Viva la Causa! 500 Years of Chicano History

"We didn't cross The Border; The Border crossed us." The Border here refers to the political boundary between Mexico and the United States, ceded by the Mexican government after the Mexican War in 1848. Though the United States paid $15,000,000 to the Mexican government for the new lands, you wouldn't know it from this highly-charged, politically correct but historically errant tape. While the United States does receive much highly-deserved drubbing here, it is simply inaccurate to state that "white European-Americans" invaded Texas to farm; they were invited in by the Mexican government. Likewise, it's an error to show a picture of Thomas Jefferson when the Mexican War and the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo came out of the administration of James K. Polk some forty years later. The tape more accurately depicts why Chicanos needed the civil rights movement as much as African-Americans, from the indignity of segregated buildings in Southern California to Cesar Chavez's organization of the United Farm Workers. Chicano history is an important and central part of U.S. history, but this is not the accurate, even-handed and dispassionate video needed to teach it. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Reagan)