FBI Files on Mexicans and Chicanos, 1940–1980

José Angel Gutiérrez is emeritus professor of political science ate University of Texas in Arlington.

In this well-researched and detailed book, José Angel Gutiérrez, as a scholar and a fearless leader for decades on behalf of Chicanas and Chicanos in the U.S., does an excellent job in exposing the civil/human rights abuses of the American government in general and oppressive FBI apparatus in particular against los de abajo. As a self-described Chicano militant, the author exposes a contradiction of the FBI’s racist surveillance against brown people, where the gaze of Big Brother doesn’t differentiate in spying on righteous militants, aspiring for radical/structural transformations, versus moderate Mexican Americans and groups, seeking reformist changes.

• Chapter 1: Luisa Moreno, The Guatemalan MexicanChapter 2: Ernesto Galarza, the first Chicano Activist ScholarChapter 3: Ramón “Raymond” Telles, First Chicano Ambassador of the United States, and his wife, Delfina NavarroChapter 4: Salvador Buruel Castro of the Los Angeles School District Student Walkouts of 1968Chapter 5: Balde from San Benito, Texas aka Freddy FenderChapter 6: Francisco “Pancho” MedranoChapter 7: The American G. I. Forum and Joe Molina’s CaseChapter 8: The Border Coverage Program, the U.S. Intervention in Mexico’s Internal Affairs