Aztlán Arizona: Mexican American Educational Empowerment, 1968–1978
Darius V. Echeverría
Aztlán Arizona: Mexican American Educational Empowerment, 1968–1978 is a history of the Chicano Movement in Arizona in the 1960s and 1970s. Focusing on community and student activism in Phoenix and Tucson, Darius V. Echeverría ties the Arizona events to the larger Chicano and civil rights movements against the backdrop of broad societal shifts that occurred throughout the country. Arizona’s unique role in the movement came from its public schools, which were the primary source of Chicano activism against the inequities in the judicial, social, economic, medical, political, and educational arenas. The book illustrates how Mexican American communities fostered a togetherness that ultimately modified larger Arizona society by revamping the educational history of the region. No other scholar has examined the emergence of Chicano Movement politics and its related school reform efforts in Arizona with this depth and scope.
The Author
Darius Víctor Echeverría is a Lecturer III in the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies and the Department of History at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, where he has taught since 2006. He is a historian of the American ethnic experience, with expertise in comparative race and ethnicity, Latino social and cultural history, Mexican American history, and the making of the modern Latinx diaspora. Since 2012, he has also been a faculty member at Columbia University for the Department of History and the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race (CSER). He holds an undergraduate dean appointment for Columbia College and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.
The Introduction
In Aztlán Arizona, Darius V. Echeverría examines the history of the Chicano Movement in Arizona through the lens of educational activism. The word Aztlán, originally meaning the legendary ancestral home of the Nahua peoples of Mesoamerica, was adopted as a symbol of independence by Chicano/a activists during the movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
In an era when poverty, prejudice, and considerable oppositional forces blighted the lives of roughly one-fifth of Arizonans, the author argues that understanding those societal realities is essential to defining the rise and power of the Chicano Movement. Echeverría effectively argues that the recent ban on Mexican American studies in the state’s schools, signed into law in 2010, has a long and complicated history of racism and educational disenfranchisement.
Drawing upon a wealth of previously underutilized archives, Echeverría argues that “Arizonan-Mexicans” orchestrated their own Chicano Movement, illustrated principally through educational agency that was the product of social, political, cultural, and historical inequalities. The book links the historic struggles for educational justice with the anti-immigrant and anti-ethnic studies politics that continue to permeate Arizona today.
The Chapters
Introduction
1. Arizona’s History of Educational Discrimination
2. Statistical Patterns of Underachievement and Inequality
3. High School Activism: Boycotts and Walkouts in Phoenix and Tucson
4. Student Activism at Arizona State University
5. Student Activism at the University of Arizona
6. Legacy and Continuing Struggle
Conclusion
The Reviews
“Echeverría’s work is pathbreaking and unheralded in the historical literature of the Chicano/a student movement and in the Chicano Movement in particular.”
— Christine Marin, Archivist Emeritus, Chicano/a Research Collection, Arizona State University
“Since Chicano(a) studies is interdisciplinary, books in the field can be used by folks in the social sciences and humanities, as well as Latino(a), ethnic, and American studies. I have little doubt that other disciplines will see a use for this book.”
— Michael Soldatenko, author of Chicano Studies: The Genesis of a Discipline
Felipe Hinojosa, Texas A&M University
Journal of American History (2015)
“Echeverría has written a fine book that contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex educational reform efforts of Mexican Americans in Arizona.”
Lee Bebout, Arizona State University
Latino Studies, Vol. 13, No. 4 (2015), pp. 564–566
“A slim volume that will work well in undergraduate and graduate history, education, and ethnic studies courses.”
Carlos Kevin Blanton, Texas A&M University
Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 84, No. 4 (November 2015), pp. 548–549
“Essential reading for students of Chicana/o educational history, of Arizona, and of el movimiento.”
Gonzalo Guzmán, University of Washington
Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. 118, No. 4 (April 2015), pp. 442–443
“This book should be standard reading for anyone interested in the Chicana/o Movement and also in understanding how community activism and student movements in general have shaped current educational controversies.”
Ana Luisa Martinez-Catsam, University of Texas of the Permian Basin
Journal of American Ethnic History, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Summer 2016), pp. 102–106
“Making Aztlán and Aztlán Arizona complement each other and offer readers a better understanding of the movement and the Chicano generation.”
Eddie Bonilla
Journal for the Study of Radicalism, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Spring 2016), pp. 170–172
“A text that should be required reading for scholars of the Chicana/o movement and those interested in educational history.”
David G. Gutierrez, University of California, San Diego
American Historical Review, Vol. 122, No. 2 (April 2017)
“For readers interested in comparing Chicano movement activism in Arizona to more familiar mobilizations elsewhere in the Southwest and other parts of the country, this will be a valued addition.”
Kelly Rae Kraemer, College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University
Journal for Peace and Justice Studies, Vol. 24, No. 2 (2014), pp. 119–122
“Anyone who wants to understand the enduring educational activism of Arizonan-Mexicans should read Echeverría’s book.”
Mike Suarez, Sonoma State University
History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 57, No. 2 (May 2017)
“Aztlán Arizona is both timely and needed.”
Jennie Jacobs Kronenfeld, Arizona State University
Journal of the West, Vol. 53, No. 4 (Fall 2014)
“Well-written and well researched, and one of only a small number of books to look at the emergence of Chicano movement politics, especially as linked to school reform efforts.”
Karla Alonso, Arizona State University
Regeneración Tlacuilolli: UCLA Raza Studies Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1 (2014), pp. 161–163
“Aztlán Arizona provides a concise and highly readable history of Mexican American activism during the Chicana/o Movement in Arizona.”
Paul Espinosa, Arizona State University
Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 2 (Summer 2015), pp. 242–243
“The Chicano civil rights movement in Arizona has received scant scholarly attention…Echeverría’s book provides an antidote to this oversight, mining the extensive archival materials in the special collections of Arizona State University and the University of Arizona.”
Marisol Moreno, Santa Monica College
The History Teacher, Vol. 47, No. 4 (August 2014)
“With most published historical studies on the Chicano Movement focused primarily on California and Texas, the book’s focus on Arizona provides readers with new insight from which to appreciate the multiple regional manifestations of the national Chicano Movement as well as the role of student activism in K–12 and higher education institutions.”