Third World Radicalism: The Chicana/o Studies Movement at The University of California, Berkeley, 1968–1975

This article examines the University of California at Berkeley Chicana/o Studies Movement between 1968 and 1975. The first section contextualizes how the Free Speech Movement (1964) and the Third World Liberation Front (1968–1969) set the stage for the advancement of Ethnic and Chicana/o Studies. The second section offers a historical examination of the Chicana/o Studies Movement and explains political conflicts between the university administration and their internal struggles. The final section examines the role of the El Grito publication and how it impacted the development of the Chicana/o Studies discipline. Finally, this paper examines how the culture of empire utilized neocolonialists to destroy the radical student voice and prevented the creation of an autonomous Chicana/o Studies Department.