El Plan De Santa Barbara Analysis

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In El Plan de Santa Barbara, we are provided with a brief description of what “racial structure” has created for the Chicano community.Those who are privileged, “Anglo-American community,” have determined our future, a future where we are meant to stay in the lower class of society. In the Manifesto of EPDSB, it states “due to the racist structure of this society… self-determination of our community is now the only acceptable mandate for social and political action”(EPDSB 9). This “racist structure” stated in El Plan de Santa Barbara is traced all the way back to our ancestors during the Spanish invasion and through the Chicano movement we have been able to fight back against this “racist structure.”
In Martha Menchaca’s Recovering History, …show more content…

Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folks, Du Bois experiences the Primary Scene, where he then realizes,“...I was different from the others[...]for the world I longed for, and their dazzling opportunities were theirs, not mine”(Du Bois 2). Du Bois comes to the conclusion that the only way to earn these opportunities that were negated to him by the law was through “book-learning”(Du Bois 5), getting an education, which is why EPDSB was written. El Plan de Santa Barbara is a call to action, it demands that the Chicanx community get the opportunity to attend the university, to reach a higher level of education to escape the “cycle of poverty” that was created due to the “racist structure” society, which is also shown in the documentary Chicano! History of the Mexican-American Civil Rights …show more content…

This is the reason why there was a need for a walkout, for a strike, for a movement. The reason why self-determination was necessary. El Plan de Santa Barbara challenges the oppression created by this “racial structure” by saying that through praxis (reflection and action) we will change the world, transform our communities, and fight against these “forces” (EPDSB). Forces that are at play that belong to this “racial structure”, limiting the opportunities of those who most desire them in order to escape a cycle of poverty. Forces that today we continue to fight to try and change this “racial

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