A set of processes, occurring throughout the urban Southwest, is fragmenting and dislocating the barrios that exist in and around metropolitan areas, displacing the Chicano population and acting as a source of disruption and instability in the community. This pamphlet presents three interviews describing projects undertaken by Chicanos in three urban areas to counter these processes and to give the Chicanos in those areas some small measure of control over their own lives and communities. Ernesto Galarza outlines the efforts of a collective Study Team in Alviso (California) to keep that small, predominantly Chicano town from being swallowed up and transformed by the city of San Jose. Guillermo Flores describes how a cooperative effort between Chicano students and residents of Union City (California) has attempted to reverse trends that are threatening to displace the barrios in that town. In the concluding interview, Rosalio Munoz reports on the efforts of the East-Northeast Committee to defend the barrios of East Los Angeles from forced dislocation. These projects, especially in Alviso and Union City, illustrate the way in which social action and social research can reinforce each other. (Author/NQ)