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Chicanos and Mexican Americans |
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Hispanic and Latino Americans |
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The Spanish expression la Raza[1] ('the people'[2] or 'the community';[3] literal translation: 'the race'[2]) has historically been used to refer to the mixed-race populations (primarily though not always exclusively in the Western Hemisphere),[4] considered as an ethnic or racial unit[5] historically deriving from the Spanish Empire, and the process of racial intermixing during the Spanish colonization of the Americas with the Indigenous populations of the Americas.
The term was not widely used in Latin America in the early-to-mid-20th century but has been redefined and reclaimed in Chicanismo and the United Farm Worker organization since 1968. It still remains in active use specifically in the context of Mexican-American identity politics in the United States ( ).[6] This terminology for mixed-race originated as a reference to "La Raza Cosmica" by José Vasconcelos, although it is no longer used in this context or associated with "La Raza Cosmica" ideology by Mexican-American, Native rights movements and activists in the United States.