Venice Chicano Manifesto

MANIFESTO COMPANION RESOURCE PAGE

This is the companion page for the Venice Chicano Values Manifesto, written by Mike Bravo and published by Defend Venice. The manifesto is a framework for re-centering Chicano and Indigenous values in how we move, organize, and hold each other accountable — rooted in five generations of Venice roots and grounded in the history and traditions of Chicano and Mesoamerican peoples.

The Venice Chicano Manifesto book is currently distributed only in print, as a hard copy. This page provides further reading and resources for anyone who wants to go deeper into the topics covered in the manifesto.

For a copy contact: bravo @ defendvenice dot org
or DM @defendvenice on Instagram

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FURTHER READING BY TOPIC

Indigenous Philosophy & Teachings

• The Four Circles — Telpochcalli.ws
• Linear vs. Circular Mentality — Telpochcalli.ws
• The Four Directions (Aztec Medicine Wheel) — Telpochcalli.ws
• Basic Indigenous Ethics — Telpochcalli.ws
• The 7 Generations Principle — The Indigenous Foundation

Chican@ Concepts

• Carnalismo Definition—
• What is a Chicano? — Brittanica

Identity & the Mestizo Myth

• Not Hispanic, Not Latinx, Not Mestizo — Telpochcalli.ws
• The Mestizo Concept: A Product of European Imperialism
• 5 Reasons to Reject the War on Chicano Indigeneity — Kurly Tlapoyawa — Medium
• Aztecas del Norte by Jack D. Forbes (Free Book Download) — Telpochcalli.ws
• Tonantzin / “Guadalupe” Explained — Telpochcalli.ws

Chicano Civil Rights History

• Mendez v. Westminster (1947) — Library of Congress Resource Guide — The case that desegregated California schools seven years before Brown v. Board of Education
• Mendez v. Westminster — National Park Service
• East LA Walkouts — Zinn Education Project
• National Chicano Moratorium (1970) — Library of Congress Resource Guide — 30,000 marched against the Vietnam War and the disproportionate drafting of Brown men
• Chicano Moratorium — Zinn Education Project
• Chicano Moratorium — LA Conservancy — Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2020

Venice Chicano History

• Las Cuatro Esquinas: The Westside Chicano Movement, 1963–1979 — Miguel Marcello Chavez, UCLA (2010). Dissertation documenting organized Chicano political and cultural activism on LA’s Westside, including Venice.
• Las Cuatro Esquinas — Video Presentation — Miguel Chavez discusses the Four Corners of the Westside
• “The ‘Black Section’ of the Neighborhood” — Andrew Deener, UCLA / University of Connecticut, Ethnography Journal (2010). The study documented the collective invisibility of the Latino population in Venice/Oakwood, despite being the largest demographic group since 1980.

Colonialism, Systems and Concepts

• 500 Years of Resistance — Video by Daniel Osuna — Telpochcalli.ws
• Native land and African bodies: the source of U.S. capitalism — by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
• Internalized Racism — National Library of Medicine
• Proximity to Whiteness — Grokipedia

KEY TERMS

MesoX — Shorthand for Mesoamerican, with the colonial “American” replaced. Refers to people of Mesoamerican cultural heritage. Synonymous with Chicano.

Autogestión — Self-management. The Magonista principle of communities governing and sustaining themselves without dependence on outside systems.

Tequio — Communal labor service. The Nahua practice of contributing what you can to the collective good, with the community holding you in return.

Juchari Uinapikua — Purépecha phrase meaning “We Are Our Strength.” The manifesto’s guiding declaration.

Carnalismo — Brotherhood/sisterhood rooted in community loyalty. The principle that we are family and don’t let ourselves be used against our own.

Dissociation — The psychological consequence of being cut off from your history and identity for so long that you forget there was ever anything to be cut off from. Shows up as aspirational whiteness, cosigning systems that harm your own community, and deference to colonial frameworks.

Syncretism — The blending of Indigenous spiritual practices with Catholic forms as a survival strategy during colonization. Example: the reverence for Tonantzin preserved behind the image of Guadalupe.

Sistema de Castas — The racial caste system imposed by Spain to reclassify Indigenous people as “mixed” (mestizo), severing them from land rights, governance, and Indigenous identity. The origin of the mestizo myth.

In Ixtli In Yollotl — Nahua concept meaning “A Face, A Heart.” The principle of developing a strong character and deep moral center — the goal of Indigenous education.

CONNECT

• Website: defendvenice.org
• Instagram: @defendvenice
• Education: telpochcalli.ws — Indigenous education and teachings
• Spirit Run: fourcornersspiritrun.org — Ceremonial run connecting Indigenous community across the Westside

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COPYRIGHT

© Mike Bravo 2026. All rights reserved.
The Venice Chicano Values Manifesto is a project of Defend Venice and Keepers of the West Foundation.