a historical memoir of an educator-activist in the Chicano Movement
El Curso de la Raza: The Education of Aurelio Manuel Montemayor is the story of an educator-turned activist in the South Texas Chicano Movement.
This historical memoir follows a fronterizo during the formative periods of his life – his education, his teaching career, his political awakening – to describe the development of his critical consciousness
in 1960s America.
The book combines the personal and the political, leading readers along a journey of self-discovery that results in Montemayor’s most consequential yet unknown contribution to el movimiento, El Curso de la Raza, which cultivated Chicano leadership
from the barrios.
About Us
Aurelio Manuel Montemayor is a senior education associate at the Intercultural Development Research
Association (IDRA), beginning in 1975. He started his education career teaching Junior English in San Felipe High School in 1964. He’s been an activist since
1968. In 1970, he co-founded Colegio Jacinto Treviño in the Rio Grande Valley, and during that time he also co-
developed and co-led the Curso de la Raza, un retiro para la concientización. Aurelio believes in the power of community engagement for leadership development.
Thomas Ray Garcia is a writer, educator, and entrepreneur from Pharr, Texas. At Princeton University, he received the Ward Mathis Short Story Prize for his U.S.-Mexico borderlands fiction. His debut book of fiction, The River Runs, won the Américo Paredes Literary Arts Prize. He is also the founder and board chair of the College Scholarship Leadership Access Program (CSLAP), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that teaches college access classes and connects near-peer mentors to high school students in the Rio Grande Valley.