ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to present an analysis of the development of Chicano organizations in the Midwest. It explains urban and rural, migrant and nonmigrant, and state and regional organizing efforts. In Ohio, farm labor organizing was undertaken through the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, while in Indiana, similar activities were sponsored by the United Mexican Americans, the Midwest Council for La Raza, and the Farm Labor Aid Committee. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) was founded in 1929 in Corpus Christi, Texas. It was one of the first, and probably the most prominent, Chicano organizations to adopt an overtly assimilationist position as a solution to improving the plight of the Mexican American. The simple fact that they pattern themselves after Anglo institutions reveals the extent to which the larger society exists as a reference group for the creators of these institutions. Such organizations as LULAC and the American G. I. Forum are particularly indicative of these kinds of institutions.
