Que Viva La Raza: A Case Study into Local Journalism as Civil Resistance

Julia Zayas

Instructor’s Introduction

Julia Zayas wrote this activism-inspired research essay for WR 152: Transformative Visual Media, a course in which we investigate the impact of American photojournalism, its ethical and social consequences, and ultimately, its power as a narrative tool. The essay ambitiously discusses the importance of local journalism on community, advocacy, and civil rights through a sustained case study on a now defunct LA-based Chicano newspaper, La Raza. Her awareness on the lasting—and somewhat dire—effect of local journalism’s decline, and of course, her prowess in visual-literacy analysis, are more than remarkable. Perhaps a quiet protest itself, the essay recognizes how critical images are in realizing justice, and how photos can be, in essence, a reflection of “the profound resilience of the human spirit.”

I am eager to see how Julia applies her keen understanding of the media’s impact on social movements in the future.

Sam Sarkisian

From the Writer

Born in 1967 in a church basement in East Los Angeles, La Raza was a local newspaper that became a tool for the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, inspired by the African-American Civil Rights Movement that strived for social reform and better treatment of Mexican Americans. It was an exposé of the mistreatment of Chicanos in LA, advocating for its community through its photojournalistic reportage of significant community events like the tragedy of the Chicano Moratorium and the East LA walkouts while informing the public about other protests around the United States. They combined community outreach with activism and journalism to improve people’s lives in East LA. 

La Raza is a historical artifact: evidence of a community overcoming systematic oppression because someone amplified their voices and provided tools for Chicanos to engage in political resistance. They voiced collective outrage about high Mexican-American casualties in the Vietnam War, police brutality, and conditions affecting Chicano farm workers. This paper explores the type of photojournalism that made the paper so impactful, the importance of local journalism within communities, and how engaging with the community can leave lasting impacts for future generations. As someone born and raised in East LA, I wanted to recognize the Chicano culture of activism and how it still strengthens the community.

Que Viva La Raza: A Case Study into Local Journalism as Civil Resistance

Community outreach, through the medium of photojournalism, was deeply impactful in shaping the social dynamics of 1960s and 70s Chicano culture. La Raza was a prominent East Los Angeles Chicano magazine and an important platform for the Chicano Movement. Starting from a church basement in 1967, La Raza was a newspaper founded by community photojournalists focusing primarily on East Los Angeles and the events happening within their community to promote social justice. It used photographs of daily life and local political events to provide a clear and honest view of what life was like in the neighborhood, inspired by growing protests against the Vietnam War to challenge the racism and exploitation they faced daily. La Raza reported on injustices in the education system, significant political events, and regular community news from a Chicano perspective. They engaged with citizens and inspired a generation of young people to get involved in social justice and continue their work even after the publication’s end in 1977. By combining advocacy photojournalism and community outreach, La Raza used a pseudo-photojournalistic approach to begin enacting social change in their community and keep it progressing even in their absence.

Understanding the impact of La Raza requires a working definition of the relationship between the “Chicano movement” and the “Chicano.” The Chicano Movement, or the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, was a social movement inspired by the African American Civil Rights Movement that strived for social reform and better treatment of Mexican Americans. The Movement intentionally created a new nationality to unify and mobilize as many supporters as possible. They derived their new nationality from their concept of a new ‘homeland’ for Mexican Americans called Aztlán, constituted of the land Mexico lost to the United States in the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. They wanted to reclaim the land socially and culturally, claiming ‘Chicano’ as the new self-identity (Lux and Vigil 5). The inhabitants of East Los Angeles are referred to interchangeably as “Hispanic,” “Latino,” “Chicano,” or “Mexican-American” in this paper. This is because they all represent the mixed culture within the demographic, and most people in the neighborhood belong to some or all of these identities. 

A Voice of the Movement

The manner in which the La Raza staff took photographs is akin to muckraking photographers like Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis, who strived for social reform by taking candid pictures of their subjects. Colin Gunckel highlights La Raza’s direct method: “Working as documentary photographers, the La Raza team believed in the evidentiary power of their images to counter the distortions of local news coverage and to galvanize their readership around the movement” (Gunckel Capturing Movimientos 46). La Raza’s use of this “evidentiary power” is effective because it is a demonstrative tool that showcases the harsh realities of living in their community, challenging the existing representation of the time. Experts in photojournalism, Jennifer Good and Paul Lowe, highlight this, explaining that pictures can be used to “reinforce [power imbalances], in the making of the picture itself and also often by institutionalizing it via apparatuses of state and officially sanctioned systems of knowledge,” (Good and Lowe Understanding Photojournalism 85). La Raza, acutely aware of the portrayal of Chicanos in the media and these effects, used a direct and unfiltered style of photography to most efficiently demonstrate the unjust reality of life for those living in East Los Angeles.

At the time of La Raza’s publication, the problematic treatment of Latinos and Chicanos in the United States can be attributed significantly to this phenomenon of media representation. In their book Understanding Photojournalism, Jennifer Good and Paul Lowe discuss the power of the camera and argue it is the responsibility of a photojournalist to consider the ethical consequences of their photographic depictions and the “stakes involved in how its used” (Good and Lowe 79). They note that photographs do not just stand alone as documentation but are inevitably affected by the photographer’s biases and, when they exist in a larger social context, affect the representation of their subject because they are assumed to be honest (ibid). In an article for Aperture titled Capturing Movimientos that examines the documentation of grassroots social justice movements in the 60s and 70s, scholar Colin Gunckel points out that in that period, “the mainstream media both “underexposed” Chicanos by ignoring them, while “overexposing” them as criminals or social problem,” (Gunckel 45-46). Through efforts to advocate for the rights of Chicanos, La Raza’s photojournalists challenged Chicano representation in the media by publishing news and photographs that let Mexican-Americans be seen from the lens of a camera that did not presume them irrelevant or inferior. 

Advocating for Chicano rights motivated their photojournalism; they exposed the struggle for political survival that emerged from collective activism in the Chicano Movement. One such example of this documentary photography done by the magazine was in a series of publications that covered the Chicano Moratorium, a formation of over 20,000 protestors that marched on August 29, 1970, in East Los Angeles to protest the high number of Mexican-American casualties in the Vietnam war. In two separate publications, Vol 1. No 1. and Vol 1. No 2., La Raza included photostories about the march, detailing the events and including photographs of the protestors present. Figures 1 and 2 emphasize mortality by showing, respectively, young men marching while carrying a coffin in front of a painting of a dead Latino soldier and Chicana women carrying crosses with the names of those who passed in the War. 

Protest photography remained a strong trend in their news coverage throughout the magazine’s publication. Protest photography intentionally framed active subjects, usually in political rallies and demonstrations, with signs and symbols: their collective voice. Within the category of protest photography, the staff explored the different aspects of protests by including posters in their work to emphasize the different narratives, attitudes, and emotional responses of the movement. Figure 3 demonstrates democracy, “Justice is our Creed” deliberately included in the photograph enhances the power of the subject, a man in political protest. The La Raza staff highlighted posters as secondary subjects in their pictures, effectively communicating that message to the audience by making it centerfold. This layered messaging is further evidenced in Figure 4, an image of a young girl holding a large poster that says, “Chicanos are God’s Children too.” Though within the same category of protest photography, the highlighted message elicits an added emotional response by acknowledging that the active threat against Chicano rights affects the most vulnerable in the community. This method of reportage serves as historical evidence through which we can analyze Chicano culture and the grievances expressed by the greater Chicano Movement.

In a special edition publication, La Raza utilized evidentiary photography to report the unfortunate events at the end of the Chicano Moratorium march due to the LAPD’s arrival in East Los Angeles. As per Figure 6, the photojournalists of La Raza were able to capture a photo of a police officer standing firmly in the doorway of a local bar firing tear gas into the establishment while residents panicked nearby. They further detail in their report that this captured moment resulted in death, taking the life of Los Angeles journalist Reuben Salazar. In the aftermath of the Chicano Moratorium, police violence and presence continued to be a subject of their reporting, ultimately becoming a considerable threat the La Raza staff faced as an active voice of the Chicano Movement. Colin Gunckel comments on the role of law enforcement in Capturing Movimientos, recognizing that “the police in Los Angeles fully appreciated the role that photography played in the Chicano movement. The La Raza offices were under regular surveillance, and its staff was harassed in the wake of the Moratorium” (Gunckel 48). In their efforts to advocate for their community and provide accounts of the injustices they saw, they continually had to thwart police attempts at stifling these publications. They threatened not only the lives of the journalists but the existence of these powerful images, forcing La Raza to find secure and safe locations to publish their newspapers and keep their photos safe.

More Than a Movement: Community In Action

La Raza was not only a political platform but also a community pillar that used its connection to citizens in its neighborhood to support its journalistic endeavors. In addition to shifting the representation of Chicanos through photographs of their struggle, La Raza helped bring resources and security to East Los Angeles by training young journalists and photographers in the community to work in advocacy reporting. One such trainee was Luis C. Garza, a professional photojournalist and winner of the Independent Publisher Book Award for History (U.S.). In an interview with Art News, Garza elaborated on his experience working for La Raza: 

Working with my fellow colleagues at the time, it was a mentoring experience. Working in the darkroom also gives you that foundation because when you’re looking at the shots, you begin to see the planes, the light, your exposures […] That begins to set a career path which is what La Raza did for me. I found myself in photography (Garza).

In communities like East Los Angeles, where the population is primarily Hispanic and Latin American immigrants, economic status and quality of life are historically low. As Garza explains, “The chaos, the conflict that was going on […] it was trying to make sense of it, and the camera helped me make sense of it” (ibid).  The leaders of La Raza gave these young people another tool to stand up for themselves and gain a voice, recruiting aspiring journalists, photographers, and at-risk youth. 

As a result of recognizing the value of educating and including the younger generation, a great deal of La Raza’s reporting focused on education in East Los Angeles. In a PBS article about La Raza, Caribbean Fragoza states that the activists of the magazine “focused on a racist educational system that pushed young people into military service and manual labor” (Fragoza, 2023). She further explains, “During these early years of La Raza, the groundswell of discontent grew among young people who could now clearly see the connection between their education and larger political agendas that sent them to war” (ibid).

However, the viewpoint of those outside the magazine, particularly those in opposition to it, maintained a contradicting perspective on La Raza’s relationship with the general public, especially the younger generation. In the same article, Fragoza mentions that the leading staff, similar to Chicano educators of the time, “would come to be accused of instigating dissent among high school students,” despite prevalent tension in the social and political climate at the time (ibid). While they may have presented as inciting violence, a narrative especially pushed by the Los Angeles police, La Raza was educating the younger generation. By recognizing the lacking education system, La Raza made space for students to discuss and voice their opinions on their education openly. In 1970, the staff reported an incident at a local high school where administrators called the police to stop a student protest. In their Vol 1. No 1. publication, they include images of the violent escalation against the high school students and detail the events, including eyewitness reports. Figures 7 and 8 showcase a clear and active attack against young people in the community, making a compelling statement against the school system of the time. La Raza made their stance on education clear in this report: they stand with the students and support their right to protest for change.

Their support of the youth within the community through outreach was only one of the various ways La Raza connected with local citizens. The magazine greatly emphasized establishing pride in the community’s Chicano culture through art and community representation, not just the associated political movement. In an article for American Quarterly, Colin Gunckel covers the social practices of art within the Chicano Movement. He argues that the concept of Chicano photography is essential in the context of art history about social practices because images published by the Chicano/a press “replaced one-dimensional villains and exotic fiestas with the complexity, diversity, and texture of life in the barrio. La Raza in particular, published several photo-essays of “barrio photography” that depicted the residents, landscapes, and textures of Chicano neighborhoods,” (Gunckel The Chicano/a Photographic 385). La Raza engaged the community through this in two distinct but equally important ways: artistic expression and community portrayal.

The staff at La Raza encouraged participants to use photography in ways that transcended simple evidentiary journalism and embraced different artistic styles through varying magazine covers and by including pieces ranging from poetry to comic strips. Like other community organizers in East Los Angeles, they believed that “providing access to creative self-expression (through both production and exhibition) constituted a political act in itself, a luxury associated with economic/cultural privilege and thus never before extended to residents of East LA,” (Gunckel Art and Community in East LA 162). La Raza spotlighted art in their magazine covers, featuring new ones in each publication while maintaining elements of Chicano culture and the Movement through varying artistic techniques. Figure 12 references the cover from the Vol. 1 No. 14 publication, a drawn image of a Mexican man harvesting corn from a plant growing from rocky terrain. This cover blends symbolically Chicano imagery with the political relevance of the farm workers’ struggle, who participated in the Chicano movement to unionize for their rights.

Another example of artistic expression they integrated into the newspaper was photo collages. Figure 14 showcases a collage in one of their publications, combining images of East Los Angeles, other La Raza publications, and messages vital to the Chicano movement like “si tengo morir sera por Aztlan.” Figure 15 similarly combines photographs of children from the community with the repeated message, which translates to “Join La Raza.” Using language with images allowed the artist to highlight the political message within the visual appeal of their collages. In an article titled Art and Community in East LA, Gunckel explains that Chicano art was essential to the formulation of their new cultural identity and offers insights into “the diverse conceptions of “being Chicano” in the 1970s and beyond” (Gunckel 162).  These pieces reflect the magazine, a combination of the Hispanic culture in East Los Angeles and political activism.

Academic Rasmus Kleis Nielsen explains in the book Local Journalism that the importance of local newspapers is derived from their place as “keystone media.” He defines this term as “media that are primary providers of a specific and important kind of information and enable other media’s coverage and thus have ‘ecological’ consequences that reach well beyond their own audience” (Nielsen 51). His definition encapsulates the exigency of local media in their local communities and illustrates their perceived importance within them. La Raza was adept at connecting with their community by engaging them as writers and fostering community through social events and local advertisements. A PEW Research study about America’s relationship with local media supports Nielsen’s perspective. The study found that most Americans say, “local news outlets are at least somewhat important to the well-being of their local community” (Matsa et al., 2024). The magazine shows this being done effectively by being knowledgeable about what is happening in the community and connecting to the culture within the community.

The photographic techniques of La Raza also point to a bigger motivation to connect with their community through their evocative style of photography and publishing. The image in Figure 17 was initially published next to a poem titled “Brown-Eyed Children of the Sun,” which describes the struggle of Mexican families working as farm laborers to provide for their children. The image is mainly blacked out, with its exposure on only the face of a brown-eyed child staring into the camera lens behind empty pots and plates. Combined with the poem, this image’s focus shifts from just one hungry child to the hungry Chicano children trying to survive the world of institutionalized injustice they are forced to navigate. While the impact in this photo is derived from its close focus on one subject, Figure 18 uses a large depth of focus to depict the residual burning state East Los Angeles was in the aftermath of the fires on Whittier Boulevard on the day of the Chicano Moratorium. This wide-angle captures the immensity of the physical damage, portraying the panic and ruin threatening the neighborhood in the backdrop of 70’s East Los Angeles. Though the three images mentioned above do not depict the joys of Chicanidad, they present a sincere image of life in East Los Angeles. By incorporating these images, La Raza honors their culture by recognizing their neighborhood’s struggle and openly acknowledging the harsh reality they face in their marginalized community. The emotional appeal in these photographs was important for increasing reader engagement and sympathy for the movement, adding to the overall success of the magazine.

Lasting Impacts

In recent years, local publications such as these have significantly declined. According to a PEW research study, Local Newspapers Fact Sheet, “Total weekday circulation is down 40% since 2015, [..] Similarly, total Sunday circulation has fallen 45% since 2015” (Matsa and Worden, 2022). The decline of local newspaper circulation has been an issue seen all over the globe, explained by an economic climate incompatible with their largely ad-revenue-reliant business model and a decline in local reporters. The book Hyperlocal Journalism provides an overview of this trend by examining the decline of local journalism and its effect on the evolution of citizen-led community news. Their analysis includes a case study of a community devoid of local media sources and details the consequences of what happens in what they call a “news black hole.” They state that in the neighborhood, there was “frustration and despondency about people’s inability to affect their futures and, in some cases, their inability to protest against unwelcome developments or cuts because they were unaware of them until too late” (Harte et al. 224). Though La Raza ceased publishing after 1977 for different reasons, its manner of reporting as a local newspaper, especially a print one, makes it unlikely to be as successful in the present conditions. A lack of resources would have thwarted its efforts to foster social reform for the community.

The authors of Hyperlocal Journalism, David Harte, Rachel Howells, and Andy Williams, point out that the decline of local press has found a solution through the manifestation of Hyperlocal media online. Their working definition of Hyperlocal media is operations that are “geographically-based, community-oriented, original-news-reporting organizations indigenous to the web and intended to fill perceived gaps in coverage of an issue or region and to promote civic engagement” (Hart et al. 25). Citizens of East Los Angeles have now followed this trend, using the internet and social media to report of community news. Two notable Instagram accounts have emerged to report on happenings in the neighborhood and have even maintained a positive relationship with one another online. “East Los Community” is a page for entertainment and news related to and around East Los Angeles, reporting on local events, sports, and people in the neighborhood (@eastloscommunity). More aligned with La Raza’s goals is the account “Unincorporated East LA,” had dedicated itself to “Documenting moments on the Blvd Daily Supporting Local Art Music Street Vending Small Businesses Lowriding & Events in Unincorporated ELA” (@unincorporated.ela). In addition to reporting local news, it shows a continued dedication to “La Raza” and still posts about brown berets and leaders within the community.

As part of the Getty Pacific Standart Time LA/LA initiative, the Autry Museum in Los Angeles, along with UCLA, Garza, and Gunckel, began working together to create a La Raza exhibition centered around the magazine and other Chicano Art from the time. When asked about the significance of the exhibition’s opening in his interview with ARTNews, Luis C. Garza responded,

The comparisons to the past to the present is constant. It resonates on a human level, on a universal level. George’s work reflects that humanity. My work reflects that, as so many of the other photographers also reflect that. It’s a testimony and it’s a legacy that is well-deserved to [the people in the photographs] that they would not have gotten otherwise.

The continued legacy of La Raza is a testament to its success and impact over the years it was running. La Raza was not the last movement of its kind; photojournalism remains a powerful tool for social critique, education, and resistance, which marginalized communities repeatedly employ in their struggle for justice: it highlights the profound resilience of the human spirit.

Appendix 

Figure 1: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1970. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 2: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1970. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 3: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1968. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 4: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1970. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 5: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1968. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 6: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1970. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 7: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1970. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 8: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1970. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 9: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1968. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 10: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1969. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 11: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1970. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 12: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1968. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 13: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1969. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 14: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1970. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 15: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1970. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 16: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1967. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 17: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1968. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 18: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1970. Gelatin Silver Print.

Figure 19: La Raza Staff. Untitled, 1970. Gelatin Silver Print.

Works Cited

Duron, Maximiliano. “‘The Fight Is Not over’: Luis C. Garza and George Rodriguez on Photojournalism in 1960s L.A. and the Legacy of the Chicano Blowouts.” ARTnews.Com, ART News, 18 Nov. 2019, www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/luis-c-garza-george-rodriguez-photojournalism-1960s-la-chicano-blowouts-10277/.

Fragoza, Caribbean, “La Raza: The Power of the Paper Unfolds in the Chicano Movement” PBS SoCal, 21 Dec. 2023, www.pbssocal.org/shows/artbout/la-raza-the-community-newspaper-that-became-a-political-platform.

Good, Jennifer and Paul Lowe. Understanding Photojournalism. Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2017.

Gunckel, Colin. “Art and Community in East LA Self Help Graphics & Art from the Archive

Room.” Aztlán, vol. 36, no. 2, 2011, pp. 157-170, https://doi.org/10.1525/azt.2011.36.2.157. Accessed 17 Nov. 2024.

Gunckel, Colin. “Capturing Movimientos.” Aperture, no. 245, 2021, pp. 44–51. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27114029. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.

Gunckel, Colin. “The Chicano/a Photographic: Art as Social Practice in the Chicano Movement.” American Quarterly, vol. 67, no. 2, 2015, pp. 377–412. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43823081. Accessed 17 Nov. 2024.

Harte, David, et al. Hyperlocal Journalism: The Decline of Local Newspapers and the Rise of Online Community News. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019.

Lux, Guillermo, and Maurilio E. Vigil. “Return to Aztlan: The Chicano Rediscovers His Indian Past.” The Chicanos: As We See Ourselves, 1 May 2019, pp. 1–17, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvss3xpw.6.

Matsa, Katerina Eva, and Kirsten Worden. “Local Newspapers Fact Sheet.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 26 May 2022, www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/local-newspapers/?tabItem=08f7d7a9-49ef-4012-be40-ea17839f8348.

Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis. Local Journalism: The Decline of Newspapers and the Rise of Digital Media. I.B. Tauris, 2019.

Staff, La Raza. “La Raza Publication Records.” La Raza Publication Records CSRC.1001, 24 Apr. 2020, oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c82f7vq1/entire_text/.

Shearer, Elisa, et al. “Americans’ Changing Relationship with Local News.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 7 May 2024, www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2024/05/07/americans-changing-relationship-with-local-news/.

Unknown. “eastloscommunity” Instagram Page, www.instagram.com/eastloscommunity/. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.

Unknown. “unincorporated.eastla” Instagram Page, www.instagram.com/unincorporated.eastla/.  Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.

Julia Zayas is a sophomore from East Los Angeles, California, pursuing a degree in Biomedical Engineering at the College of Engineering. Her interest in healthcare and engineering stems from an early awareness of inadequacies in healthcare, especially within low-income and minority communities. In her free time, she is an active member of Latine organizations at BU, such as the Sabor Latino dance team and the Latine Student Task Force. She would like to give a special thanks to Dr. Gaye Theresa Johnson, Chicano history professor at UCLA, for teaching her about Chicanidad and inspiring her to strive to change the structural inadequacies that plague the healthcare system and beyond.