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 AmericanMexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...
empowerment.
Origins
The Chicano Movement encompassed a broad cross section of issues—from restoration of land grants, to farm workers' rights, to enhanced education, to voting and political rights, as well as emerging awareness of collective history. Socially, the Chicano Movement addressed what it perceived to be negative ethnic stereotypes of Mexicans in mass media and the American consciousness. Edward J. Escobar sleeder
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2080213?&Search=yes&term=escobar&term=edward&term=j&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dedward%2Bj%2Bescobar%26wc%3Don%26dc%3DAll%2BDisciplines&item=3&ttl=1194&returnArticleService=showArticle from
The Journal of American History describes some of the negativity of the time in stating, "The conflict between Chicanos and the LAPD thus helped Mexican Americans develop a new political consciousness that included a greater sense of ethnic solidarity, an acknowledgment of their subordinated status in American society, and a greater determination to act politically, and perhaps even violently, to end that subordination. While most people of Mexican descent still refused to call themselves Chicanos, many had come to adopt many of the principles intrinsic in the concept of
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:...
." Chicanos did this through the creation of works of literary and visual art that validated the Mexican American ethnicity and culture.
The term
Chicano was originally used as a derogatory label for the sons and daughters of Mexican migrants. Some prefer to spell the word "Chicano" as "Xicano". This new generation of Mexican Americans were singled out by people on both sides of the border in whose view these Mexican Americans were not "American", yet they were not "Mexican", either. In the 1960s "Chicano" was accepted as a symbol of self-determination and ethnic pride.
The Chicano Movement also addressed discrimination in public and private institutions. Early in the twentieth century, Mexican Americans formed organizations to protect themselves from discrimination. One of those organizations, the
League of United Latin American CitizensThe League of United Latin American Citizens was created to combat the discrimination that Hispanics face in the United States. Established February 17, 1929 in Corpus Christi, Texas, LULAC was a consolidation of smaller, like-minded civil rights groups already in existence...
, was formed in 1929 and remains active today.
The Chicano Movement had been fomenting since the end of the U.S.- Mexican War in 1848, when the current U.S-Mexican border took form. Since that time, countless Chicanos and Chicanas have confronted discrimination, racism and exploitation. The Chicano Movement that culminated in the early 1970s took inspiration from heroes and heroines from their
indigenousThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
, Mexican and American past.
The movement gained momentum after
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
when groups such as the American G.I. Forum (AGIF), which was formed by returning Mexican American veterans, joined in the efforts by other civil rights organizations. The AGIF first received national exposure when it took on the cause of
Felix LongoriaPvt. Felix Z. Longoria , a soldier, who served in the United States Army during World War II and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.-Personal:In November 1944 Felix Z...
, a Mexican American serviceman who was denied funeral services in his hometown of
Three Rivers, TexasThree Rivers is a city in Live Oak County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,878 at the 2000 census.The city is named for its proximity to three rivers, the Atascosa River, the Frio River, and the Nueces River...
after being killed during WWII.
Mexican American civil rights activists also achieved several major legal victories including the 1947
Mendez v. WestminsterMendez, et al v. Westminster School District, et al, 64 F.Supp. 544 , aff'd, 161 F.2d 774 , was a 1946 federal court case that challenged racial segregation in Orange County, California schools...
Supreme CourtA supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
ruling which declared that segregating children of "Mexican and Latin descent" was unconstitutional and the 1954
Hernandez v. TexasHernandez v. Texas, 347 U.S. 475 , was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that decided that Mexican Americans and all other racial groups in the United States had equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution....
ruling which declared that Mexican Americans and other historically-subordinated groups in the United States were entitled to equal protection under the
14th AmendmentThe Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
of the
U.S. ConstitutionThe Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
.
There were several leaders throughout the Chicano Movement. In New Mexico there was Reies López Tijerina who worked on the land grant movement. He fought to regain control of ancestral lands. He became involved in civil rights causes within six years and also became a cosponsor of the Poor People's March on Washington in 1967. In Texas, war veteran
Dr. Hector P. GarciaHector Perez Garcia was a Mexican-American physician, surgeon, World War II veteran, civil rights advocate, and founder of the American G.I. Forum. As a result of the national prominence he earned through his work on behalf of Hispanic Americans, he was instrumental in the appointment of Mexican...
founded the American GI Forum and was later appointed to the
United States Commission on Civil RightsThe U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is historically a bipartisan, independent commission of the U.S. federal government charged with the responsibility for investigating, reporting on, and making recommendations concerning civil rights issues that face the nation.-Commissioners:The Commission is...
. In Denver,
Rodolfo "Corky" GonzálesRodolfo "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...
helped define the meaning of being a Chicano through his poem
Yo Soy Joaquin (
I am Joaquin)
http://www.gs.cidsnet.de/englisch-online/diverse/joaquin.htm. In California,
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 ....
and the farm workers turned to the struggle of urban youth, and created political awareness and participated in
La Raza Unida Party.
The most prominent civil rights organization in the Mexican-American community is the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), founded in 1968. Although modeled after the
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational FundThe NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City....
, MALDEF has also taken on many of the functions of other organizations, including political advocacy and training of local leaders.
Some women who worked for the Chicano movement felt that members were being too concerned with social issues that affected the Chicano community, instead of addressing problems that affected Chicana women specifically. This led Chicana women to form the
Comisión Femenil Mexicana NacionalThe Comisión Femenil Mexicana Nacional , is a Chicano organization geared towards the political and economic empowerment of Hispanic women, particularly Chicanas, in the United States....
. In 1975, it became involved in the case Madrigal vs. Quilligan, obtaining a moratorium on the
compulsory sterilizationCompulsory sterilization also known as forced sterilization programs are government policies which attempt to force people to undergo surgical sterilization...
of women and adoption of bilingual consent forms. These steps were necessary because many Hispanic women who did not understand English well were being sterilized in the United States at the time, without proper consent.
Major Cities
This is a list of the major epicenters of the Chicano Movement.
- Albuquerque
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
- Dallas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
- Denver
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
- Houston
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
- Las Vegas
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
- Los Angeles
Los 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...
- Phoenix
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
- San Antonio
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
- San Diego
San 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...
Political activism
In 1949 and 1950, the American G.I. Forum initiated local “pay your poll tax” drives to register Mexican American voters. Although they were unable to repeal the poll tax, their efforts did bring in new Hispanic voters who would begin to elect Latino representatives to the
Texas House of RepresentativesThe Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Texas Legislature. The House is composed of 150 members elected from single-member districts across the state. The average district has about 150,000 people. Representatives are elected to two-year terms with no term limits...
and to Congress during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
In California, a similar phenomenon took place. When World War II veteran
Edward R. RoybalEdward Ross "Ed" Roybal was a member of the Los Angeles, California, City Council for thirteen years and of the U.S. House of Representatives for thirty years.-Biography:...
ran for a seat on the
Los Angeles City CouncilThe Los Angeles City Council is the governing body of the City of Los Angeles.The Council is composed of fifteen members elected from single-member districts for four-year terms. The president of the council and the president pro tempore are chosen by the Council at the first regular meeting after...
, community activists established the
Community Service OrganizationThe Community Service Organization was an important California Latino civil rights organization, most famous for training Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta...
(CSO). The CSO was effective in registering 15,000 new voters in Latino neighborhoods. With this newfound support, Roybal was able to win the 1949 election race against the incumbent councilman and become the first Mexican American since 1886 to win a seat on the
Los Angeles City CouncilThe Los Angeles City Council is the governing body of the City of Los Angeles.The Council is composed of fifteen members elected from single-member districts for four-year terms. The president of the council and the president pro tempore are chosen by the Council at the first regular meeting after...
.
The
Mexican American Political AssociationMexican American Political Association is an organization that promotes the interests of Mexican-Americans, Mexicans, Latinos, Chicanos, Hispanics and Latino Economic Refugees in the United States.-History:...
(MAPA), founded in
Fresno, CaliforniaFresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
came into being in 1959 and drew up a plan for direct electoral politics. MAPA soon became the primary political voice for the Mexican-American community of California.
Student walkouts
After World War II, Chicanos began to assert their own views of their own history and status as Mexican Americans in the US and they began to critically analyze what they were being taught in public schools.
In the late 1960s, when the student movement was active around the globe, the Chicano Movement inspired its own organized protests like the mass walkouts of high school students and the
Chicano MoratoriumThe 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...
in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in 1970. The student walkouts occurred in Denver and
East LAEast Los Angeles is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Los Angeles County, California, United States...
of 1968. There were also many incidents of walkouts outside of the city of
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. In the LA County high schools of
El MonteEl Monte is a residential, industrial, and commercial city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city's slogan is "Welcome to Friendly El Monte," and historically is known as "The End of the Santa Fe Trail." As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 113,475,...
,
AlhambraAlhambra is a city located in the western San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States, which is approximately eight miles from the Downtown Los Angeles civic center. As of the 2010 census, the population was 83,089, down from 85,804 at the 2000 census. The city's...
, and
CovinaCovina is a small city in Los Angeles County, California about east of downtown Los Angeles, in the San Gabriel Valley region. The population was 47,796 at the 2010 census, up from 46,837 at the 2000 census...
(particularly Northview) the students marched to fight for their rights. Similar walkouts took place in 1978 of Houston high schools to protest the discrepant academic quality for Latino students. There were also several student sit-ins as objection to the decreasing funding of Chicano courses.
The blowouts of the 1960s can be compared to the 2006 walkouts, which were done as opposition to the Illegal Immigration Control bill.
Student and youth organizations
Chicano student groups such as United Mexican American Students (UMAS), Mexican American Youth Association (MAYA) in California, and the
Mexican American Youth OrganizationThe Mexican American Youth Organization is a civil rights organization formed in 1967 in San Antonio, Texas, USA to fight for Mexican-American rights. The creators of MAYO, Los Cinco, consisted of José Ángel Gutiérrez, Willie Velásquez, Mario Compean, Ignacio Pérez, and Juan Patlán...
(MAYO) in Texas, developed in universities and colleges in the mid 1960’s. At the historic meeting at the University of California, Santa Barbara in April 1969, the diverse student organizations came together under the new name Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MECHA). Student groups such as these were initially concerned with education issues, but their activities evolved to participation in political campaigns and to various forms of protest against broader issues such as police brutality and the U.S. war in Southeast Asia. The
Brown BeretsThe Brown Berets is a Chicano nationalist activist group of young Mexican Americans that emerged during the Chicano Movement in the late 1960s and remains active to the present day. The group was seen as part of the Third Movement for Liberation. The Brown Berets focus on community organizing...
, a youth group which began in California, took on a more militant and
nationalisticChicano 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...
ideology.
Anti-war activism
The
Chicano MoratoriumThe 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...
was a movement by Chicano activists that organized anti-Vietnam War demonstrations and activities throughout the Southwest and other Mexican American communities from November 1969 through August 1971. The movement focused on the disproportionately high death rate of Mexican American soldiers in Vietnam as well as discrimination faced at home. Mexican Americans accounted for approximately 20 percent of U.S. casualties in Vietnam, although they made up only 10 percent of the U.S. population at the time. After months of demonstrations and conferences, it was decided to hold a National Chicano Moratorium against the war on August 29, 1970. The Committee only lasted one more year but the political momentum generated by the Moratorium led many of its activists to continue their activism in other groups.
Chicano art
A major element of the Movement was the burgeoning of Chicano art fueled by heightened political activism and energized cultural pride. Chicano visual art, music, literature, dance, theater and other forms of expression have flourished. During the 20th century, an emergence of Chicano expression developed into a full-scale Chicano Art Movement. Chicanos developed a wealth of cultural expression through such media as painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking. Similarly, novels, poetry, short stories, essays and plays have flowed from the pens of contemporary Chicano writers. Chicano, Mexican-American, and Hispanic cultural centers, theaters, film festivals, museums, galleries and numerous other arts and cultural organizations have also grown in number and impact since this time.
Aztlán
(Taken from the Chicano Activism section of the main article 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:...
)
The concept of Aztlán as the place of origin of the pre-Columbian Mexican civilization has become a symbol for various Mexican nationalist and indigenous movements.
The name Aztlán was first taken up by a group of Chicano independence activists led by
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...
during the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s. They used the name "Aztlán" to refer to the lands of Northern Mexico that were annexed by the United States as a result of the Mexican-American War. Combined with the claim of some historical linguists and anthropologists that the original homeland of the Aztecan peoples was located in the southwestern United States, Aztlán in this sense became a symbol for mestizo activists who believe they have a legal and primordial right to the land.
Groups who have used the name "Aztlán" in this manner include
Plan Espiritual de AztlánThe Plan Espiritual de Aztlán is a manifesto advocating Chicano nationalism and self-determination for Mexican Americans...
,
MEChAM.E.Ch.A. is an organization that seeks to promote Chicano unity and empowerment through political action. The acronym of the organization's name is the Spanish word mecha, which means "fuse"...
(Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, "Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán").
Many in the Chicano Movement attribute poet
AluristaAlurista is the nom de plume of Alberto Baltazar Urista Heredia , a Chicano poet and activist.-Youth and education:...
for popularizing the term Aztlán in a poem presented during the Chicano Youth Liberation Conference in Denver, Colorado, March 1969.
External links