1. El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán
By Alurista, Rodolfo ‘Corky’ Gonzales, and Juan Gómez-Quiñones

2. Historical and Contextual Information
“El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán” was drawn up and adopted during the historic Chicano Youth Liberation Conference of 1969 in Denver, Colorado.
Authors were Alurista, Gonzales, and Gómez-Quiñones.
The main basis for the plan is a poem written by Alurista. The poem is the preamble (or first section) of “El Plan.”
“El Plan” is considered a pro-indigenist Chicano/a political manifesto meant to organize and mobilize the Chicano (Mexican American) community during this time.
“El Plan” is a direct result of the work of the Chicano Movement or Chicano Civil Rights Movement focused on working for equal rights and the protection of those rights for brown people.
The Chicano movement was part of a particular political moment that also saw the energy of the Civil Rights Movement, the American Feminist movement, and the anti-war movement(s).

3. Nationalism
“El Plan Espiritual” makes use of “nationalism” as a discourse in order to unify the Chicano people.
Nationalism: the idea of a collective identity based not on the governing body/state but on the cultural or ethnic identification of a group of people. (Blood line, genealogy, land are all relevant concepts)
In nationalism, origins, history, traditions, and language are some of the elements that “unify” a people. Essentially the idea is to come together under ethnic or racial identity.
Nationalism is not always the same as patriotism. Patriotism supports the state’s decisions while nationalism has to do not with the state necessarily but with a specific identity within that state.
Nationalism furthers the idea that a specific people should have sovereignty over their land, their education, their selves

4. The Concept of Aztlan
Aztlan is the legendary home of the Aztecs (Mexica) and other Nahua people
It is the place of the 7 caves, north of Central Mexico where 7 tribes resided
Migration from Aztlan to Central Mexico
the original tribe becomes the Aztecs (Mexica)
Aztlan is used both metaphorically and historically in Chicano/a political discourse

5. The Concept of La Raza
The term “La Raza” as used in “El Plan” potentially derives from Jose Vasconcelos’ book La Raza Cosmica
La Raza which translates to “The Race” is a term used to denote Mexican-Americans or Chicanos.
Carnalismo, sangre, La Familia, La Causa, El Plan