Borderlands: The Chicano Movement

Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity. By David G Gutiérrez. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).

“I'm not Mexican. I am not American. I am not American in USA and Mexican in Mexico. I am Chicano everywhere. I do not have to assimilate anything. I have my own history”, stated the writer and novelist Carlos Fuentes. The Chicano subculture is the mixture of the Mexican and the American cultures. This subculture has its own history and unique characterizations that make it stand out. According to the Merriam Webster dictonary the word subculture is defined as “a group that has beliefs and behaviors that are different from the main groups within a culture or society”. The Chicano subculture has a history, language, leaders, art, literature, and even their music, and it’s the perfect example for this definition of the word subculture.

The book “Quixote’s Soldiers,” by David Montejano was written in clarity to describe and inform readers the injustice the Mexican Americans endured during the mid 1960s through the early 1980s in which they successfully battled for, “a new and more representative political order.” The following critique of “Quixote’s Soldiers,” includes how the Chicano Movement was introduced, the author's purpose and interpretations, and the overall successes and weaknesses of the book.

The formation of segregated barrios and the development of a wealth of community-provided services showed that Mexican-Americans were not content to be marginalized by the United States. Instead, they were embracing an empowering new sense of self-determination and referring to themselves as “Mexicanos or as members of a larger, pan-Hispanic community of La Raza.” At this time La Raza referenced individuals of the Mexican “race”, whether they were in Mexico or in the United States, and was particularly important in the United States, where race was more important than citizenship. In the late 19th and early 20th century United States, race was determined by purity of blood, and there were only two races—white and black. White meant the individual had “pure blood” (European blood); black meant that the individual’s blood included indigenous or African influences. Being white meant being able to exercise one’s constitutional rights and being treated as a normal member of society’s dominant group. Being black meant that, regardless of whether he or she was a citizen, the individual would face discrimination similar to that which I described earlier. When the Spanish conquerors mixed with the people of Latin America, forming the mestizo, or mixed race, population that now composes most of the region, they removed themselves from a “white” classification in the United States. Thus, by engaging with the concept of La Raza, which connotes a mestizo race and population, Mexican-Americans rejected the binary nature of race in the United States and embraced what made them different—their indigenous-mixed blood and the cultural heritage that accompanied it. While the abuse directed towards Mexican-Americans may have

The Mexican Americans thought of themselves as "Americans" and they stressed their American citizenship in the basis of being treat equaly under the law that offered freedom and equality to all its citizens. Being Chicano represents the struggle of being a citizens of an Anglo society while being raised in the Hispanic culture. Chicanos are proudm of their heritage but they are also aware of their American culture. These American citizens had suffer from discrimination based on their Spanish surmane and because they keep their customs form their Hispanic culture. They have been denied equal acdces to education, jobs, healthcare and politcal representation.

In the early sixties, when times were of segregation, racism and discrimination, Chicanos often suffered the most. It was a dark time for Mexican-Americans, who were negatively referred as ‘Chicanos’. Chicanos did not always have the empowered meaning it has today. In the early sixties, ‘Chicano’ was often used to refer to Mexican-Americans’ as lower class, ignorant and as a derogatory racial identification. Furthermore, racism, exploitation, inequality, conformity and assimilation were all main factors of the early sixties liberal agenda. Chicanos often faced numerous struggles as Mexican-Americans were often exploited profoundly in the workplace. Along with being exploited, Chicanos often face new threats like being fired, pay cuts, and ultimately deportation due racism. Anglo societies were advanced due to the inequalities Chicanos faced from education system and workplace. In addition, Chicanos who were proud to be ‘brown’ or embraced their culture, and practice their norms were often seen as outcast. The sixties main focus of the liberal agenda was to conform the Mexican-American. The liberal agenda attempt to make Chicanos deny their culture and assimilate to the Anglo culture. However, Chicanos often did not assimilate and conform. Chicanos often displayed their pride by dressing in their zoot zoot attires, speaking their language and embracing their culture. As a way to fight back, Chicanos embraced their culture in their music

In Pearsall, Texas, the Anglo and Mexican communities were divided to contribute to Elva’s confusion and frustrations of being alone. The immigrant society was lumped together as their own “class” of people:

Tejano, Texans of Spanish and Mexican descent, formed several organizations in the early 20th century to protect themselves from official and private discrimination, but made only partial progress in addressing the worst forms of official ethnic discrimination. The movement to overturn the many forms of state-sponsored discrimination directed at Hispanic Americans was strongest in Texas during the first fifty years of the 20th century. It was just right after World War II that returning veterans joined the League of United Latin American citizens (LULAC) to end segregation. Their main goal was to have equal rights for Mexicans. “According to the U.S Census, tejanos comprised 32.4 percent of the workers in the state and owned 33 percent of its wealth”. (102)

The Chicano movement, also known as El Movimiento, was a civil rights movement that began in the 1960s with a primary objective of attaining empowerment and self-determination as well as rejecting and confronting the history of racism, discrimination and disenfranchisement of the Mexican-American community and was much more militant than movements prior to it. Some issues the Chicano movement dealt with were farm workers’ rights, political rights, better education and restoration of land grants. Additionally, the movement sought to gain social equality and economic opportunity. The movement strove to tackle the stereotype the media and America synonymized with Mexicans. The Chicano movement was influenced by progress made in movements such as the Black Power Movement, antiwar movement and various others.

In his book Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice, Ian F. Haney Lopez studies the change that in racial politics brought about by the Chicano movement. He examines why Chicano activists embrace their identity as members of the Brown race, an action that is a rejection of previous generations ' attempts to gain civil rights by claiming to be White. He analyzes this racial transformation in the context of race as a socially constructed idea meant to preserve power dynamics.

In American history, civil rights movements have played a major role for many ethnics in the United States and have shape American society to what it is today. The impact of civil rights movements is tremendous and to an extent, they accomplish the objectives that the groups of people set out to achieve. The Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement, more commonly known as the Chicano Movement or El Movimiento, was one of the many movements in the United States that set out to obtain equality for Mexican-Americans (Herrera). At first, the movement had a weak start but eventually the movement gained momentum around the 1960’s (Herrera). Mexican-Americans, also known as Chicanos, began to organize in order to eliminate the social barriers that

The Chicano power movement of the 1960's is characterized by Carlos Munoz, jr. as a movement led by the decedents of Mexican Americans who pressed for assimilation. These young people, mostly students, became tired of listening to school rhetoric that stressed patriotism when they were being discriminated against outside the classroom. Unlike their parents, the young people of the Chicano movement did not want to assimilate into mainstream America and lose their identity, they wanted to establish an identity of their own and fight for the civil rights of their people.

The 1940’s inevitably signaled the beginning of the Mexican American civil rights era in the west as Mexican Americans rose to immeasurable heights in an attempt to terminate the de jure segregation they were unwillingly victims of. Their notable attempts to prove that they were worthy of the natural rights granted by the founding fathers brought light to the intense hatred shown towards Mexican Americans that was centralized in Los Angeles, California as

Explanation: This term arose to Mexicans in American territory. The Chicano movement during the 1960’s was time that many Mexicans fought for their rights in the U.S. Chicanos rose to other’s acknowledgement during this time and Mexicans themselves adopted this term. Chicano now refers to that of a new culture, one that has evolved throughout the last five decades. This culture is rich in will and ability to show others their hard

Borders are one of the most pervasive topics in contemporary politics, and whether people are aware of it or not, borderlands history has greatly influenced the perceptions and attitudes that are held towards borders today. Rhetoric today is focused on keeping immigrants out, winning the war on drugs, and bringing the United States back to its original glory (which in fact, was not glorious, but rather put white men on a pedestal). Borderlands history reminds us that immigrants are going to cross the border, regardless of the challenges put in front of them by United States laws or border patrol. This has been exemplified throughout history by many different groups of people, such at the Métis, Comanche, slaves, and Chinese laborers. The