La Raza

This article is about a term for Latin American ethno-racial identity. For other uses, see La Raza (disambiguation).

The Spanish term La Raza translates as "the Race", Spanish raza having the meaning of "race, ethnicity; breed, strain, lineage". The term expresses ethnic or racial pride, racial supremacist ideology and is used with somewhat different shades of meaning in Spain and in Hispanic America.

In Spain, raza denotes specifically Spanish or European Christian (Roman Catholic) heritage. Francisco Franco wrote a novel under the pen name "Jaime de Andrade" which was turned into the film Raza of 1944, which celebrates ideally Spanish national qualities, exemplifies this usage.

In Latin America, la raza may emphasize Native American heritage, or it may express Latino (Hispanic) identity (La Raza being short for La Raza Hispánica). Día de la Raza marks the arrival of Christopher Columbus to America. The National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group in the United States of America, uses the term.

"La Raza" is a popular song among Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. The Mexican-American rapper Kid Frost recorded and released this song in 1990.

In his 1925 book, La Raza Cósmica (English: The Cosmic Race), Mexican writer José Vasconcelos described la Raza Cosmica as the product of gradual racial mixing that was already underway in the Hispanic world. Vasconcelos believed that eventually all of the people within the former Spanish Empire would be completely mixed into a new race (see also The Race of the Future).

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