CASA-HGT, (Centro de Accion Social Autonoma-Hermandad General de Trabajadores), was a Marxist-Leninist organization during the crucial civil rights period of 1965-1975 and it was led by Rudy Lozano, a Latino activist based in Chicago. He was instrumental in building the Black-Latino coalition and became a leading force behind the election of Harold Washington as mayor of Chicago in 1983. Washington won the election and became Chicago's first African American mayor and the most progressive mayor in the city's history. Rudy, a short time before, fell just seven votes short of entering a runoff election for a seat on the Chicago City Council. Had he won, he would have been the first Mexican American alderman and one of the few not controlled by machine patronage politics. Lozano was assassinated in 1983 and the forces behind his death have never been conclusively identified. **Please note that accents have been eliminated inorder to accomodate and facilitate the use of all types of web browsers. Researchers who would like to indicate errors of fact or omissions in this finding aid can contact the archivist at archivist@chicano.ucla.edu

From 1968 through 1978, Centro Accion Social Autonimo-Hermandad General de Trabajadores (CASA-HGT) functioned as a self help center and legal service provider for undocumented Mexican workers in California. CASA-HGT was a Marxist-Leninist / Third World Revolutionary political organization with a particular emphasis on challenging the unforeseen impacts of capitalist globalization.

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