Católicos por La Raza is a political association organized by Ricardo Cruz in the later 1960s in Los Angeles, California. Formed in the fall of 1969, Católicos por La Raza was made up of Chicano Catholic student activists who were engaged with both "their Catholic and Chicano heritage," enabling them to name and fight against the racism in the Catholic Church and the effects on the community. The CPLR was concerned with the discrimination and hypocrisy of the church's institutional power and wealth, arguing that such should be "brought to bear in solving the current Chicano urban and rural crisis". CPLR sought to transform the Church into an institution for social change, creating projects focussed on housing development, education, and small business development; believing that the Catholic Church in Los Angeles should use its power and wealth to address the economic and social needs of Mexican Americans.

The CPRL, among many other organizations in the larger Chicano Movement, served to fight police brutality, employment discrimination, and the systemic racism in religious, educational, and political institutions. While the Católicos por La Raza was only active for a few years, the association's actions propelled various other movements in the 1970s, such as PADRES, an organization of Chicano priests, and Las Hermanas, an organization of Chicana/Latinas religious women.