CREATING AN ALTERNATIVE MEDIA WHOSE AIM IS THE SELF-DETERMINATION OF RAZA

The Raza Press and Media Association (RPMA) was reestablished in 1990 as the Chicano Press Association (CPA). It was to later change its name from the CPA to the RPMA. The original CPA existed as a network of newspapers, magazines, and newsletters, during what was known as the “Chicano Power Period” of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Today, the RPMA is the only Raza media group that struggles for the development of a Revolutionary Raza media. It organizes conferences, workshops, and its members are active in grass roots political activism.

It is the understanding of RPMA that we can’t take on the beast known as capitalism-colonialism, alone. Therefore we have united into a network (RPMA) that shares resources and information. We are critical of those, who no matter how good their intentions might be, refuse to work in unity with others doing the same kind of work. Individualism in struggle, as history has shown us, has proven be a tactic of failure.

As a means of providing an ongoing critique of the media and to expose how it functions as a tool of capitalist-colonialist oppression, as well as struggling for the creation of an alternative media whose aim is the self-determination and liberation of Raza and all oppressed people, the RPMA publishes a quarterly (4 times a year) journal, Guerrillero/as de La Pluma. The journal is posted on line and printed for use at conferences and workshops. Past articles have included subjects such as: how the press works, examples of revolutionary press/history, and articles supporting the Zapatistas, Cuba, Venezuela, Palestine, and other revolutionary movements and liberation struggles.

For the Summer Issue 2009 of Guerrillero/as de La Pluma, the RPMA is soliciting articles that provide a critique of the present state of Chicano Studies. The RPMA’s understanding of the Chicano Studies informs us that it was the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, that was behind its establishment. The aim of the movement was for Chicano Studies to be social science that would educate, document, motivate, and participate in the struggle for Raza self-determination.

Unfortunately, today, most (not all) Chicano Studies professors and instructors, departments and programs, for a host of reasons, have failed in meeting the original aims and mission of this social science. Hence, the objective of RPMA critique of Chicano Studies is not to destroy it, or simply to criticize it, but to expose the contradictions and problems found within it, with the goal of providing solutions and to bring it back to its original mission.

Articles should be no longer than two pages and received by March 10, 2009.