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Chicanismo is a cultural movement begun in the 1930s in the Southwestern United States
Southwestern United States

The Southwestern area of the United States could be defined as the states west of the Mississippi River, with the qualification of a certain northern limit, such as the 37th parallel north, 38th parallel north, 39th parallel north, or 40th parallel north line....
 by Mexican American
Mexican American

Mexican Americans are United States of Mexican descent. They account for 9% of the country's population: 28.3 million Americans listed their ancestry as Mexican as of 2006....
s to recapture their Mexican
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
, Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples....
 culture.

four major themes of Chicanismo are generally considered to be: (1) the power of the creative earth and labor upon it; (2) political transformation through collective efforts; (3) strong familial ties extending back into Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica or Meso-America is a region and cultural area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, within which a number of pre-Columbian society flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries....
n pre-history; and (4) spiritually-influenced creative artistic imagination as reflected in the visual ARTS.

rding to San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University

San Francisco State University is a public university, nonsectarian, coeducational university located in San Francisco, California. The university is situated in the southwest corner of San Francisco, bordering Lake Merced and Stonestown Galleria, at the corner of 19th Avenue and Holloway Avenues....
 professor José B.






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Chicanismo is a cultural movement begun in the 1930s in the Southwestern United States
Southwestern United States

The Southwestern area of the United States could be defined as the states west of the Mississippi River, with the qualification of a certain northern limit, such as the 37th parallel north, 38th parallel north, 39th parallel north, or 40th parallel north line....
 by Mexican American
Mexican American

Mexican Americans are United States of Mexican descent. They account for 9% of the country's population: 28.3 million Americans listed their ancestry as Mexican as of 2006....
s to recapture their Mexican
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
, Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples....
 culture.

Major themes

The four major themes of Chicanismo are generally considered to be: (1) the power of the creative earth and labor upon it; (2) political transformation through collective efforts; (3) strong familial ties extending back into Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica or Meso-America is a region and cultural area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, within which a number of pre-Columbian society flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries....
n pre-history; and (4) spiritually-influenced creative artistic imagination as reflected in the visual ARTS.

Origins of the phrase

According to San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University

San Francisco State University is a public university, nonsectarian, coeducational university located in San Francisco, California. The university is situated in the southwest corner of San Francisco, bordering Lake Merced and Stonestown Galleria, at the corner of 19th Avenue and Holloway Avenues....
 professor José B. Cuéllar, the first documented use of "chicamo" (not "Chicano") was around 1900, when "American Mexicans" in Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
 used the phrase chicao as a derogatory term for more recently arrived mexicanos..

The East Palo Alto, California
East Palo Alto, California

East Palo Alto is a city in San Mateo County, California, California, United States....
 Association states "the most likely source of the word is traced to the 1930 and 1940s period, when poor, rural Mexicans, often native Americans, were imported to the US to provide cheap field labor, under an agreement of the governments of both countries."

Professor Cuellar opines that during the late 1950s the meaning of "Chicano" largely transformed from a negative signifier of "Mexican immigrant" into a positive self-identifier of "U.S. natives of mexicano descent." By 1959, high school students of Mexican descent identified themselves proudly as "Chicano". He notes that in the 1990s, other Latino
Latino

The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American or Spanish-speaking descent."...
 groups began to use the phrase "Chicano" to describe themselves.

Spiritual artistic themes

Aztlan Codex Boturini
  • The Legend of Popocatépetl
    Popocatépetl

    Popocat?petl is an active volcano and, at 5,426 m., the second highest mountain in Mexico after the Pico de Orizaba . Popocat?petl is linked to the Iztacc?huatl volcano to the north by the high saddle known as the Paso de Cort?s, and lies in the eastern half of the Trans-Mexican volcanic belt....
     and Iztaccíhuatl
    Iztaccíhuatl

    Iztacc?huatl , is the third highest mountain in Mexico, after the Pico de Orizaba and Popocat?petl . Its name is Nahuatl language for "white woman"....
    . Iztaccíhuatl's father sent Popocatépetl to war in Oaxaca
    Oaxaca

    The Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca }} is one of the 31 Mexican state of Mexico, located in the southern part of the country, west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec....
    , promising him his daughter Iztaccíhuatl as his wife if he returned (which Iztaccíhuatl's father presumed he would not). Iztaccíhuatl was told her lover was dead and she died of grief. When he returned, he in turn died of grief over losing her. The gods covered them with snow and changed them into mountains. Iztaccíhuatl's mountain was called "Sleeping Woman" because it bears a resemblance to a woman lying on her back. He became the volcano Popocatépetl, raining fire in blind rage at the loss of his beloved.
  • Aztlán
    Aztlán

    Aztl?n is the legendary ancestral home of the Nahua peoples, one of the main cultural groups in Mesoamerica. "Aztec" is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan."...
    , the spiritual utopia
    Utopia

    Utopia is a name for an ideal community or society, taken from the Utopia written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean, possessing a seemingly perfect social system-politics-legal system....
    n home of the Chicano people. Aztlán is believed to mean "Place of Whiteness" or "Place of Herons" (Nahuatl aztatl heron
    Heron

    The herons are wading birds in the Ardeidae family. Some are called egrets or bitterns instead of herons.Within the family, all members of the genera Botaurus and Ixobrychus are referred to as bitterns, and - including the Zigzag Heron or Zigzag Bittern - are a monophyletic group within the Ardeidae....
    s/white-plumed birds + tlan(tli) rooted in (as a tooth)/the place of)). During the Spanish conquest
    Spanish colonization of the Americas

    The Spanish colonization of the Americas was Spain's conquest, settlement, and rule over much of the western hemisphere. Beginning with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, over three centuries the Spanish Empire expanded from early small settlements in the Caribbean to include Central America, most of South America, Mexico, what toda...
     of Mexico, the story of Aztlán gained importance and it was reported by Fray Diego Durán
    Diego Durán

    Diego Dur?n was a Dominican Order Dominican friar best known for his authorship of one of the earliest Western books on the history and culture of the Aztecs, The History of the Indies of New Spain, a book that was much criticized in his lifetime for helping the "heathen" maintain their culture....
     (1581) and others to be a kind of Eden
    Garden of Eden

    The Garden of Eden is a location described in the Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam , and his wife, Eve , lived after they were created by God....
    -like paradise, free of disease and death, which existed somewhere in the far north. These stories helped fuel Spanish expeditions to what is now the Southwestern United States.
  • Our Lady of Guadalupe
    Our Lady of Guadalupe

    Our Lady of Guadalupe is a celebrated 16th-century icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ. The image, also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe represents a famous Marian apparition....
    , a Roman Catholic icon
    Icon

    An 'icon' is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity. More broadly the term is used in a wide number of contexts for an image, picture, or representation; it is a sign or likeness that stands for an object by signifying or representing it either concretely or by analogy, as in semiotics; by extension, ...
    , is the title given to the Virgin Mary after appearing, according to legend, to Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin
    Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin

    According to Mexican Catholic tradition Juan Diego, or Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, , was an indigenous Mexican who reported a Marian apparition, Our Lady of Guadalupe, in 1531....
    , an Aztec
    Aztec

    Aztec is a term used to refer to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl and who achieved political and military dominance over large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology....
     convert to Catholicism, on Tepeyac
    Tepeyac

    Tepeyac or the Hill of Tepeyac, historically known by the names "Tepeyacac" and "Tepeaquilla", is located inside Gustavo A. Madero, D.F., the northernmost delegaci?n or borough of the Mexican Federal District....
     Hill near Mexico City
    Mexico City

    Mexico City is the capital city of Mexico. It is the most important economic, industrial, and cultural center in the country; the most populous city with over 8,836,045 inhabitants in 2008....
     in 1531. The icon is currently located behind the main altar of the Basilica of Guadalupe. The icon has inspired art and murals in East Los Angeles
    East Los Angeles

    East Los Angeles can refer to:* East Los Angeles, California * East Los Angeles ...
    .
  • Huei tlamahuiçoltica
    Huei tlamahuiçoltica

    Huei tlamahui?oltica omonexiti in ilhuicac tlatoca?ihuapilli Santa Maria totla?onantzin Guadalupe in nican huei altepenahuac Mexico itocayocan Tepeyacac is the title of a 36-page Tract published in 1649 by Bachelor's degree Luis Laso de la Vega, the vicar of the chapel at Tepeyac, and published the same year in New Spain ....
     (Nahuatl
    Nahuatl language

    Nahuatl is a group of related languages and dialects of the Nahuan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family.Collectively they are spoken by an estimated Nahua peoples, most of whom live in Central Mexico....
    : "The Great happening") is the title of a 36-page tract
    Tract (literature)

    A tract is a literature, and in current usage, usually religious in nature. The notion of what constitutes a tract has changed over time. By the early part of the twenty-first century, these meant small pamphlets used for religious and political purposes, though far more often the former....
     written in 1649 by Luis Laso de la Vega
    Luis Laso de la Vega

    Luis Laso de la Vega was a 17th century Mexico priest and lawyer. He is known chiefly as the author of the Huei tlamahui?oltica , an account published in 1649 and written in the Nahuatl language, which contains a narrative describing the reported Marian apparition of the Virgin Mary before Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin in 1531, some 1...
    , the vicar of the chapel at Tepeyac
    Tepeyac

    Tepeyac or the Hill of Tepeyac, historically known by the names "Tepeyacac" and "Tepeaquilla", is located inside Gustavo A. Madero, D.F., the northernmost delegaci?n or borough of the Mexican Federal District....
    , which includes an account of the 1531 apparition of the Virgin Mary (as Our Lady of Guadalupe
    Our Lady of Guadalupe

    Our Lady of Guadalupe is a celebrated 16th-century icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ. The image, also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe represents a famous Marian apparition....
    ) to Juan Diego
    Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin

    According to Mexican Catholic tradition Juan Diego, or Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, , was an indigenous Mexican who reported a Marian apparition, Our Lady of Guadalupe, in 1531....
    , a native convert
    Religious conversion

    Religious conversion is the adoption of a new religion identity, or a change from one religious identity to another. This typically entails the sincere avowal of a new belief system, but may also present itself in other ways, such as adoption into an identity group or spiritual lineage....
    .
  • White Buffalo Calf Woman
    White Buffalo Calf Woman

    White Buffalo Calf Woman , a sacred woman of supernatural origin, is treated as a prophet or a messiah and is central to the Lakota religion. Oral traditions relate that she brought the extended Lakota nation of the Teton Sioux their "Lakota Seven Sacred Rituals"....
    , in Lakota mythology
    Lakota mythology

    Here is a list of articles pertaining to Lakota people mythology, a Native Americans in the United States people of North Dakota and South Dakota:...
    , is a sacred woman of supernatural origin who gave the Lakota their "Seven Sacred Rituals".


Political expression

Virgen De Guadalupe
  • See Chicano movement
    Chicano Movement

    The Chicano Movement of the 1960s, also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, also known as El Movimiento, it is an extension of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement which began in the 1940s with the stated goal of achieving "social liberation" and Mexican American empowerment....
  • See Ignacio M. García, (1997)


See also

  • Caló
    Caló (Chicano)

    Cal? is an argot or slang of Mexican Spanish which originated during the first half of the 20th century in the Southwestern United States. It is a product of zoot suit or Pachuco culture....
  • Rodolfo Gonzales
    Rodolfo Gonzales

    Rodolfo Gonz?lez was a Mexican American Boxing,Poetry, and political Activism. He convened the first-ever Chicano youth conference in March 1969, which was attended by many future Chicano activists and artists....
  • Pachuco
    Pachuco

    Pachucos are Mexican American youths who developed their own subculture during the 1930s and 1940s in the Southwestern United States. They wore distinctive clothing and spoke their own dialect of Mexican Spanish, called Cal? or Pachuco....
  • Aztlán
    Aztlán

    Aztl?n is the legendary ancestral home of the Nahua peoples, one of the main cultural groups in Mesoamerica. "Aztec" is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan."...
  • Chicano
    Chicano

    Chicano is a word for a Mexican American . The terms Chicano and Chicana were originally used by and regarding U.S. citizens of Mexican descent....
  • Chicano movement
    Chicano Movement

    The Chicano Movement of the 1960s, also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, also known as El Movimiento, it is an extension of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement which began in the 1940s with the stated goal of achieving "social liberation" and Mexican American empowerment....
  • Chicano nationalism
    Chicano nationalism

    Chicano nationalism is the ethnic nationalism ideology of Chicanos. While there were nationalism aspects of the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the Movement tended to emphasize civil rights and political and social inclusion rather than nationalism....
  • Chicano studies
    Chicano Studies

    Chicano studies is an academic discipline dealing with the study of Mexico. Like most branches of Ethnic studies, it incorporates aspects of various other disciplines, including history, sociology, psychology, and literary and textual analyses from the academic studies of the English studies and Spanish languages....
  • History of Mexican-Americans
    History of Mexican-Americans

    The history of Mexican-American people is wide-ranging, spanning more than four hundred years and varying from region to region within the United States....


External links

  • Manuel Villar Raso and María Herrera-Sobek. "A Spanish Novelist's Perspective on Chicano/a Literature." Journal of Modern Literature 25.1 (2001) 17-34. [https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_modern_literature/v025/25.1raso.html online]