Books: Non-Fiction

500 Años del Pueblo Chicano – 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures

Book — Non-fiction. By Elizabeth Martinez. 1991 (2nd Edition).
Chicano history as told through hundreds of pictures and bilingual text.
Time Periods: All US History
Themes: Civil Rights Movements, Immigration, Latinx, Native American

500 Anos del Pueblo ChicanoContaining hundreds of photos, paintings, drawings, political cartoons, and text in Spanish and English about truths long denied, 500 Años is a huge photoessay, both a rare and valuable collection and a family album, about the Mestizo people in whom Indian blood runs strong, in whose blood runs the cry for freedom.

There is much to celebrate, Martinez writes: the survival of the people and the resistance to exploitation, colonization and assimilation; the particular strength of Raza women in the face of discrimination and oppression; the great love, determination and fighting spirit of the elders; and the children who are the future.

The struggle for tierra, paz y libertad is to be celebrated, as Martinez writes, “as all of humanity’s great stories of struggle.” It’s a story still being written. [Description from Oyate.]

This bilingual history was originally published in 1976 (and revised in 1991) to tell the true story of La Raza.

Produced by Elizabeth “Betita” Martinez.

ISBN: 9780963112309 | SouthWest Organizing Project