Plan Espiritual de Aztlán

El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán (Spiritual Plan of Aztlan) is a document adopted in March 1968 by the First National Chicano Liberation Youth Conference at a convention held at Denver, Colorado. It is considered a foundational document by the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA). The full text of the document is available online.

El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán contains several controversial statements which have lead many to believe MEChA is a racist and separatist organization. These statements include:

• "Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada".

Literally translated, this means, "By the Race, everything; outside of the Race, nothing" -- a sentiment similar to "United we stand, divided we fall". However, since the Spanish word por can mean either by or for, some interpret it to mean, "Everything for the Race, nothing for [those who are] outside of the Race".

• "[L]ove for our brothers makes us a people whose time has come and who struggles against the foreigner "gabacho" who exploits our riches and destroys our culture ... [E]conomic control of our lives and our communities can only come about by driving the exploiter out of our communities, our pueblos, and our lands and by controlling and developing our own talents, sweat, and resources".

This has been interpreted as a call to summarily label non-Chicanos "exploiters" and to expel them out of the Chicano community. Another view is that this is a call to recognize exploiters when and where they exist, and to actively work towards independence and self-reliance rather than expecting problems to be solved from the outside.

• "Education must be relative to our people, i.e., history, culture, bilingual education, contributions, etc".

To some, this is viewed as an unpatriotic rejection of the common history and values shared with the nations of the United States and Mexico.

• "Self-defense of the community must rely on the combined strength of the people ... For the very young there will no longer be acts of juvenile delinquency, but revolutionary acts".

Since it is not specified from what entity defense is required, some read this as self-defense from the police and legal authorities, and the justification of juvenile deliquency as a "revolutionary act". It could also be read as a call to defend the civil rights and economic livlihood of Chicanos on the legal battlefield, and the abandonment of juvenile delinquency in favor of progressive political action.

• "A nation autonomous and free - culturally, socially, economically, and politically- will make its own decisions on the usage of our lands, the taxation of our goods, the utilization of our bodies for war, the determination of justice (reward and punishment), and the profit of our sweat".

This appears to be a call of outright secessation. But other parts of El Plan seem to advocate working within the system, such as "the creation of an independent local, regional, and national political party". In 1999, MEChA adopted a document entitled The Philosophy of MEChA, which affirmed that "all people are potential Chicanas and Chicanos", and that "Chicano identity is not a nationality but a philosophy". "Nation", as understood within MEChA, refers to Chicanos as a politically empowered ethnic group -- but not necessarily one with a sovereign territory and government, a model similar to Canada's First Nations.

See also:

• MEChA
• Plan de Santa Barbara
• Chicano
• Aztlan