La Sociedad: Guardians of Hispanic Culture Along the Rio Grande

(Society for the Mutual Protection of United Workers) was one of hundreds of Hispanic mutual aid societies that flourished in the American Southwest between 1880 and 1930, a period of rural industrialization that coincided with significant changes in the region's political economy and in the competition for the control of natural resources. This book examines La Sociedad as a case study of collective action in a pluralistic American society marked by rapid social change.

In 1900 Celedonio Mondragon and several other residents of the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado formed La Sociedad to help prevent the usurpation of Hispanic land ownership and to combat discrimination against wage laborers. The organization rapidly grew to include sixty-five local concilios (lodges) in Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Hispanic mutual aid societies provided such services as financial aid, low-cost insurance, burial funding, and fraternal support. La Sociedad consolidated these relief and support services and became a powerful force in helping families survive the transformations wrought by the influx of Anglos, the federal government, and new technologies. In the early twentieth century, the federal government became the primary welfare service provider for rural communities, but La Sociedad has survived in the Southwest, continuing its traditions of fellowship and support.

Beginning with the social and economic conditions that gave rise to La Sociedad, Jose Rivera traces the organization's activities through its centennial in 2000. His study explores the values that have bonded SPMDTU members across generations and have sustained the organization for more than a century and addresses the question of whether or not La Sociedad will survive in the twenty-first century.

Jose A. Rivera is a research scholar at the Center for Regional Studies, University of New Mexico, and a professor of planning at UNM's School of Architecture and Planning. Rivera is also the author of Acequia Culture: Water, Land, and Community in the Southwest (UNM Press).
Daniel Salazar, whose photos are featured throughout this book, lives in Denver, where he is a member of La Sociedad's Council No. 7. Salazar is a media artist and regularly exhibits his work in galleries, arts centers, and museums.