The Cristal Experiment: A Chicano Struggle for Community Control

Amidst the militancy of the 1960s and early 1970s the Mexican population of the dusty agricultural town of Crystal City, Texas (Cristal in Spanish), staged two electoral revolts, winning control of the city council and school board. Armando Navarro presents the most comprehensive examination to date of the rise of the Chicano political movement in Cristal.

Armando Navarro, a political scientist, is associate professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, Riverside, and author of Mexican American Youth Organization: Avant-Garde of the Chicano Movement. For more than twenty-five years he has been an activist and professional political organizer in California, working with the Mexican-American Political Organization, the Raza Unida Party, Congreso para Pueblo Unidos, the Institute for Social Justice, Californios for Fair Representation, Impacto/2000, and other organizations.