la raza

[lah-rah-sah]

noun

(sometimes initial capital letters)

1. (used with a plural verb),  the people of Mexico or Mexican Americans, collectively.

2. (used with a singular verb),  Mexican or Mexican American culture.

Word History and Origins

Origin of la raza¹

First recorded in 1920–25; literally, “the race,” shortening of La raza cósmica “The Cosmic Race,” a 1925 essay by José Vasconcelos Calderón (1882–1959), Mexican writer, philosopher, and politician, in which Vasconcelos Calderón claims that a future worldwide community will develop from the mixture of all the racial and ethnic groups of the world, which he believed had begun in Latin America; from Spanish la, the feminine singular definite article + raza race ² ( def. )