Expedition through Aztlan

by David Sanchez – Published in 1978
Founder and former Prime Minister of the Brown Berets

David Sanchez was born in East Los Angeles in 1950. He founded the Brown Berets in December, 1967 and became their ‘Prime Minister.’ Sanchez has been portrayed as a civil rights leader in the media and US history textbooks in public schools and colleges. Nothing could be further from the truth.

An objective examination of Sanchez autobiography – Expedition through Aztlan – proves that he is an ethnic supremacist – a racist who promotes ethnic separation, domination and xenophobia. This is a book of propaganda with many factual errors.

In a letter he wrote to the LA times on behalf of the Chicano Movement in January, 1971, Sanchez condemns Anglo America on many issues. (page 15-17)

He blames conflict between the police and Mexican Americans on the United States for taking the southwest US from Mexico after they were defeated in the Mexican American War.(1) He condemns the United States for the deportation of Mexicans during the depression in the early 1930s. He condemns police for not protecting Mexicans during the ‘Zoot Suit’ riots of 1943 and blames the Catholic Church for the high drop out rate of Chicanos from school. He claimed there was a high Chicano death rate in the Vietnam War and claimed
Chicanos live in a totalitarian-like atmosphere in Los Angeles.

All of these claims by Sanchez are false. The fantasy of the Brown Berets was to be modern day conquistadors and retake the southwest US for Mexico – which they call Aztlan – or else make it a Spanish state within the US. Their goal is advancing rapidly in California.

Today, 170 years after the war, Mexican pride still cannot accept the fact that a small American Army defeated the Mexican army. Many Mexicans consider the southwest U.S. stolen Mexican land and there are some Mexican American ‘civil rights’ leaders who believe all Anglos should be kicked out of the entire US – not just the southwest US.