Raza Cósmica, La

La Raza: Historical Precedence and Modern Controversies

For Vasconcelos, La Raza Cósmica would be a normative expression of a unified theory of global ethnic relations. His primary testament is the recognition of the broad social and political challenges of race in the Americas. Yet, the term La Raza Cósmica, and the abbreviated from La Raza, have come to signal many meanings and various controversial political and politicized affirmations. At issue is that Latin America would be the birthplace of this Universópolis and that the Spanish culture would be the standard-bearer of the new race. This preference ignores various issues of the physical and cultural colonization by the Spanish in the New World and arguably elevates Hispanics above others. Nonetheless, throughout his essay, Vasconcelos challenges the “abhorrent” theories of biological and racial (Aryan) purity by offering an optimistic theory of miscegenation or race-mixing.

The modern usage of the term La Raza is also controversial, generally because its literal English translation is “the race.” More specifically, the term is controversial because the phrase is widely used by various groups emanating from the Chicano and Mexican American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, with varying connotations of separatism and racial superiority. The term La Raza has its origins in Vasconcelos's “La Raza Cósmica,” which he originally wrote and published in Spanish. As such, the term is much more dynamic and fluid, with a translation much closer to meaning “the people,” or specifically the Latina/o people of the Americas born of mixed blood (a cosmic people) and not born of so-called racial purity.

Vasconcelos suggests that the term is meant to be inclusive of all races, instead of privileging just one racialized category; his is an argument for racial diversity instead of racial supremacy. Vasconcelos coined La Raza Cósmica at a specific historical moment, which further complicates its significance and specifically complicates its interpretations. La Raza Cósmica is a product of Mexico (a predominantely mixed-race nation), its historical trajectory (post–Mexican Revolution of 1910–20), and the political aspirations of its author, who later would unsuccessfully run for president of Mexico in 1929 as an “opposition” candidate.

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