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The paper explores the use of ethnicity as a strategic tool in the politicization of the Mexican diaspora in the United States of America in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Referring to the example of the 1969 founding manifesto entitled “The Spiritual Plan of Aztlán” (El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán), it pays attention to the ways in which a section of the Mexican diaspora in the United States — Chicanos — came to identify themselves with the indigenous peoples of the United States and Mexico in the construction of their new collective identity. The text further examines the symbols of the Aztlán and the Bronze Race, the meanings attributed to them, and the question of authorship. In doing so, it draws on the interpretive frameworks of S. Hall, B. Anderson, R. Barthes and M. Castells. It concludes that the manifesto represents a highly selective, strategic narrative which mirrors both the Chicano movement’s claims for recognition in the US and the ways the Mexican diaspora interpreted its past to serve its current and future goals between the 1960s and early 1970s.

The paper explores the use of ethnicity as a strategic tool in the politicization of the Mexican diaspora in the United States of America in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Referring to the example of the 1969 founding manifesto entitled "The Spiritual Plan of Aztlán" (El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán), it pays attention to the ways in which a section of the Mexican diaspora in the United States -- Chicanos -- came to identify themselves with the indigenous peoples of the United States and Mexico in the construction of their new collective identity. The text further examines the symbols of the Aztlán and the Bronze Race, the meanings attributed to them, and the question of authorship. In doing so, it draws on the interpretive frameworks of S. Hall, B. Anderson, R. Barthes and M. Castells. It concludes that the manifesto represents a highly selective, strategic narrative which mirrors both the Chicano movement's claims for recognition in the US and the ways the Mexican diaspora interpreted its past to serve its current and future goals between the 1960s and early 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]