La Raza, Barrio Self-Defense & Real Political Power

Ten Difficult Lessons Unión del Barrio Takes Away From Trumpism/COVID-19 —    Introduction    —    The Events of Jan 6th    —    How We Got Here    —    What Comes Next    — INTRODUCTION:  The goal of this analysis is to provide a critical/self-critical assessment of the repression suffered by our communities […]

Unión del Barrio Statement Regarding the Demand to Re-Open Schools During the Pandemic

Union del Barrio rejects the Trump regime’s demands to re-open schools for the 2020-2021 academic school year. As an organization committed to critical pedagogy and democratic schooling, we are convinced that public schools should not resume in-person instruction until that time when it is deemed safe by public health experts and the broader scientific community. We […]

Inmate Protests Against Forced Exposure To COVID-19

On April 10, 2020, dozens of inmates at the Lansing Correctional Facility in Kansas took part in an uprising to protest  unsanitary conditions within the prison during the current worldwide health crisis COVID-19 pandemic. Prisoners and their families have been very concerned about the rising numbers of coronavirus infections among prisoners across the whole country. […]

PART 3: Unión del Barrio’s Report & Analysis On The 2019 MEChA National Conference

PART THREE of THREE Social Media Woketivism Is A Representation Of Political Culture, Not The Real Thing A significant number of social media-centric raza activists, including MEChistas, have embraced a tendency that privileges individual identities over collective expressions of political struggle and political power. This tendency appears within forms of neoliberal performative politics sometimes referred […]

Originally Published In 2009: 40 YEARS OF STRUGGLE: EL PLAN DE SANTA BARBARA, MEChA & CHICANO STUDIES

Exactly 10 years ago Unión del Barrio published this article in the March-May 2009 edition of our newspaper ¡LA VERDAD!. Though we are currently developing an organizational statement to address the March 31, 2019 name change of MEChA, we felt there was clear value in re-publishing this article from 2009 to help inform our communities about […]

Los Angeles 2019: When LA Educators Go On Strike, They Teach Us What It Takes To Bring About Change

Unión del Barrio stands in solidarity with Los Angeles teachers! Los Angeles teachers are showing District Superintendent Austin Beutner that when it comes down to defending public education, they are not afraid to go on strike. During the past 20 months the LA teacher’s union (UTLA) has been in negotiations with the LA Unified, struggling […]

Today We Were United In The Defense Of Chicano Park & Our Community

Today, September 3, 2017, a broadly unified raza-led front of elders, high school and college students, barrio youth, political radicals, muralists, artists, cultural workers, academics, activists, native people of the Kumeyaay nation, labor organizers, religious people, etc. unconditionally joined forces with at least 500 local community people to defend Barrio Logan’s historic Chicano Park. Click […]

First Hand Testimony From Herman Baca: “The Chicano Moratorium of August 29, 1970 Still Remembered – The Day Police Rioted!”

“LEST WE FORGET!” Committee on Chicano Rights (Reprinted & Updated from UCSD Herman Baca Archives) I still vividly remember what happened to me personally and politically in Los Angeles, California on August 29, 1970. Thirty thousand Chicanos from throughout the U.S. marched in the streets to protest and call for an end to the war in […]

During February of 2017, Trumpistas Sent Our Communities A Clear Message Of What They Have In Mind For Us

The real question is, what are we going to do about it? Among the generalized political division and increasing hatred that Trump has fomented during his first weeks as president, it takes a little work to discern what is now clearly a pattern of white nationalist aggression that has been unleashed against our communities. Indeed, […]

Ramon “Chunky” Sanchez – ¡PRESENTE!

Ramon “Chunky” Sanchez was a central figure of the Chicana/o Movement across numerous generations. He was a leader of political culture and song, an icon of Chicano Park, and a representative San Diego-based raza struggle. Throughout the years he also left his mark on Unión del Barrio, especially our history that is rooted in the […]