The terms "
Chicano" and "
Chicana" (female, also spelled "
Xicana") are used in reference to
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
citizens of
MexicanThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional 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...
descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the
Chicano MovementThe Chicano Movement of the 1960s, also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, also known as El Movimiento, is an extension of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement which began in the 1940s with the stated goal of achieving Mexican American empowerment.-Origins:The Chicano Movement...
, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s. For Mexicans, the meaning of "Chicano" meant "poorest of the poor" but during the Civil Rights movement, they used the word to unite themselves.
Etymology
The origin of the word "chicano" is disputed. Some critics claim it is a shorterned form of "
Mexicano" ("Mexican" in Spanish). The word "Mexico" as spoken in its original
NahuatlNahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
, and by the Spaniards at the time of the conquest, was pronounced originally with a "sh" sound ("Mesh-ee-co"), as opposed to current pronunciation, and was transcribed with an "x" as was the usage in Spanish at the time. The difference between the pronunciation and spelling of "chicano" and "mexicano" stems from the fact that the modern-day Spanish language experienced a change in pronunciation regarding a majority of words containing the "x" (for example: México, Ximenez, Xavier, Xarabe). The "sh" sound was dropped and in most, but not all, cases accompanied by a change of spelling ("x" to "j"). The word "Chicano" in the US was evidently not affected by this change.
The Chicano poet and writer
Tino VillanuevaTino Villanueva is an American poet and writer.-Life:In 1963, he was drafted into the United States Army, and spent two years in the Panama Canal Zone. There he became immersed in Hispanic literature, reading Rubén Darío and José Martí. He graduated from Texas State University–San Marcos, on the...
traces the first documented use of the term to 1911, as referenced in a then-unpublished essay by University of Texas anthropologist José Limón. Linguists Edward R. Simmen and Richard F. Bauerle report the use of the term in an essay by Mexican American writer, Mario Suárez, published in the
Arizona Quarterly in 1947. Mexican Americans were not identified as a racial/ethnic category prior to the 1980 US Census, when the term "
HispanicHispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
" was first used in census reports.
Some believe that the word "
chicamo" somehow became "
chicano", which (unlike "
chicamo") reflects the grammatical conventions of Spanish-language ethno- and demonyms, such as "
americano" or "
castellano" or "
peruano". However, Chicanos generally do not agree that "chicamo" was ever a word used within the culture, as its assertion is thus far entirely unsubstantiated. Therefore, most Chicanos do not agree that "Chicano" was ever derived from the word "chicamo". There is ample literary evidence to further substantiate that "Chicano" is a self-declaration, as a large body of Chicano literature exists with publication dates far predating the 1950s. There is also a substantial body of Chicano literature that predates both Raso and the Federal Census Bureau.
As stated in the
Handbook of TexasThe Handbook of Texas is a comprehensive encyclopedia of Texas geography, history, and historical persons published by the Texas State Historical Association .-History:...
:
- "According to one explanation, the pre-Columbian tribes in Mexico called themselves Meshicas, and the Spaniards, employing the letter x (which at that time represented a "sh" and "ch" sound), spelled it Mexicas. The Indians later referred to themselves as Meshicanos and even as Shicanos, thus giving birth to the term Chicano."
Thus far, the origins of the word remain inconclusive, as the term is not used outside Mexican-American communities, further indicating that the term is primarily self-identifying.
Meanings
The term's meanings are highly debatable, but self-described Chicanos view the term as a positive self-identifying social construction. Outside of Mexican-American communities, the term has been considered pejorative and takes on subjective view but usually consists of one or more of the following elements.Chicano is also an expression of the Latino minority as a front "ni de aqui,ni de alla" "not from here,or there".It is an identity that symbolizes that our parents came from there countries and we are and are not from there,but we are also US born and are from here.:
Ethnic identity
From a popular perspective, the term
Chicano became widely visible outside of Chicano communities during the American civil rights movement. It was commonly used during the mid-1960s by Mexican-American activists, who, in attempt to reassert their civil rights, tried to rid the word of its polarizing negative connotation by reasserting a unique ethnic identity and political consciousness, proudly identifying themselves as
Chicanos.
The term "chicano" may have come from Mexican immigrants to the U.S. during the 1920s and 1930s, but by those originated from
ChihuahuaChihuahua officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chihuahua is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Its capital city is Chihuahua....
(not the term "Chi-"hua-hua" when they came into
TexasTexas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
where the locals made fun of the way the Chihuahuan Mexicans, primarily indigenous rural peasants, spoke a "less common" dialect of Spanish).
Others believe it was a corrupted term of "Chilango", meaning an inhabitant from
Mexico CityMexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
or Central Mexico (i.e. the highland states of
Mexico (state)México , officially: Estado Libre y Soberano de México is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of the United Mexican States. It is divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Toluca de Lerdo....
,
JaliscoJalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...
, Puebla (state) and
MichoacanMichoacán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia...
); and even from the term "Chileno" by the
ChileanChilean Americans are United States citizens or residents of Chilean origin. They number about 124,116 in 2009.In 2000, close to 14,000 lived in the states of Florida and California, while around 16,330 lived in the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and other New England states...
presence in mid 19th-century California, when miners from
ChileChile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
arrived in the
California Gold RushThe California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
(1848-51).
Political identity
According to the
Handbook of TexasThe Handbook of Texas is a comprehensive encyclopedia of Texas geography, history, and historical persons published by the Texas State Historical Association .-History:...
:
At certain points in the 1970s, "
Chicano" was the preferred term for reference to Mexican-Americans, particularly in the scholarly literature. However, as the term became politicized, its use fell out of favor as a means of referring to the entire population. Since then, "
Chicano" has tended to refer to politicized Mexican-Americans.
Sabine UlibarriDr. Sabine Reyes Ulibarrí was an American poet. He was also a teacher, a writer, a critic, and a statesman. Ulibarrí was born in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico....
, an author from
Tierra Amarilla, New MexicoTierra Amarilla is a small unincorporated town near the Carson National Forest in the northern part of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the county seat of Rio Arriba County.-History:...
, once attempted to note that "
Chicano" was a
politicallyPolitics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
"loaded" term, although Ulibarri has recanted that assessment. "Chicano" is considered to be a positive term of honor by many.
Ambiguous identity
The identity is seen as uncertain:
- In the 1991 Culture Clash
Culture Clash may refer to:* Culture Clash , American performance troupe* Culture Clash , British band which plays Harare Jit music...
play A Bowl of Beings, in response to Che GuevaraErnesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
's demand for a definition of "Chicano", an "armchair activist" cries out, "I still don't know!!"
- Bruce Novoa: "A Chicano lives in the space between the hyphen in Mexican-American", . . Houston:, 1990.
For Chicanos, the term usually implies being "neither from here, nor from there" in reference to the US and Mexico. As a mixture of
cultureCulture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
s from both countries, being Chicano represents the struggle of being accepted into the
AngloAnglo is a prefix indicating a relation to the Angles, England or the English people, as in the terms Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-American, Anglo-Celtic, Anglo-African and Anglo-Indian. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British Isles descent in The Americas, Australia and...
-dominated society of the United States, while maintaining the cultural sense developed as a Latino-cultured, US-born Mexican child.
Indigenous identity
The identity is seen as native to the land:
- Rubén Salazar
Rubén Salazar was a Mexican-American journalist killed by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy during the National Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam War on August 29, 1970 in East Los Angeles, California. During the 1970s, his killing was often cited as a symbol of unjust treatment of...
: "A Chicano is a Mexican-American with a non-Anglo image of himself."
- Leo Limón: "...because that's what a Chicano is, an indigenous Mexican American".
One theory is the origin of such terminology is from the
MayanThe Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
temple
Chichen ItzaChichen Itza is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Municipality of Tinúm, Yucatán state, present-day Mexico....
in the
Yucatan PeninsulaThe Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel...
, a ruin of an ancient MesoAmerican civilization about 1,500 years ago. "Chicano" may be a Hispanized word for "
Chichen" or the Mayan descendants, not limited to Aztec descendants or Nahuatl people.
But essentially Chicanos, like some Mexicans, are American Indians who were influenced by the Spanish culture through conquest, while Latino or Hispanic refers to race/genetics. Therefore Latinos are Americans who are descendants of the Latin group (namely Spain, France, Italy and Portugal) and Hispanic refers to the descendants from the Iberian Peninsula (also known as Ibero-American).
Political device
- Reies Tijerina
Reies Lopez Tijerina led a struggle in the 1960s and 1970s to restore New Mexican land grants to the descendants of their Spanish colonial and Mexican owners...
: "The Anglo press degradized the word 'Chicano'. They use it to divide us. We use it to unify ourselves with our people and with Latin America."
Reies Tijerina was a vocal claimant to the rights of Hispanics and Mexican Americans, and he remains a major figure of the early
Chicano MovementThe Chicano Movement of the 1960s, also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, also known as El Movimiento, is an extension of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement which began in the 1940s with the stated goal of achieving Mexican American empowerment.-Origins:The Chicano Movement...
.
Historic origins
The earliest known record of "Chicano" was thought to be in the late 19th or turn of the 20th century in Northwest
IndianaIndiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
. Mexican factory workers and railroad crews first arrived in the
ChicagolandThe Chicago metropolitan area, or Chicagoland as it is commonly called within the area, is the metropolitan area associated with the city of Chicago, Illinois and its suburbs. It is the area that is closely linked to the city through social, economic, and cultural ties...
area (
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
,
IllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
), used the term among themselves, probably to mean
chicaneryChicanery, an American experimental rock band, is a collaboration between Warren Cuccurullo and Neil Carlill. The band is based in Los Angeles California, although band members live across the U.S...
or the working man. But in the Spanish language, the words
Chico (small) -
a-no (man) stands for "the little people".
Term of derision
Long a disparaging term in Mexico, the term "Chicano" gradually transformed from a class-based term of derision to one of ethnic pride and general usage within Mexican-American communities, beginning with the rise of the
Chicano movementThe Chicano Movement of the 1960s, also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, also known as El Movimiento, is an extension of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement which began in the 1940s with the stated goal of achieving Mexican American empowerment.-Origins:The Chicano Movement...
in the 1960s. In their
Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia, Vicki Ruíz and Virginia Sánchez report that demographic differences in the adoption of the term existed; because of the prior vulgar connotations, it was more likely to be used by males than females, and as well, less likely to be used among those in a higher socioeconomic status. Usage was also generational, with the more assimilated third-generation members (again, more likely male) likely to adopt the usage. This group was also younger, of more radical persuasion, and less-connected to a Mexican cultural heritage.
In his essay "Chicanismo" in
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures (2002),
Jose CuellarJose Cuellar is a professor of Chicano Studies at San Francisco State University. As a saxophone player, he is "Dr. Loco", a nickname given to him by one of his research subjects; in this role, he leads the musical group Dr. Loco's Rockin Jalapeño Band, which plays at a wide range of community...
dates the transition from derisive to positive to the late 1950s, with a usage by young Mexican-American high school students.
Outside of Mexican American communities, the term might assume a negative meaning if it is used in a manner that embodies the prejudices and bigotries long directed at Mexican and Mexican-American people in the United States. For example, in one case, a prominent Chicana feminist writer and poet has indicated the following subjective meaning through her creative work.
- Ana Castillo
Ana Castillo is a Mexican-American Chicana novelist, poet, short story writer, and essayist.- Life and career :Castillo was born and raised in an inner city barrio of Chicago, Illinois. After completing undergraduate studies, she immediately began teaching college courses...
: "[a] marginalized, brown woman who is treated as a foreigner and is expected to do menial labor and ask nothing of the society in which she lives."
Ana Castillo has referred to herself as a Chicana, and her literary work reflects that she primarily considers the term to be a positive one of self-determination and political solidarity.
The Mexican archeologist and anthropologist
Manuel GamioManuel Gamio was a Mexican anthropologist, archaeologist, sociologist, and a leader of the indigenismo movement. He is often considered as the father of modern anthropological studies in Mexico...
reported in 1930 that the term "
chicamo" (with an "m") was used as a derogatory term used by Hispanic Texans for recently arrived Mexican immigrants displaced during the
Mexican revolutionThe Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
in the beginning of the early 20th century. At this time, the term "Chicano" began to reference those who resisted total assimilation, while the term "
PochoPocho is a term used by native-born Mexicans to describe Chicanos who are perceived to have forgotten or rejected their Mexican heritage to some degree. Typically, pochos speak English and lack fluency in Spanish...
s" referred (often pejoratively) to those who strongly advocated assimilation.
In Mexico, which by American standards would be considered classist or racist, the term is associated with a Mexican-American person of low importance
classSocial classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
and poor
moralsMorality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
. The term "Chicano" is widely known and used in Mexico.
Rejection
While many Mexican-Americans embrace the term "Chicano", others prefer to identify themselves as:
- American of Mexican descent.
- Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
.
- Hispanic American.
- Hispano
Hispanos is a name given to people of colonial Spanish descent in what is today the United States who retained a predominantly Spanish culture. The distinction was made to compensate for flawed U.S. Census practices in the 1930s which used to characterize Hispanic people as non-white...
/a or "Ibero-American".
- Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
/a, or "Latin"/"American-Latino".
- Latin American.
- Mexican(o/a).
- Mexican American.
- "Brown", people, race, pride, and so on.
- Californio, Nuevomexicano (New Mexican
New Mexican may refer to:* A person from the U.S. state of New Mexico; see List of people from New Mexico* The Santa Fe New Mexican, a newspaper published in Santa Fe, New MexicoNew Mexican may refer to:...
SpanishSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
) or TejanoTejano or Texano is a term used to identify a Texan of Mexican heritage.Historically, the Spanish term Tejano has been used to identify different groups of people...
/a.
- (La) Raza, including "La Raza Bronza" (Bronze race) or "La Raza Cosmica" (Cosmic race).
- Spanish American/Spanish/Spaniards/Castillians/Castellanos (least common self-name).
- Basically Americans or some have mixed/integrated/assimilated into "Anglo-American".
- "White", "Mix" or mixed race people, or the transracial/Passing (race) identity issues of Mexican-Americans.
Norteño as in the Mexicans referred to the Northern Mexico as
el Norte as opposed to
Sureño, although anyone from the US is
NorteAmericano, since Mexico and Latin America (Central and South) long identified themselves as
Americanos. Mexican-Americans do not actually call themselves Norteños. The only people who identify themselves as Norteños are Mexicans from Northern Mexico, compared to
Sureño or Mexicans from Southern Mexico. The term means a Northern Mexican or "
Mexicano del Norte" versus Southern Mexican or "
Mexicano del sur".
Social aspects
Chicanos, regardless of their generational status, tend to connect their culture to the indigenous peoples of North America and to a nation of
AztlánAztlán is the mythical ancestral home of the Nahua peoples, one of the main cultural groups in Mesoamerica. And, by extension, is the mythical homeland of the Uto-Aztecan peoples. Aztec is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan".-Legend:...
. According to the
AztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
legend, Aztlán is a region; Chicano nationalists have equated it with the Southwestern United States.
Some historians may place Aztlán in
NayaritNayarit officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its capital city is Tepic.It is located in Western Mexico...
or the
CaribbeanThe Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....
while other historians entirely disagree, and make a distinction between legend and the contemporary socio-political ideology.
Political aspects
Many currents came together to produce the revived Chicano political movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Early struggles were against school segregation, but the Mexican-American cause, or "
La Causa" as it was called, soon came under the banner of the
United Farm WorkersThe United Farm Workers of America is a labor union created from the merging of two groups, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee led by Filipino organizer Larry Itliong, and the National Farm Workers Association led by César Chávez...
and
César ChávezCésar Estrada Chávez was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers ....
. However, Corky Gonzales and
Reies TijerinaReies Lopez Tijerina led a struggle in the 1960s and 1970s to restore New Mexican land grants to the descendants of their Spanish colonial and Mexican owners...
stirred up old tensions about
New MexicanNew Mexican may refer to:* A person from the U.S. state of New Mexico; see List of people from New Mexico* The Santa Fe New Mexican, a newspaper published in Santa Fe, New MexicoNew Mexican may refer to:...
land claims with roots going back to before the Mexican-American War. Simultaneous movements like the
Young LordsThe Young Lords, later Young Lords Organization and in New York , Young Lords Party, was a Puerto Rican nationalist group in several United States cities, notably New York City and Chicago.-Founding:...
, to empower youth, question patriarchy, democratize the Church, end police brutality, and end the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, all intersected with other ethnic nationalist,
peaceA peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...
, countercultural, and feminist movements.
Since
ChicanismoChicanismo is a cultural movement begun in the 1960s in the Southwestern United States by Mexican Americans to recapture their Mexican, Native American culture.-Major themes:...
covers a wide array of political, religious and ethnic beliefs, and not everybody agrees with what exactly a Chicano is, most new Latino immigrants see it as a lost cause, as a lost culture, because Chicanos do not identify with Mexico or wherever their parents migrated from as new immigrants do. Chicanoism is an appreciation of a historical movement, but also is used by many to bring a new revived politicized feeling to voters young and old in the defense of Mexican and Mexican-American rights. People descended from Aztlan (both in the contemporary U.S. and in Mexico) use the Chicano ideology to create a platform for fighting for immigration reform and equality for all people.
For some, Chicano ideals involve a rejection of borders. The 1848
Treaty of Guadalupe HidalgoThe Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...
transformed the Rio Grande region from a rich cultural center to a rigid border poorly enforced by the United States government. At the end of the Mexican-American War, 80,000 Spanish-Mexican-Indian people were forced into sudden U.S. habitation. As a result, Chicano identification is aligned with the idea of Aztlán, which extends to the Aztec period of Mexico, celebrating a time preceding land division.
Paired with the dissipation of militant political efforts of the Chicano movement in the 1960s was the emergence of the Chicano generation. Like their political predecessors, the Chicano generation rejects the "immigrant/foreigner" categorization status. Chicano identity has expanded from its political origins to incorporate a broader community vision of social integration and nonpartisan political participation.
The shared Spanish language, Catholic faith, close contact with their political homeland (Mexico) to the south, a history of labor segregation, ethnic exclusion and racial discrimination encourage a united
Chicano or Mexican folkloric tradition in the United States. Ethnic cohesiveness is a resistance strategy to assimilation and the accompanying cultural dissolution.
Cultural aspects
The term
Chicano is also used to describe the literary, artistic, and musical movements that emerged with the
Chicano MovementThe Chicano Movement of the 1960s, also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, also known as El Movimiento, is an extension of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement which began in the 1940s with the stated goal of achieving Mexican American empowerment.-Origins:The Chicano Movement...
.
Literature
Chicano literature tends to focus on themes of identity, discrimination, and culture, with an emphasis on validating Mexican American and Chicano culture in the United States.
Rodolfo "Corky" GonzalesRodolfo "Corky" Gonzáles was a Mexican American boxer, poet, and political activist. He convened the first-ever Chicano youth conference in March 1969, which was attended by many future Chicano activists and artists. The conference also promulgated the Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, a manifesto...
's "Yo Soy Joaquin" is one of the first examples of Chicano poetry, while
José Antonio VillarrealJosé Antonio Villarreal was a Chicano novelist. He was born in 1924 in California to migrant Mexican farmworkers. Like Juan Manuel Rubio in Pocho, Villarreal's father fought with Pancho Villa in the Mexican Revolution...
's
Pocho is widely recognized as the first major Chicano/a novel. The novel, "Chicano" by Richard Vasquez, was the first novel about Mexican-Americans to be released by a major publisher (Doubleday, 1970). It was widely read in high schools and Universities during the 1970s, and has now been recognized as a literary classic. Vasquez's writing has been compared to Upton Sinclair and John Steinbeck. Other important writers include
Rudolfo AnayaRudolfo Anaya is an Mexican-American author. Best known for his 1972 novel Bless Me, Ultima, Anaya is considered one of the founders of the canon of contemporary Chicano literature.- Biography :...
,
Sandra CisnerosSandra Cisneros is an American writer best known for her acclaimed first novel The House on Mango Street and her subsequent short story collection Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories...
,
Gary SotoGary Soto is a Mexican-American author and poet.Mexican-American parents Manuel and Angie Soto . In his youth, he worked in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley and in factories in Fresno. Gary's father died in 1957, when he was just five years old...
, Raul Salinas,
Oscar Zeta AcostaOscar Zeta Acosta was an American attorney, politician, minor novelist and Chicano Movement activist, perhaps best known for his friendship with the American author Hunter S. Thompson, who characterized him as his Samoan Attorney, Dr...
,
John RechyJohn Francis Rechy, , is an American author, the child of a half-Scottish and half-Mexican father, Roberto Rechy, and a Mexican-American mother, Guadalupe Flores. In his novels he has written extensively about homosexual culture in Los Angeles and wider America, and is among the pioneers of modern...
,
Ana CastilloAna Castillo is a Mexican-American Chicana novelist, poet, short story writer, and essayist.- Life and career :Castillo was born and raised in an inner city barrio of Chicago, Illinois. After completing undergraduate studies, she immediately began teaching college courses...
,
Denise ChávezDenise Elia Chavez is an American author, playwright, and stage director. She was born to an Hispano family in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States, and graduated from Madonna High School in Mesilla. She received her Bachelor's from New Mexico State University and Master's degrees in Dramatic...
,
Benjamin Alire SáenzBenjamin Alire Sáenz is an award-winning American poet, novelist and writer of children's books.-Life:He was born at Old Picacho, New Mexico, the fourth of seven children, and was raised on a small farm near Mesilla, New Mexico....
,
Dagoberto GilbDagoberto Gilb is an American writer born in Los Angeles, California, whose reputation, after years between L.A. and Texas, is as one of the leading voices from the American Southwest....
,
Alicia Gaspar de AlbaAlicia Gaspar de Alba is a scholar, cultural critic, novelist, and poet whose works include historical novels and scholarly studies on Chicana/o art, culture and sexuality.-Biography:...
and Gloria Anzaldua .
Visual arts
In the visual arts, works by Chicanos address similar themes as works in literature. The preferred media for Chicano art are
muralA mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
s and graphic arts.
San DiegoSan Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
's
Chicano ParkChicano Park is a 32,000 square meter park located beneath the San Diego-Coronado Bridge in Barrio Logan, a predominantly Mexican American and Mexican-immigrant community in central San Diego, California...
, home to the largest collection of murals in the world, was created as an outgrowth of the city's political movement by Chicanos.
RasquacheRasquache is a Spanish term, of Nahuatl origin, used by Chicanos, which originally had a negative connotation in Mexico as being an attitude that was lower class or impoverished...
art is a unique style subset of the Chicano Arts movement.
Chicano performance art blends humor and pathos for tragi-comic effect as shown by Los Angeles' comedy troupe
Culture ClashCulture Clash is an Chicano American performance troupe composed of the writer-comedians Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, and Herbert Sigüenza. Their work is of a satirical nature....
and Mexican-born performance artist
Guillermo Gomez-PenaGuillermo Gómez-Peña was born in Mexico City and moved to the US in 1978, where he established himself as a performance artist, writer, activist, and educator. He has pioneered multiple media, including performance art, experimental radio, video, performance photography and installation art...
and Nao Bustamante is a Chicana Artist known internationally for her conceptual art pieces and as a participant in
Work of ArtA work of art, artwork, art piece, or art object is an aesthetic item or artistic creation.The term "a work of art" can apply to:*an example of fine art, such as a painting or sculpture*a fine work of architecture or landscape design...
: The next Great Artist produced by
Sarah Jessica ParkerSarah Jessica Parker is an American film, television, and theater actress and producer.She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City , for which she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards...
.
Lalo AlcarazLalo Alcaraz is an Mexican-American cartoonist. He is most known for being the author of the comic La Cucaracha, the first nationally syndicated, politically themed Latino daily comic strip. Launched in 2002, La Cucaracha has become one of the most controversial in the history of American comic...
often depicts the issues of Chicanos in his cartoons called "La Cucaracha".
One of the most powerful and far-reaching cultural aspects of Chicano culture is the indigenous current that strongly roots Chicano culture to the American continent. It also unifies Chicanismo within the larger
Pan Indian Movement. Since its arrival in 1974, what is known as
Danza Azteca in the U.S., (and known by several names in its homeland of the central States of Mexico: danza Conchera, De la Conquista, Chichimeca, and so on.) has had a deep impact in Chicano muralism, graphic design,
tattoo art (flash)A tattoo flash is a stereotypical tattoo design printed or drawn on paper or cardboard, and may be regarded as a species of industrial design. It is typically displayed on the walls of tattoo parlors and in binders to give walk-in customers ideas for tattoos...
, poetry, music, and literature. Lowrider cars also figure prominently as functional art in the Chicano community.
Music
Lalo GuerreroEduardo "Lalo" Guerrero , was a Mexican-American guitarist, singer and farm labor activist best known for his strong influence on today's Latin musical artists.-Life Summary:...
is regarded as the "founder of Chicano music". Beginning in the 1930s, he wrote songs in the
big bandA big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
and swing genres that were popular at the time. He expanded his repertoire to include songs written in traditional genres of the
Mexican musicThe music of Mexico is very diverse and features a wide range of different musical styles. It has been influenced by a variety of cultures, most notably indigenous Mexican and European, since the Late Middle Ages...
, and during the farmworkers' rights campaign, wrote music in support of César Chávez and the United Farm Workers.
Other Chicano/Mexican American singers include
SelenaSelena Quintanilla-Pérez , known simply as Selena, was a Mexican American singer-songwriter. She was named the "top Latin artist of the '90s" and "Best selling Latin artist of the decade" by Billboard for her fourteen top-ten singles in the Top Latin Songs chart, including seven number-one hits...
, who sang a variety of Mexican,
TejanoTejano music or Tex-Mex music is the name given to various forms of folk and popular music originating among the Mexican-American populations of Central and Southern Texas...
, and American popular music, but was killed in 1995 at the age of 23;
Zack de la RochaZacarías Manuel "Zack" de la Rocha is an American rapper, musician, poet, and activist best known as the vocalist and lyricist of Rage Against the Machine.-Early life and childhood:...
, lead vocalist of
Rage Against the MachineRage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group's line-up consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk...
and social activist; and
Los Lonely BoysLos Lonely Boys is a Chicano rock power trio from San Angelo, Texas. They play a style of music they call "Texican Rock n' Roll," combining elements of rock and roll, Texas blues, brown eyed soul, country, and Tejano....
, a Texas style country rock band who have not ignored their Mexican American roots in their music. In recent years, a growing Tex-Mex polka band trend from Mexican immigrants (i.e. Conjunto or
NorteñoNorteño , also norteña or conjunto, is a genre of Mexican music. The accordion and the bajo sexto are norteño's most characteristic instruments. The norteño genre is popular in both Mexico and the United States, especially among the Mexican community...
) has influenced much of new Chicano folk music, especially in large market Spanish language radio stations and on television music video programs in the U.S. The band
QuetzalQuetzal is a bilingual Chicano rock band from East Los Angeles, California.-Biography:The band was founded by Quetzal Flores, with the intention of pushing the boundaries of chicano music and is currently one of Los Angeles' most important and successful groups...
is known for its political songs.
Rock
In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, a wave of Chicano pop music surfaced through innovative musicians
Johnny RodriguezJohnny Rodriguez is an American country music singer. He was the first famous Latin American country music singer, infusing his music with Latin sounds, and even singing verses of songs in Spanish....
,
Ritchie ValensRitchie Valens was a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist....
and
Linda RonstadtLinda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
.
Joan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, who was also of Mexican-American descent, included Hispanic themes in some of her protest folk songs. Chicano rock is
rock musicRock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
performed by Chicano groups or music with themes derived from Chicano culture.
There are two undercurrents in Chicano rock. One is a devotion to the original
rhythm and bluesRhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
roots of Rock and roll including
Ritchie ValensRitchie Valens was a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist....
, Sunny and the Sunglows, and ? and the Mysterians. Groups inspired by this include
Sir Douglas QuintetSir Douglas Quintet was a rock band active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Despite their British sounding name, they came out of San Antonio, Texas. Their career was established when they began working with Texas record-producer Huey P. Meaux, after which the band relocated to the West Coast...
,
Thee MidnitersThee Midniters were an American group, amongst the first Chicano rock bands to have a major hit in the United States. Also they were and one of the best known acts to come out of East Los Angeles in the 1960s, with a cover of "Land of a Thousand Dances", and the instrumental track, "Whittier...
,
Los LobosLos Lobos are a multiple Grammy Award–winning American Chicano rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional Spanish and Mexican music such as cumbia, boleros and norteños.-History:The...
,
WarWar is an American funk band from California, known for the hit songs "Low Rider", "Spill the Wine", "The Cisco Kid" and "Why Can't We Be Friends?". Formed in 1969, War was a musical crossover band which fused elements of rock, funk, jazz, Latin, rhythm and blues, and reggae...
,
TierraTierra is a Latin R&B band, originally from Los Angeles, California, that was established in the late 1970s by former El Chicano members Steve Salas , Rudy Salas , David Torres and Andre Baeza . The other original members were Bobby Navarrete , Joey Guerra , Steve Falomir , and Philip Madayag...
, and
El ChicanoEl Chicano is an American chicano rock and brown-eyed soul group from Los Angeles, California, whose style incorporates various modern music genres including rock, funk, soul, blues, jazz, and salsa...
, and, of course, the Chicano Blues Man himself, the late Randy Garribay.
The second theme is the openness to
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n sounds and influences.
Trini LopezTrini Lopez is an American singer, guitarist and actor.-Career:Lopez was born in Dallas, Texas, on Ashland Street in the Little Mexico neighborhood. He began his entertainment career in Dallas playing at the Vegas Club, a nightclub owned by Jack Ruby...
, Santana,
MaloMalo was an American Latin-tinged rock and roll group. The San Francisco-based ensemble was led by Arcelio Garcia and Jorge Santana, the brother of Latin-rock guitarist, Carlos Santana....
, Azteca, Toro,
OzomatliOzomatli is a seven to ten piece band playing primarily Latin, hip hop, and rock music, formed in 1995 in Los Angeles. They are known both for their vocal activist viewpoints and their wide array of musical styles - including salsa, jazz, funk, reggae, rap, and others.In a 2007 NPR interview, band...
and other Chicano Latin Rock groups follow this approach. Chicano rock crossed paths of other Latin rock genres (
Rock en espanolRock en español is the Spanish-language rock music. While the term is used widely in English, it is used in Spanish mainly to distinguish such music from "Anglo rock." It is a style of rock music that developed in Latin American countries and Latino communities, along with other genres like...
) by
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
ns,
Puerto RicansPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, such as Joe Bataan, and Ralphi Pagan and
South AmericaSouth America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
(La Nueva Cancion). Rock band
The Mars VoltaThe Mars Volta is a Grammy award winning American progressive rock band from El Paso, Texas. Founded in 2001 by guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the band incorporates various influences including progressive rock, krautrock, jazz fusion, Latin American music, and...
combines elements of progressive rock with traditional Mexican folk music and Latin rhythms along with
Cedric Bixler-ZavalaCedric Bixler-Zavala is a Grammy Award-winning Mexican-American musician known for his work as frontman and lyricist of the progressive rock band The Mars Volta, and previously as frontman and occasional guitarist of the post-hardcore punk group At the Drive-In...
's
Spanglish.Spanglish refers to the blend of Spanish and English, in the speech of people who speak parts of two languages, or whose normal language is different from that of the country where they live. The Hispanic population of the United States and the British population in Argentina use varieties of...
lyrics.
Chicano punk is a branch of Chicano rock. Examples of the genre include music by the bands The Zeros,
Los IllegalsLos Illegals is an American Chicano punk band from Los Angeles, California.- History :The band struck a deal with the local order of radical Catholic nuns to open & run the legendary Club Vex at the Catholic Youth building where they booked & introduced Eastside to Westside groups Los Illegals is...
, The Brat,
The Plugz The Plugz were a Mexican-American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California that formed in 1977. They and The Zeros were among the first Chicano punk bands, although several Latino garage rock bands, such as Thee Midniters and Question Mark & the Mysterians, predated them...
, Manic Hispanic, Los Crudos, The Casualties, and the Cruzados; these bands emerged from the California punk scene. Some music historians argue that Chicanos of Los Angeles in the late 1970s might have independently co-founded punk rock along with the already-acknowledged founders from
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an sources when introduced to the US in major cities. The rock band ? Mark and the Mysterians, which was composed primarily of Mexican American musicians, was the first band to be described as punk rock. The term was reportedly coined in 1971 by rock critic Dave Marsh in a review of their show for
CreemCreem , "America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine," was a monthly rock 'n' roll publication first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. It suspended production in 1989 but received a short-lived renaissance in the early 1990s as a glossy tabloid...
magazine.
Jazz
Although
Latin JazzLatin jazz is the general term given to jazz with Latin American rhythms.The three main categories of Latin Jazz are Brazilian, Cuban and Puerto Rican:# Brazilian Latin Jazz includes bossa nova...
is most popularly associated with artists from the Caribbean (particularly Cuba) and Brazil, young Mexican Americans have played a role in its development over the years, going back to the 1930s and early 1940s, the era of the
zoot suitA zoot suit is a suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. This style of clothing was popularized by African Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Italian Americans during the late 1930s and the 1940s...
, when young Mexican American musicians in
Los AngelesLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
and
San JoseSan Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
began to experiment with
bandaBanda is a brass-based form of traditional music. Bandas play a wide variety of songs, including rancheras, corridos, cumbias, baladas, and boleros. Bandas are most widely known for their rancheras, but they also play modern Mexican pop, rock, and cumbias...
, a Jazz-like Mexican music that has grown recently in popularity among Mexican Americans such as Jenni Rivera.
Rap
Chicano rapChicano Rap is a subgenre of hip hop music, Latin rap and gangsta rap that embodies aspects of West Coast and Southwest Mexican American culture and is typically performed by American rappers and musicians of Mexican descent.-Early Years:...
is a unique style of
hip hop musicHip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
which started with
Kid FrostArturo Molina Jr. , better known as Frost , is a Mexican American hip hop artist.-Early life:...
, who saw some mainstream exposure in the early 1990s. While
Mellow Man AceUlpiano Sergio Reyes , better known as Mellow Man Ace, is an American rapper. He is best known for his hit single "Mentirosa"...
was the first mainstream rapper to use
Spanglish.Spanglish refers to the blend of Spanish and English, in the speech of people who speak parts of two languages, or whose normal language is different from that of the country where they live. The Hispanic population of the United States and the British population in Argentina use varieties of...
, Frost's song "La Raza" paved the way for its use in American hip hop. Chicano rap tends to discuss themes of importance to young urban Chicanos. Some of today's Chicano artists include
Psycho RealmPsycho Realm is an american hip hop supergroup started in 1989 by brothers Sick Jacken and Big Duke from the Downtown, Pico-Union area of Los Angeles. The first recorded Psycho Realm song, "Scandalous", was released on the soundtrack of the film Mi Vida Loca in 1994...
, Sick Symphonies, Street Platoon, El Vuh,
Baby BashRonnie Ray Bryant , better known by his stage name Baby Bash , is a Mexican-American rapper. From 1995 to 1998, he performed under the stage name Baby Beesh, as part of the Vallejo, California group Potna Duece, after which he changed the last part of the name to Bash...
,
Lil RobRoberto Flores , best known by his stage name Lil Rob, is a Mexican American rapper, producer, and actor-Biography:...
, and Lighter Shade Of Brown as well as A.K.A. Down Kilo with "Definition of an Ese" which denotes a historical account of Chicano popularity in Southern California .
Pop and R&B
Paula DeAndaPaula DeAnda is a Mexican American pop singer-songwriter and actress. She first came to prominence with her first single "Doing Too Much" that became a hit in the Southwest. She then got the opportunity to audition for Clive Davis who signed her to Arista Records on the spot...
,
Frankie JFrancisco Javier Bautista, Jr. , better known by his stage name Frankie J, is a Mexican singer and former member of the musical group Kumbia Kings....
, old member of the
Kumbia KingsKumbia Kings was a Latin Grammy-winning Mexican cumbia group from Corpus Christi, Texas created by A.B. Quintanilla. Their music encompasses the styles of cumbia , hip hop and R&B. They produce songs in both Spanish and English. The band's producers from the beginning have been A.B. Quintanilla III...
and associated with
Baby BashRonnie Ray Bryant , better known by his stage name Baby Bash , is a Mexican-American rapper. From 1995 to 1998, he performed under the stage name Baby Beesh, as part of the Vallejo, California group Potna Duece, after which he changed the last part of the name to Bash...
.
See also
- Caló (Chicano)
Caló 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 the product of zoot-suit pachuco culture.-Origin:...
- Casta
Casta is a Portuguese and Spanish term used in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries mainly in Spanish America to describe as a whole the mixed-race people which appeared in the post-Conquest period...
- Chicanismo
Chicanismo is a cultural movement begun in the 1960s in the Southwestern United States by Mexican Americans to recapture their Mexican, Native American culture.-Major themes:...
- Chicano movement
The Chicano Movement of the 1960s, also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, also known as El Movimiento, is an extension of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement which began in the 1940s with the stated goal of achieving Mexican American empowerment.-Origins:The Chicano Movement...
- Chicano Moratorium
The Chicano Moratorium, formally known as the National Chicano Moratorium Committee, was a movement of Chicano anti-war activists that built a broad-based coalition of Mexican-American groups to organize opposition to the Vietnam War...
- Chicano nationalism
Chicano nationalism is the ethnic nationalist ideology of Chicanos. While there were nationalistic 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 Rap
Chicano Rap is a subgenre of hip hop music, Latin rap and gangsta rap that embodies aspects of West Coast and Southwest Mexican American culture and is typically performed by American rappers and musicians of Mexican descent.-Early Years:...
- Cholo
Cholo is an ethnic slur created by Hispanic criollos in the 16th century, and it has been applied to individuals of mixed or pure American Indian ancestry, or other racially mixed origin. The precise usage of "cholo" has varied widely in different times and places...
- Chileans (and Chilean American
Chilean Americans are United States citizens or residents of Chilean origin. They number about 124,116 in 2009.In 2000, close to 14,000 lived in the states of Florida and California, while around 16,330 lived in the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and other New England states...
)
- Hispano
Hispano may relate to:* Hispano, , the Spanish word for the inhabitants of Pre-Roman and Roman Hispania , ....
(and Spanish AmericanA Spanish American is a citizen or resident of the United States whose ancestors originate from the southwestern European nation of Spain. Spanish Americans are the earliest European American group, with a continuous presence since 1565.-Immigration waves:...
)
- Tejano
Tejano or Texano is a term used to identify a Texan of Mexican heritage.Historically, the Spanish term Tejano has been used to identify different groups of people...
- Ethnicity (United States Census)
- George Lopez
George Lopez is an American comedian, actor, and talk show host. He is mostly known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom George Lopez. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including the Mexican American culture...
- List of Mexican Americans
- Los Siete de la Raza
Los Siete de la Raza was the label given to seven Mission District San Francisco California young men, approached by two plainclothes policemen while moving a stereo or TV into a house at 429-433 Alvarado street on May 1, 1969 at around 10:30 a.m. The altercation resulted in one officer dead from a...
- Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
- Mexican Americans
- Murals, i.e. Chicano Park
Chicano Park is a 32,000 square meter park located beneath the San Diego-Coronado Bridge in Barrio Logan, a predominantly Mexican American and Mexican-immigrant community in central San Diego, California...
, San Diego
- Pachuco
Pachucos are Chicano 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 Caló or Pachuco...
- Plaza de César Chávez
Plaza de César Chávez is a 2.2-acre park in Downtown San Jose, California, USA, named after César Chávez in 1993. It is surrounded by South Market Street, across which is The Tech Museum of Innovation, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Circle of Palms Plaza and the Fairmont San Jose Hotel...
- Race (U.S. Census)
Further reading
- Chavez, John R. "The Chicano Image and the Myth of Aztlan Rediscovered". In Myth America: A Historical Anthology, Volume II. 1997. Gerster, Patrick, and Cords, Nicholas. (editors.) Brandywine Press, St. James, NY. ISBN 1-881-089-97-5
- Natalia Molina, Fit to Be Citizens?: Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, 1879-1940, University of California Press, 2006.
- Michael A. Olivas, Colored Men And Hombres Aquí: Hernandez V. Texas and the Emergence of Mexican American Lawyering, Arte Público Press, 2006.
- Rodolfo Acuna, Occupied America: A History of Chicanos,Longman, 2006.
- López-Calvo, Ignacio. Latino Los Angeles in Film and Fiction: The Cultural Production of Social Anxiety. University of Arizona Press, 2011. ISBN 0816529264
External links