leave, are approximately 18% to 28% more likely to have employer-provided health insurance, and are 23% to 54% more likely to be in employer-provided pension plans.

·       Unionized workers receive more generous health benefits than nonunionized workers. They also pay 18% lower health care deductibles and a smaller share of the costs for family coverage. In retirement, unionized workers are 24% more likely to be covered by health insurance paid for by their employer.

·       Unionized workers receive better pension plans. Not only are they more likely to have a guaranteed benefit in retirement, their employers contribute 28% more toward pensions.

·       Unionized workers receive 26% more vacation time and 14% more total paid leave (vacations and holidays).
      
      Strong unions play a pivotal role both in securing legislated labor protections and rights such as safety and health, overtime, and family/medical leave and in enforcing those rights on the job. Because unionized workers are more informed, they are more likely to benefit from social insurance programs such as unemployment insurance and workers compensation. Unions are, thus, an intermediary institution that provides a necessary complement to legislated benefits and protections (Economic Policy Institute). 

Excellent compilation from Rethinking Schools on the role of teacher unions.  Bob Peterson, in particular, has written extensively and cogently on this.

-Angela

The Role of Teacher Unions

A Compilation of Articles from Rethinking Schools

Rethinking Schools Online presents a special collection of articles on one of the most critical issues facing public education today: the role of teacher unions.
This collection includes articles from past issues of Rethinking Schools as well as letters received in response to those articles. The listings provide a link to the online version when available. (If the article is not online, the link will take you to our Order Page, where you can buy paper copies of the back issue the article appeared in using our secure order form.)

Also...
Be sure to check out the RS book, Transforming Teacher Unions, a 144-page anthology that looks at exemplary practices of teacher unions from the local to the national level. The 25 articles weave together issues of teacher unionism, classroom reform, working with local communities, and social justice. (See the complete Table of Contents.)
Also see The New Teacher Book, a handbook ideally suited for new teachers, perhaps the only book for new teachers that addresses important issues of race, class, testing, and teacher unions. Teacher unions and school districts have found The New Teacher Book especially useful for new teacher orientation and inservices. For more info click the title.
Listings (updated 11-14-11)

General Background on Social Justice Unionism

Survival and Justice: Rethinking Teacher Union Strategy (PDF),  by Bob Peterson

Rethinking Teacher Unions: A lot has changed in the 20 years since Rethinking Schools was born, by Bob Peterson. Teacher union activist and Rethinking Schools editor Bob Peterson looks at the past two decades of teacher unionism. (Vol. 20, #3, Spring 2006)
What Will Be The Future of Teacher Unionism? by Bob Peterson A review of United Mind Workers: Unions and Teaching in the Knowledge Society by Charles Taylor Kerchner, Julia E. Koppich, and Joseph G. Weeres, and thoughts about the evolving role of teacher unions. (Vol. 12, #4, Summer 1998)
Social Justice Unionism: A Working Draft -- A Call to Education Unionists by the National Coalition of Education Activists Leading education activists spell out the key components of social justice unionism for teachers. (Vol. 9 #1, Fall 1994)
Which Side Are You On? A Look at Teacher's Unions by Bob Peterson How the historic dual nature of many unions -- on the one hand protecting the needs of poor and working people, and on the other undercutting the interests of some of those very people -- manifests itself in many teacher unions, and why democratic unionists must fight to overcome it. (Vol. 8, #1, Fall 1993)
Letters about "Which Side Are You On?" Readers respond.
Confronting Racism, Promoting Respect by Tom McKenna A program developed by a Canadian teachers union takes on racism, giving students new ways to confront their beliefs and the racial discord in their communities. (Vol. 13, #4, Summer 1999)
The Role of Education Unions in Advancing Public Education keynote speech by Bob Peterson to the Australian Education Union, January 15, 2005 (abridged version from AEU professional journal)

International Teacher Unionism

Teachers in Oaxaca Face Repression and Violence, by David Bacon. As protests against working conditions continue, the Mexican government responds with brutality (Vol 21, #2 Winter 2006/07)
Review of video Granito de arena by Lois Weiner. A film on Mexican teachers presents an activist, hopeful vision of unionism. (Vol. 21, #1, Fall, 2006)
We Are the World, by Mary Compton A call for solidarity among teachers around the world to combat forces of globalization and privatization (Vol. 19 #3, Spring 2005)
Australia Battles Privatization -- An interview with Angelo Gavrielatos, by Barbara Miner. An interview with Angelo Gavrielatos, deputy president of the Australian Education Union. Gavrielatos was recently in the United States to meet with union leaders. Barbara Miner of Rethinking Schools interviewed him on conservative education policies in Australia. They explored the issue of growing government funding for private schools. (Vol. 21 #2 Winter 2006/07 )
Australia New South Wales Teachers Federation (NSWTF) statement on the Iraq war. The NSWTF decision was adopted at that State Council which consists about 300 delegates on Saturday Feb 15, 2003
Australian Education Union statement adopted at the Federal conference of AEU January 17, 2003

Special Tribute to Union Leader Tom Mooney (1954 - 2006)

Tom Mooney - A Teacher First by Bill Bigelow (Vol. 21, #3, Spring 2007)
Ohio’s Children Lose a Labor Leader by Michael Charney who recalls Tom Mooney as "a champion who combined unionism with a passion for public education and the inherent worth of all children." (Vol. 21, #3, Spring 2007)
Union Power for Quality Schools by Mark Simon (Vol. 21, #3, Spring 2007)
An interview with Tom Mooney (Vol. 20, #2, Winter 2005/06)

Professional Unionism

Teacher Quality: Cincinnati's Teacher Union Tackles Quality by Barbara Miner. Despite complexities and shortcomings, the district's teacher quality initiatives are making a difference. (Vol. 20, #2, Winter 2005/06)
Teachers as Learners: How Peer Mentoring Can Improve Teaching Two teachers describe how evaluations by their fellow teachers gave them a valuable new perspective on their teaching practice. (Vol. 12#4, Summer 1998)
The Hows and Whys of Peer Mentoring by Marc Osten and Eric Gidseg. Practical nuts-and-bolts information on how the authors structured and maintained a peer mentoring program in their school. (Vol. 12 #4, Summer 1998)
Teachers Evaluating Teachers By Barbara Miner An earlier look at peer evaluation, the concerns raised about it by some educators and the praises sung by others. (Vol. 6, #3, Spring 1992)

Historical Background

What Happened to the Merger? By Ann Bastian A look at the NEA-AFT merger proposed this summer, why it didn't happen, and where we go from here. (Vol. 13, #1, Fall 1998)
NEA-AFT Unity: History in the Making A Rethinking Schools Editorial This Rethinking Schools editorial, written before the NEA and AFT voted not to merge, lays out some of the opportunities and challenges facing teachers and unions. (Vol. 12#4, Summer 1998)
The New NEA: Reinventing Teacher Unions for a New Era By Bob Chase Excerpts from a speech made by Chase, shortly after assuming leadership of the National Education Association, in which he called for teacher unions to shift their priorities and take more responsibility for the quality of teachers and learning environments. (Vol. 11 #4, Summer 1997)
The New Vision of Teacher Unionism By Bob Peterson Coverage of the controversy over Chase's remarks: Some Wisconsin teacher union leaders feared he was playing into the hands of anti-union forces. Also some thoughts on the evolving "social justice" vision of teachers as union members. (Vol. 11 #4, Summer 1997)
Letters about "The New Vision of Teacher Unionism" Readers respond to the above article.
Chase is Attacked Letters from two Wisconsin teacher union leaders criticizing Bob Chase's remarks. (Vol. 11 #4, Summer 1997)
Chase Responds Bob Chase responds to his critics. (Vol. 11 #4, Summer 1997)

Useful Links

USA links

American Federation of Teachers
National Education Association
TURN (Teacher Union Reform Network) is a union-led effort to restructure the nation's teachers' unions to promote reforms that will ultimately lead to better learning and higher achievement for America's children.
International Links
British Colombia Teachers Federation, a progressive teacher union that has a long history of militant trade unionism and social justice activism.
Education International, the federation of organizations representing over 30 million teachers and other education workers, through 384 member organizations in 169 countries and territories. As the Global Union representing education workers worldwide, Education International unifies all teachers and education workers. Be it a remote village or a cosmopolitan city, Education International promotes the rights of every teacher wherever they are, and the rights of every student they educate. Education International is the voice of education workers worldwide.
The New South Wales Teachers Federation has a long history of militancy and advocacy for social justice.
If you have another site to suggest to add to these links, please contact Bob Peterson at repmilw@aol.com

Amid Trump’s tough talk on NAFTA, Texans tout trade pact’s benefits By Sean Collins Walsh

I encourage you to read today's piece on NAFTA by Sean Collins Walsh in the Austin American-Statesman that dovetails well with the items I just posted on a post-work society. NAFTA will not only significantly impact Texas, but capitalism's unquenchable thirst for cheap labor probably means not that manufacturing jobs will return to the U.S. (where they would get automated anyway), but that other, more-distant, exploitable labor markets would be secured. 

Some argue for re-establishing tariffs on Mexican products but then this would likely lead Mexico to retaliate.  Noteworthy facts: 

 "In 2015, Texas companies exported $92 billion in goods to Mexican and imported $84 billion in goods from Mexico, according to the Census Bureau." 

Fossil fuels, including natural gas are by the far the largest exports.

What would help overall is if the "tweaking" of NAFTA that Mexican President Peña Nieto seems willing to do, results in a strengthening of labor laws so that folks aren't compelled to migrate due to low wages earned in NAFTA-related industries. This is a complex set of circumstances that require careful thought and consideration going forward.

Angela Valenzuela
c/s

Amid Trump’s tough talk on NAFTA, Texans tout trade pact’s benefits

State & Regional Govt & Politics

 

By Sean Collins Walsh - American-Statesman Staff

7



Posted: 3:22 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18, 2016

---

Highlights

About 4.9 million American jobs depend on trade with Mexico, including 382,000 in Texas.

NAFTA is unpopular in the Rust Belt, but has boosted the Texas economy.

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to change or withdraw from NAFTA. 

The Class of 2016The labor market is still far from ideal for young graduates

Sobering report on the labor market that the Class of 2016 faces out of the Economic Policy Institute.  Here's a quote that suggests how our economy has gotten re-structured.

The high share of unemployed and underemployed young college graduates and the share of employed young college graduates working in jobs that do not require a college degree underscore that the current unemployment crisis among young workers did not arise because today’s young adults lack the right education or skills. Rather, it stems from weak demand for goods and services, which makes it unnecessary for employers to significantly ramp up hiring.

The solutions are ones that are important for adult workers, as well, as follows: Keep interest rates low as the economy strengthens; raise the minimum wage; enforce labor standards and most definitely by providing a path to citizenship for undocumented students.

What I would add to this is that we need to get involved in politics at all levels—local, state, and national—though most particularly at the state and local levels.  If we wait for the feds to "save us," that's a long shot.  Not that there isn't always also a federal agenda for good policies, but rather that we need a two- or three-part strategy.  One engages national, the other state, and a local strategy that is community anchored and organic.

I've written elsewhere on how we need to grow our own teachers instead of outsourcing what amounts to work and opportunity for education management organizations that get our communities' hard-earned tax dollars for an education that is still not about the culturally relevant education that our communities want and need (see this morning's previous post).

Let's start setting up our own indigenous, grassroots institutions that can result in job-creation strategies locally.  We need not only to grow our own teachers as I have suggested elsewhere, but we need to grow our own everything—principals, administrators, city council members, arts leaders, business leaders, scientists, architects, and so on.  This is an intentional, assets-based framework that draws on the strengths and talents of our communities that through partnerships and the intelligence, wisdom, and experience that resides within to articulate a fresh vision and strategy that is anchored in the identities, lives, and structures of opportunities that exist organically in our communities.

Check out this Saturday school that we've opened up here in Austin.  It is the result of a public, public, private (nonprofit) partnership.  Here is a KLRU/PBS video that captures the overall initiative succinctly titled, "Academia Cuauhtli Works to Bridge History with Language.”

Due to the initiative of one of our members, Dr. Emilio Zamora who also sits on the Hispanic Quality of Life Commission, was able to set up a funding stream that will soon result in a paid internship to help us with this effort.  Several student volunteers in our group have now also decided to pursue masters and doctoral degrees such that our very presence as university faculty, community members and advocates, has resulted in a pathway into advanced degrees.  

To learn more about this initiative that has in fact inspired all of us, as well, consider reading this recent publication titled, “Academia Cuauhtli and the Eagle: Danza Mexica and the Epistemology of the Circle.”  And like us on Facebook.  

Just like with our food, or our best nutrition, we also need to go organic with our educational institutions.  We need to rediscover grassroots democracy in and for our times—and with the schooling of our children and youth at the center.

Angela Valenzuela
c/s

The Class of 2016The labor market is still far from ideal for young graduates

Report • By Teresa Kroeger, Tanyell Cooke, and Elise Gould • April 21, 2016 

Summary: Young high school and college graduates were hit hard in the Great Recession. While young graduates’ economic prospects have brightened in recent years, they still face elevated unemployment rates and stagnant wages. Many groups—including young graduates of color, as well as young high school graduates entering the workforce—face particularly difficult economic realities. This report looks at trends in unemployment, underemployment, and wages of young high school and college graduates to paint a picture of the economy facing the Class of 2016.

Continue reading here.

Hispanics suffer highest US workplace death rates

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) - Hispanic workers in the United States are killed at work at a 25 percent higher rate than other U.S. workers with many deaths coming in construction, federal health officials said on Thursday.

Hispanics disproportionately take dangerous jobs like construction. Some may hesitate to speak up about safety hazards and may accept risky tasks for fear of being fired, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The most common causes of death were falls at construction sites and roadway incidents including crashes or being hit by a car while working on a road crew, the CDC said. Deaths from workplace falls increased about 370 percent from 1992 to 2006.

The report tracked Hispanic workplace fatalities of U.S. citizens, legal immigrants or illegal immigrants.

Immigration has become a potent political issue in the United States where about 12 million illegal immigrants live, many from Mexico, Central America and South America.

In 2006, the death rate for Hispanics was 5 per 100,000 workers, compared with 4 per 100,000 for all workers, 4 per 100,000 for non-Hispanic whites and 3.7 per 100,000 for non-Hispanic blacks, the CDC said.

Hispanics are the nation's fastest-growing minority. There were 19.6 million Hispanic workers in the United States in 2006, 56 percent of them foreign born.

They have become an increasingly important source of labor in U.S. construction.

An analysis of construction deaths found that Hispanic workers had higher rates than non-Hispanics in the same occupations such as laborers or roofers, the CDC said.

Dr. Sherry Baron of the CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health said inadequate training and supervision of workers, often made worse by language barriers or literacy problems, were factors behind this trend.

From 1992 to 2006, 11,303 Hispanic workers -- 95 percent of them men -- died due to workplace injuries, accounting for about 13 percent of overall such deaths in the United States.

The CDC said 67 percent of Hispanics killed in job injuries were foreign born, almost three quarters from Mexico. It said the work-related injury death rate for foreign-born Hispanic workers is about 70 percent higher than U.S.-born Hispanics.

The highest job fatality rates for Hispanics were in South Carolina (22.8 per 100,000 Hispanic workers), Oklahoma, Georgia and Tennessee, the CDC said. (Editing by Alan Elsner and Maggie Fox)

Gov. Barbour signs illegal-worker bill

Immigrants rights advocates cry foul, vow they will continue to fight

Leah Rupp | Clarion Ledger
March 18, 2008

Companies in Mississippi soon will be required to use a federal pilot program called eVerify to determine whether potential workers are legal U.S. residents, under a bill Gov. Haley Barbour signed into law Monday.

But shortly after he signed off on Senate Bill 2988, Barbour cautioned that the language needs some alterations, including adding more avenues for companies to check the residency status of new hires.

Key supporters of the legislation say any changes will have to wait until next year though. Immigrants rights advocates say they'll continue to fight the new law they call a racist attempt to drive Hispanics from the state.

Other critics maintain the bill, along with another one Barbour signed Monday enhancing the penalty for home invasions, could be costly as they will bloat the prisons.

"Any employer who knowingly hires an illegal alien should be held accountable," Barbour said.

But, he continued, "I have serious concerns ... the bill could have unintended negative consequences. I urge the Legislature to make the necessary technical changes to ensure this bill will have the intended effect."

Under the legislation, larger companies would be required to begin using the eVerify system first, with compliance deadlines as early as July.

Penalties for the employer could include the cancellation of state or public contracts.

Companies also could be prohibited from bidding on any such contracts for up to three years.

Those convicted of violating the new law could be sentenced to up to five years in prison or fined up to $10,000. The illegal immigrant also would be deported.

State Sen. Michael Watson, one of the principal authors of the bill, said he doesn't think lawmakers can grant Barbour's wishes for changes in the law this session. "Maybe next year," Watson, R-Pascagoula, said.

Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant - who has made cracking down on illegal immigration one of his key issues - agreed, saying in a statement that he would "work in future sessions to address (Barbour's) recommendations."

Changing the law at this point during the session would require suspending the legislative rules to bring up a new bill - which requires a two-thirds vote - then passing it in both chambers.

Immigrants rights advocates fear that the new law could lead to increased racial profiling and hamper economic development.

"The governor basically whines in the statement about all the problems with the eVerify system," said Bill Chandler, of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance. "Just on the face of that, he shouldn't have signed this bill into law. But he is silent on how racist this bill is, criminalizing people who are working."

The Washington-based Pew Research Center estimates there are up to 50,000 undocumented immigrants living in Mississippi. The Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, however, estimates the number to be 200,000. In 1990, Pew estimates there were about 5,000.

Six other immigration-related bills are expected to die in a House committee today.

Another bill signed by Barbour on Monday would increase the penalty from no less than three years in prison to no less than 10 years for breaking into a home where people are present.

Sen. David Blount, primary author of Senate Bill 2622, said the governor's support "sends a strong statement that Mississippians have a right to be safe in their homes."

In 2007, there were 2,563 reported house burglaries in the city, based on Jackson Police Department weekly crime data. In the past, officials at the department have said a "very minute" number of those would be considered home invasions.

In 2006, several home invasions in Jackson made headlines, causing concern among residents in the metro area.

Some worry that bill and others that increase the penalty for crimes, such as the immigration bill, will increase prison populations.

"(The Legislature) sometimes passes these feel-good things without thinking about what it's going to cost," said Ron Welch, a prisoners' rights attorney. "Somebody is going to have to pay - and that'll likely be public services across the board."

Blount said he hoped other bills, such as one that is pending that would grant some nonviolent offenders parole, would cut down on the number of people in prison.

"We need to keep people who are violent and a threat to public safety in prison," Blount, D-Jackson, said.

Going along with that, he said, "we need to give people who are not a threat to the public a chance to straighten out their lives."

House Resolution Honors the Lifelong Dedication

For Immediate Release Contacts: Javier Dominguez & Elisavet Garcia (202) 833-6130

October 26, 2007

Washington, DC The League of United Latin American Citizens, the largest and oldest Hispanic civil rights organization proudly endorses H.R. 37, a resolution sponsored by Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-CA) that honors Dolores Huerta’s enduring dedication for fair and safe working conditions for farm workers and their families.

“This bill fittingly entrusts that all workers deserve fair and safe working conditions,” said LULAC National President Rosa Rosales. “Dolores Huerta demonstrates a fearless commitment to fight for safe and healthy working conditions for all farm workers. In addition, she has also been a strong advocate for the rights of women and children. We applaud Congresswoman Solis for her noble sponsorship of this bill.”

Dolores Huerta’s contributions to the betterment of the Latino community are invaluable. Along with Cesar Chavez and many other Latino activists, she improved the lives of millions of farm workers by empowering them to fight for their rights. She was a cofounder to the National Farm Workers Association, a precursor to the United Farm Workers.

To date, fifty-five representatives have signed on to co-sponsor the resolution. LULAC urges Congress to pass this resolution and commemorate the courageous contributions of Dolores Huerta and farm workers of the United States.

The League of the United Latin American Citizens, the largest and oldest Hispanic membership organization in the country, advances the economic conditions, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide.