Chicano

Related Topics:
Chicano_Studies

Chicano is a cultural identity used primarily by people of Mexican descent in the United States. While its meaning has changed over time and varies regionally, it tends to refer to a Mexican American (usually second- or third-generation) who has a strong sense of ethnic identity and an accompanying political consciousness. It is considered a term of ethnic pride, though not all Mexican Americans proud of their heritage necessarily consider themselves Chicano.

A female Chicano is called a Chicana, a term which tends to have feminist connotations. Following the usual conventions for Spanish words, the masculine plural form Chicanos is used for groups that include both genders.

Etymology

The origin of the word has been explained various ways. According to the Mexican researcher on patterns of emigration to the United States Manuel Gamio, "chicamo" was first used as a derogatory term for recently-arrived Mexican immigrants by Mexican-American Texans at the turn of the 20th century. In California, a similar explanation dating to the 1930s and 1940s is proposed: "the inability of native Nahuatl speakers from Morelos state to refer to themselves as 'Mexicanos,' and instead spoke of themselves as 'Mesheecanos,' in accordance with the pronunciation rules of their language". This pronunciation was similarly met with derision by native Mexican Americans, who exaggerated the sound to mock the recently-arrived. In both cases, the term and it's pronunciation are analogous to the Nahuatl word "Mexica".

An alternate etymology holds that the conversion of the pronunciation of the "x" in "Mexicano" was converted the /sh/ or /ch/ as either a term of endearment or of derisiveness.

Development

The term was taken up in the mid 1960s by Mexican American activists, who, in attempt to rid the word of its negative connotation and create a unique ethnic identity, reconfigured its meaning by proudly identifying themselves as "Chicanos".

According to the Handbook of Texas,

Inspired by the courage of the farmworkers, by the California strikes led by Cesar Chavez, and by the Anglo-American youth revolt of the period, many Mexican-American university students came to participate in a crusade for social betterment that was known as the Chicano movement. They used Chicano to denote their rediscovered heritage, their youthful assertiveness, and their militant agenda. Though these students and their supporters used Chicano to refer to the entire Mexican-American population, they understood it to have a more direct application to the politically active parts of the Tejano community.

Alternative labels and variations

Some Mexican Americans prefer to identify themselves as American, Hispanic, Hispanic American, Hispano or Hispana, Latino or Latina, Mexican American, Mexican, Spanish American, Spanish, or Tejano/Tejana. The reasons for rejecting the term "Chicano" are numerous and varied, from an aversion to its association with the left-wing politics of the 1960 and 1970s, to the ability of many families, particularly in the state of New Mexico, to trace their ancestry back to the original Spanish settlers of the colonial era.

Many Chicanos interchangeably use the term la raza (literally, the race) to define themselves. Some use the phrase la raza de bronce ("the bronze race") seeing themselves as "brown" or "bronze" because of their Indigenous ancestry (as opposed to white and black people). Using another term common in early twentieth-century americanista/indigenist thought, some also refer to themselves as "la raza cósmica", which means "the cosmic race."

Due to the gendered nature of Spanish language, some Latino civil rights activists and writers who do not find the masculine term Chicano acceptable to use as a plural, use the terms "Chicano/a" or "Chican@."

Many individuals of Mexican descent view the use of the words Chicano or Chicana as reclamation and regeneration of an indigenous culture destroyed through colonialism, although these are only opinions and may not reflect the view of all Chicanos. Some younger Mexican Americans refer to themselves as Xicanos with an "X" to appear even more radical in terms of political ideology.

Social aspects

Chicanos, regardless of their generational status, tend to trace their cultural roots to the indigenous peoples of North America and to the early Spanish and Mexican settlers of the Southwestern United States. Due to the long-term denigration of Mexican culture through assimilationist educational practices and stereotypical media portrayals, an emphasis on pride in Mexican cultural practices and in their preservation is common.

However, "Chicanismo" is different from being "Mexican". As much as the Chicano Movement emphasized the folkloric or indigenus aspects of Mexican culture, the culture it created interacted with and responded to modernity: technology, communications, and cultural diversity. To be a "Chicano", therefore, is to create one's own identity.

Biculturalism and bilingualism are both factors of Chicano culture. However, Being the product of two worlds, the Chicano is never fully accepted in either. Prior to the Chicano Movement, Mexican Americans were viewed as foreigners, and often as inferior, in the United States. If they went to Mexico, they were often considered "vendidos" (race-traitors) or self-ignorant pochos. The lack of a homeland brought about the psychic recreation of Aztlán, the semi-mythic northerly land to which the Aztecs traced their roots.

Political aspects

Many currents came together to produce the 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 Workers and Cesar Chavez. However, Reies Tijerina stirred up old tensions about New Mexican land claims with roots going back to before the Mexican-American War. Simultaneous movements to empower youth, question patriarchy, democratize the Church, end police brutality, and end the Vietnam War all intersected with other ethnic nationalist, peace, countercultural, and feminist movements.

Chicano ideals involve a rejection of borders. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago transformed the Rio Grande region from a rich cultural center to a rigid border 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. Castro, Rafaela G. Chicano Folklore. Oxford University Press: New York, 2001 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. Hurtado, Aida and Patricia Gurin. Chicana/o Identity in a Changing U.S. Society. University of Arizona Press: Tucson, 2004. pp 10-91.

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. Montejano, David. Chicano Politics and Society in the Late Twentieth Century. University of Texas Press: Austin, 1999

The shared Spanish language, Catholic faith, and history of labor segregation and ethnic exclusion and discrimination encourage a united Chicano 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 artistic and literary movements that emerged with the Chicano Movement. 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" Gonzales's "Yo Soy Joaquin" is one of the first examples of Chicano poetry. Other important writers in the genre include Sandra Cisneros and Gary Soto.

One of the most powerful and far-reaching cultural aspaects 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 arrivalm 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, etc) has had a deep impact in Chicano muralism, graphic design, tattoo art (flash), poetry, music, and literature.

In the visual arts, work by Chicanos addresses similar themes as works in literature. The preferred media for Chicano art are murals and graphic arts. San Diego's Chicano Park, home to the largest collection of murals in the world, was created as an outgrowth of the city's political movement by Chicanos.

Lalo Guerrero is considered the "father of Chicano music". Beginning in the 1930s, he wrote songs in the big band and swing genres that were popular at the time. He expanded his repertoire to include songs written in traditional genres of the Mexican music, and during the farmworkers' rights campaign, wrote music in support of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers.

Chicano rock is rock music performed by Mexican American 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 blues roots of Rock and roll including Ritchie Valens, Sunny and the Sunglows, and ? and the Mysterians. Groups inspired by this include Sir Douglas Quintet, Thee Midniters, Los Lobos, War, Tierra, and El Chicano.

Chicano punk is a branch of Chicano rock with bands like Los Illegals, The Brat, The Plugz and Los Cruzados coming out of the punk scene in Los Angeles.

The second theme is the openness to Latin American sounds and influences. Trini Lopez, Santana, Malo, Azteca, Toro, Ozomatli and other Chicano Latin Rock groups follow this approach.

Chicano rap is a unique style of hip hop music which started with Kid Frost, who began using Spanish in the early 1990's. While Mellow Man Ace was the first mainstream rapper to use Spanglish, Frost's song "La Raza" paved the way for the use Spanish in their English (Spanglish) American hip hop. Chicano rap tends to discuss themes of importance to young urban Chicanos. Other main known chicano artist are Lil Rob, Mr. Capone-e (Hipower Soldiers), Big Lokote (Hipower Soldiers), O.D.M (Lighter Shade of Brown) and Payaso (Teen Angels Records).

Other famous Chicano/ Mexican American singers include Selena, who sang a variety of Mexican, local Tex-mex and American popular music, but was killed at age 23 in 1995. And the Los Lonely Boys are a Texas style country rock band, but never shyed away from their Mexican American roots in their music. In recent years, a growing Tex-Mex polka band trend and from Mexican immigrants (i.e. Conjunto or Norteno) has influenced much of new Chicano folk music, esp. in large market Spanish language radio stations and on television music video programs in the U.S.

Identity

Since the term is inextricably linked to the Identity politics-based activism of Mexican-Americans, its application and meaning are highly subjective. For this reason, it may be useful to examine some of the definitions put forward by prominent Chicanos and Chicanas:

Ruben Salazar: "A Chicano is a Mexican-American with a non-Anglo image of himself."

In the 1991 Culture Clash play "A Bowl of Beings", in response to Che Guevara's demand for a definition of "Chicano", an "armchair activist" cries out, "I still don't know!!"

Reies Tijerina: "The Anglo press revolutionized the word 'Chicano'. We use it, but they use it to divide us from Latin America."

Bruce Novoa: "A Chicano lives in the space between the hyphen in Mexican-American", . . Houston: , 1990.

Leo Limón: "...because that's what a Chicano is, an indigenous Mexican American".

Ana Castillo: "Xicana is 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."

Use in Mexico

In Mexico, the term can connote a person of low class and poor morals, while in the U.S. it carries multiple meanings. Sabine Ulibarri, an author from Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, notes that Chicano is a politically loaded term, though it is considered a positive term of honor by many. For Chicanos, the term usually implies being "neither from here, nor from there" in reference to the U.S. and Mexico respectively. As a mixture of cultures from both countries, being Chicano represents the struggle of being accepted into the Anglo-dominated society of America while maintaining the cultural sense developed as a Latino child.

External links

References

1. Tino Villanueva, Chicanos (selección), Lecturas Mexicanas, número 889, FCE/SEP, México, 1985, p. 7

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