The Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida (PNLRU) believes every individual should vote their conscience. While we do not support any presidential candidates, we recognize the current political situation is complex and more volatile than any time in recent history. We also recognize that many of us fight against owning our political power.
We are not saying don’t vote.
We are saying understand what is at stake in voting and not voting.
The constant begging for scraps at the U.S. electoral table is neither admirable nor effective. Defending the need to vote for a Republican or Democrat, while insisting it doesn’t matter which as long as you participate, is not just counterproductive to building Xicano political power, it is an exhausting fantasy of settler domination. Declaring that you won’t vote for either party because neither represents you also misses the larger issue. Elections matter, your vote is your voice.
Those who argue in favor of voting only for Republicans or Democrats are only looking at two options that are merely defaults in the settler colonial political structure. A third option to consider is the belief in political power-building for Xicanos, Latinos, or Indigenous peoples.
The participation argument is solely about settler colonial party politics. Those party politics perpetuate the settler colonial state through laws and regulations that politically, socially, economically and culturally exclude Black and Brown people.
Whether you vote or not, if you are not actively involved in building a pro-Xicano, pro-Indigenous political party, your actions ultimately serve the interests of settler colonial power structures. By abstaining from meaningful political organization and participation, you reinforce the status quo that perpetuates political, social, and economic exclusion for our communities. It is essential to recognize that real change requires collective effort and engagement in creating political alternatives that truly represent Xicano and Indigenous interests.
The fight for a political party for Xicanos started in 1970 and continues today. Our community continues to struggle to conceive of a Xicano/Indigenous political force being able to offer an alternative to the political and economic power of settler colonialism.
The belief that Indigenous people are losers politically, culturally, economically, and socially is a pervasive theme embedded in U.S. history books, movies, and sermons over the past 500 years. This notion is so fixed in the Indigenous psyche that Xicanos and other Indigenous people scoff at the idea of resistance, even when it operates within the nation’s laws-such as forming a political party.
Recognizing political allegiance to the Xicano Indigenous community beyond benign cultural practices demands we understand that “the national liberation of a people is the regaining of the historical personality of that people.” Xicanos must continue to grow politically and build a national political party. Becoming a political force happens when we commune together and vote as a block.
By reclaiming our political power, Xicanos embrace their political destiny as a political, cultural and economical sovereign group of people, not subjects of a settler colonial state. Building a Xicano/Latino/Indigenous political party is a first step in that direction. Good work is happening in Indigenous Xicano/Mexicano communities across the country. Real heroes are beginning to organize themselves. This grassroots organizing is building a new Xicano Indigenous culture to replace colonial culture and its institutions.
It is crucial to recognize the importance of political participation beyond the confines of settler colonialism, and to build true representative political power for Xicanos, Latinos, and Indigenous peoples.
Your voice is your vote, and there are many ways to cast it. One is through building a Xicano/Latino/Indigenous political party working to accurately represent and reclaim our political sovereignty, and achieve true political, economic, and social reform.
Again, We are not saying don’t vote.
We are saying understand what is at stake in voting and not voting.
Su Voz es su Voto