The Cristal experiment : a Chicano struggle for community control /

This is a fascinating account of the peaceful revolution implemented in the south Texas town of Cristal by the Raza Unida Party (RUP) in 1963-65 and 1970-75. From 1973 to 1993 Navarro (Univ. of California at Riverside) conducted 59 interviews with RUP leaders, including more than 20 hours with Jose Angel Gutierrez, the driving force behind the Cristal experiment in community control. The narrative is vivid, engaging, and supported by a solid research methodology. The book starts with the electoral revolt of 1963 and its failure; it then describes the 1970-75 rise and fall of RUP's peaceful revolution from the Mexicano control of the school board, city, and Zavala County governments to the split in the RUP and the decline of its peaceful revolution. Part 3 deals with specific aspects of RUP's agenda for social change: education, economic empowerment, and urban renewal. Part 4 explains the failure of the Cristal experiment and draws 12 lessons for a new Chicano movement of community control in South Texas. Although well organized and presented, the book would have benefitted from a glossary and a chronology. A useful addition to John Shockley's Chicano Revolt in a Texas Town (1974). Research libraries, upper-division undergraduate and graduate students. M. E. Carranza; Texas A&M University--Kingsville