La Raza (literally "The Race") is sometimes used to denote the people of Latino and the Chicano world, many of them Mestizos, who share the pride of their Native American or national hispanic heritage. The term originated in the book La Raza Cósmica written by a Mexican writer, José Vasconcelos. He described La Raza Cosmica(published 1925) as the product of racial mixing over time that was already in progress in the Hispanic world. Vasconcelos believed in Supremacism in that eventually all of the people within the Spanish Empire would completely mixed into a new race that had the best attributes of all the cultures; armies of these people would then go forth around the world professing their knowledge and initiating the "universal era of humanity". Hispanic people all around the U.S. have also started using this term to identify themselves as Latinos (La Raza Latina).Nonetheless, the term and idea associated with it has been mainly adopted by the Mexican communities in the United States to express the pride in their nation. As used la raza implies dignity and pride for these people regarding what they are and where they come from.
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