The Civil Rights Movement: The Chicano Movement

The number of Hispanic Americans tripled during the decade and became recognized as an oppressed minority. Cesar Chavez organized Hispanics in the United Farm Workers Association. (Lonestar College Library)

recaptures the growth of a movement for Mexican Americans. According to the film, the word Chicano was used because of its meaning—poorest of the poor. Before the movement because nationally known, it had to have a leader. Reies Lopez Tijerina led the beginning of the movement. Tijerina raised questions of Spanish and Mexican land grants. Tijerina fought to uphold the Mexican American rights protected by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Tijerina opposed the government for confiscating the Mexican American land illegally. In an open letter from 1969 he writes from the Sante Fe jail. He compares the Mexican struggle with the black struggle in America. The black Civil Rights movement of the sixties would help open the door for other causes, such as the Chicano movement. In the movie Chicano! the blacks led by Martin Luther King Jr., and the Chicano movement led by "Corky" Gonzalez plan for a poor people march on the capital in Washington D.C. However, Dr. King was shot weeks before the planned march. Without King’s leadership the movement did not have the same effect. The different ethnic groups could not organize as well as they could behind King’s strong words. The movement would have had positive effects on the rest of America. Unfortunately, as stated in the film, they never could get it together.

The 1960’s comprised of many different movements that sought the same goal of achieving equality, equality in means of: political, economical, and social equality. Two similar movements emerged during this era that shared the same ideologies: the Chicano and the Black Power Movement. Both shared a similar ideology that outlined their movement, which was the call for self-determination. The similar experiences that they had undergone such as the maltreatment and the abuse of power that enacted was enacted by the dominant Anglo race helped to shape these ideologies. Despite their similar ideology, they differed in how they achieved this goal, by either obtaining political participation or going to the extreme as using force to achieve their

During the 1970’s, Mexican Americans were involved in a large social movement called the "Chicano movement." Corresponding with the great development of the black civil rights movement, Mexican Americans began to take part in a series of different social protests in which they demanded equal rights for themselves. Composed mainly of Mexican American students and youth, these activists focused on maintaining a pride for their culture as well as their ethnicity to fuel their political campaign. Left out of this campaign initially though were Mexican immigrants.

Finally after many deacades of suffering the Chicanos decided to make their voices be heard around the country and fight discrimination and to demand the rigthts they desrve as Americdan citizens. The Chicano movement began since the U.S took hundreds of miles from Mexico at the end of the Mexican War in 1848. The thousands of Mexican that were living in the territory that became part of the U.S became American citizens overnight and since then countless Chicanos have confronted discrimination, racism and exploitation in their own country.

A significant struggle during the Chicano and Black Civil rights movement was employment, and discrimination in the workplace. First, a case pertaining to this issue during the Chicano movement was Bernal v. Fainter in the year 1984. This was a case where the Supreme Court of the United States « ruled that the Equal Protection Clause prohibited the state of Texas from barring noncitizens from applying for commission as a notary public.» The result of this case came about, as the court realized, that there is no requirement for a notary to be a citizen, but the the only real necessity is that they follow the law. On the other hand, this case points out that a noncitizen may be unable to become a police officer or any other type of government worker that is required to « act on behalf of the state and have considerable discretion in how the law is enforced. »

Social movements are one of the primary means through which the public is able to collectively express their concerns about the rights and wellbeing of themselves and others. Under the proper conditions, social movements not only shed light on issues and open large scale public discourse, but they can also serve as a means of eliciting expedited societal change and progress. Due to their potential impact, studying the characteristics of both failed and successful social movements is important in order to ensure that issues between the public and the government are resolved to limit injustices and maintain societal progress.

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.

During the 1960’s, many movements rose such as the counterculture movement, the hippie movement, the environmental movement, the SCLC, the SNCC, the Native American movement, Women’s civil rights, United Farm workers, etc. During the 1960’s the American culture would start to change because of these movements. The United Farm Workers movement for example fought for the rights of Mexican americans. Their goal during the 1960’s was to get decent working conditions and more job opportunities. The United Farm Workers movement was led primarily by Dolores Huerta, Gilbert Padilla, and Cesar Chavez. Cesar Chavez coordinated the protests, and was at the time the President of the United Farm workers movement. Like Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez

At that time there were a Chicano Movement which also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement and that’s for Mexican American educational, social, and political equality rights in the United States, which also students originations played an important role in that movement and if we focused more in education we will find that many Mexican-American have no option but to accept the unfair rules at schools like Terry the little girl.

One day in the 1960s, the success of the Negro Civil Rights movement encouraged Hispanics (along with other groups of Americans) to insist on the coveted black analogy, and thus claim the spoils of affirmative action.

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

One of the many similarities about the Mexican American Civil Rights movements and the Chicano Movement in the 60s- 70s is that they fought for what they believed they had a right to have. Many in the 1940’s and in the 1960’s stepped up to show their loyalty to the United States by joining the military and sadly manly lost their lives during World War II and the Vietnam War. They were many Mexican Americans who were stationed in infantry and many dangerous areas during the war. They all fought with courage and fought with heart to accomplish the same goal each soldier had. Even though both the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement and the Chicano Movement seemed to have many similarities, they had many differences. I argue that The Chicano Movement and The Civil Rights Movement are different in many ways because they fought for different motives and wanted a better life for themselves as Mexican Americans in America. They of course had many similarities but took different extremes.

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 American Civil Rights Movement is personified through several prominent personalities. These figures exhibited strong character throughout their careers in activism that revolutionized the ideals and opportunities of the 20th century, standing as precedents for courage and perseverance in the face of widespread systemic oppression. However, not all of these figures received the acknowledgment and acceptance that their legacy deserved. One such figure was Bayard Rustin, a lifelong Civil Rights activist in the African American and LGBTQ communities whose experiences exemplified the hardships faced by American minorities. His career was defined by perpetual conflict and confrontation as both sides of the Civil Rights Movement attempted to demonize and discredit him. Despite this obstacle, Bayard Rustin’s controversial decision-making and sheer tenacity made him an influential force in the ongoing fight for equality in the United States of America.