A dramatic response to American racism occurred in Los Angeles during 1855 when eighteen-year-old Francisco P. Ram rez published a Spanish-language newspaper, El Clamor P blico. Ram rez called upon a Mexican American majority to seize control of their destiny by electing themselves to public office. Ram rez was a radical liberal in a town controlled by white conservative Southerners with antebellum values. Nevertheless, from 1855 to 1859, he railed...