A Chicano Manual on How to Handle Gringos

by José Ángel Gutiérrez

A tongue-in-cheek how to guide written by a hero of the Chicano movement for the education of grass-roots leaders. Under this somewhat threatening title, the renowned civil rights leader Jose Angel Gutierrez provides a guidebook to minority empowerment through the use of analysis, practical experience and anecdote. His primary goal is the conversion of Latino demographic power into educational, economic and political power. In an incisive introduction, Gutierrez analyzes the types of power and evaluates Chicano and Latino access to power at various levels in U.S. society. In very plain, down-to-earth language and examples, Gutierrez takes pains to make his broad knowledge and experience available to everyone, but especially to those who want to be activists for themselves and their communities. For him the empowerment of a minority or working-class person can transfer into greater empowerment of the whole community. This manual penned by the founder of the only successful Hispanic political party, La Raza Unida, brings together an impressive breadth of models to either follow or avoid. Quite often, Gutierrez's voice is not only the seasoned voice of reason, but also that of humor, wry wit and satire. If nothing else, The Chicano Manual on How to Handle Gringos is a wonderful survey of the Chicano and Latino community on the move in all spheres of life in the United States on the very eve of its demographic and cultural ascendancy.

206 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003