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- Labor - Individually, this word represents the physical activity that produces something or provides some form of service. It can also be used to describe a group of people that live off of that physical activity, i.e. the body of persons engaged in such activity, those selling their labor (for wages) to another person so that person can profit from it. Labor can also represent the time and services provided by workers for wages that are used to survive in society (buy food/clothes, pay for housing, transportation, etc.). This is at times used as another word for “work”, although it can be used to describe more than just the act of working.
- Labor Rights - This is the name given to the conditions when the working class struggles for the opportunity to have jobs that pay pretty good money, are safe for workers, and offer benefits like health and retirement insurance.
- Laissez-Faire - Letting industry fix the rules of competition, labor, etc., without government regulations. This is usually pulled out by the upper class to justify getting anything it wants.
- Language - One of the few universal characteristics of humanity, it is at the heart of culture and society.
- La Raza - Began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, it was used to represent "the community" or "the people", and referred to the concept of "La Raza Cósmica" (the "cosmic race"), the coming together of indigenous, African, and European blood. The Chicano movement upheld this concept through the symbolism of a "three faced" icon. When used today in conversation, it usually refers to Mexicana/os and other latina/os. Furthermore, UdB uses the term politically, and it includes indigenous people, latina/os from Aztlán to Chile, and others who unite with the struggles of la raza.
- La Raza Unida Party - See "Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida".
- Latin America - Originally a concept developed by French imperialists to define the area of Nuestra América not under the direct control of the U.S., it has come to be used to identify the American continents south of the United States which includes Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. UdB recognizes Latin America as part of a broader, more ideological definition that is given to "Nuestra América", which includes our communities struggling against imperialism, and the indigenous peoples of North America.
- Latina/o - An identifier that is linked to the concept of "Latin America" and has since the 1990s been widely used in place of "hispanic". It is not very political in its use, yet still covers people from the countries south of the United States.
- La Verdad Newspaper - A San Diego Chicano Movement newspaper from the early 1970's, today it is published by Unión del Barrio, and is the longest running independent movimiento liberation newspaper in the history of Aztlán.
- Laws - The principles established by the government or other authority, and applicable to the people, whether by legislation, or by custom, enforced by judicial decision. Laws usually represent the economic and/or political interests of the ruling class.
- League of Nations - An international organization created in 1919 to promote world peace and cooperation. It was dissolved in 1945.
- Lebrón, Lolita - .
- Left Wing - Also "leftist", refers to people and/or groups who are politically radical to revolutionary. The phrase comes from the French Revolution where people sat in the National Assembly according the their political ideas, with conservatives on the right, and radicals on the left.
- Legislation - .
- Lemon Grove Incident - An important court case that took place here in San Diego, in which parents of Mexicans students sued the state for keeping their children in separate classrooms from white students. The classroom was actually a horse stable, and in the end the court case was won, and this effectively desegregated public school classrooms.
- Lenin, Vladimir Ilych - Born 1870, died 1924. Founder and chairperson of the Communist Party of Russia, also known as the "Bolshevik" party. Russian revolutionary writer, thinker, and revolutionary who led the Russian Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power in November in 1917. Led the Russian Revolution, which established the first socialist society in human history. Leninism is the political theory and practice that advances the need for an advanced political party of the working class - a vanguard. This is a highly organized and disciplined party, that is needed in the process/struggle to bring about a socialist society, and help move it closer to its final stage, communism.
- Leisure Time - An idea that every person, including people who do manual labor, should have the right to leisure time - a time to relax, and spend time as they choose.
- Liberal - Politically, this is a person that believes that capitalism is the best system to achieve individual freedom, and that individual and civil rights need to be protected above all else, including against class struggle. In the U.S., a liberal is usually a person the supports the Democratic Party and economic keynesianism. In our community work, a liberal is a person the prefers not to join any form of organization, places their own interests ahead of the interests of all others, and avoids most kinds of struggle because of opportunism or for fear of hurting people's feelings.
- Libertadores - The name given to the patriots that led the struggle against Spanish colonialism during the 1800s.
- Liberty - The condition of being free from restriction or control with the right and power to act, believe, or express oneself in a manner of one's own choosing.
- Liberalism - Also known as "classical liberalism", this can be very different from what is known as being a "liberal" in the U.S. Classical liberalism (which is closer to the ideas of the Republican party in the U.S.) is a European ideology that places individual rights and private property as the most fundamental of all freedoms and liberty, and the that these represent all that is good and holy in human history. Classical liberalism includes justification for "liberal capitalism", colonialism, and imperialism, and different forms of this ideology been used to justify racism, murder, theft, and generalized violence against the Third World since the 1500s. It has as its most loved thinkers people like Locke, Smith, and Mill, among others. Typically people who say they uphold these ideas are against government control, and resist forms of collective responsibility and support for other people.
- Liberation - The process and/or state of getting free from an oppressive reality, usually under the domination of a more powerful enemy. In Latin America it has historically been used to refer to anti-colonial struggle against Spanish, Portuguese, French and other European colonial oppressors, and later to refer to anti-imperialist struggle getting free from U.S. domination, as well as national and class struggle against neocolonialism and the bourgeoisie.
- Liberation Theology - A Christian theology in which the teachings of Jesus Christ are understood in terms of a liberation from unjust political, economic, or social conditions. Influenced by Marxist social theory, its theologians consider "structural sin" to be a root cause of poverty and oppression, and consider the primary responsibility of the church to be its "option for the poor".
- Libertadores - The name given to Latin American leaders of the wars of independence from Spain.
- Locke, John - 9 August 1632 – 28 October 1704. An English philosopher regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. His ideas related to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the American Declaration of Independence. For Locke the individual and individual rights were at the core of liberty.
- Logan Heights - An historically important barrio in the city of San Diego, and home to Chicano Park.
- Long Term (struggle) - Protracted. Also short term and medium term.
- López Tijerina, Reies - Chicano leader who during the 1960's and early 1970's fought for the rights of raza in Nuevo México.
- King Louis XVI - 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793. Ruled as King of France from 1774 until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792. Suspended and arrested during the Insurrection of 10 August 1792, he was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of treason, and executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793. He was the only king of France to be executed.
- L'Ouverture, Toussaint - 1743 - 1803, Haitian military and political leader. He and Jean-Jacques Dessalines were very important figures in the wars of independence.
- Lumumba, Patrice - 2 July 1925 - 17 January 1961. A Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960.
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