History of Chicanos

The history of the Chicano and Chicana movements in the U.S. is a history of self-assertion and self-esteem. The Chicano population gradually became alive to the fact that they had value in a society that always seemed to devalue them and come to their support only when it served the governments best interests (as happened during WWII). By the 1960s and 1970s, Chicanos had had enough of this system. They were ready to break out and push back. This paper describes how that movement came about and what methods it used to achieve objectives.

The Chicana/o Movement as a Result of Activism

The Chicano Movement began when Mexican-American men began to assert themselves in the struggle for equal rights in the realm of economics, society and politics (Garcia, 1997). The Chicana Movement was largely in response to the feminist movement, which seemed to center wholly on white women to the exclusion of Chicana women. In both movements, the core aspect was activism. Chicanos wanted equal opportunity in terms of education: they wanted bilingual teachers so that their children would not be left behind in the classroom. Chicanas wanted gender rights and wanted to be accepted as working class women (Ramirez, n.d.).

The Lemon Grove Incident (2013) was a major factor in fomenting the movement. It was an issue from 1930 to 1931 that focused on the education rights of Mexican-Americans and their families. Essentially, it was an attempt by a local school board to segregate Mexican-American children in California by building a school house for children who were of Mexican descent. The case brought the issue of desegregation to the courts long before the more famous Brown v. Board of Education in the 1950s. The actions of the school board actually violated the laws of the state of Californianot because of any stance by the state on equality of racesbut because Mexicans were considered to be white, i.e., non-Negro, and therefore not susceptible to segregation laws. Underneath this loophole, which gave a victory to the Mexican-Americans, was the fact that racism nonetheless existed and was supported by the law. California in the internecine years was full of racial tension, and the Lemon Grove Incident was merely one example of the legal and organizational precedents set in the lead-up to WWII that pushed Mexican-Americans to get active in politics and make demands in the name of social justice.

One of the big precedents in terms of organization for the Chicano movement was the League of United Latin American Citizens, which was established in 1929 to fight discrimination against Mexican-Americans. This discrimination had occurred in the form of vigilante justice in California and Texas, as white vigilantes had took it upon themselves to exact justice from Hispanics in those states at the end of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries (Carrigan & Webb, 2003). Mexican-Americans did not feel safe or respected as a result. The League of United Latin American Citizens was meant to help these individuals band together against abuses like vigilantism. This same League would later play a part in facilitating the Chicano movement during the Longoria Affair during the war

The Movement during WWII

The Longoria Affair was particularly of importance in terms of giving a fundamental cause to the activism. When the body of a Mexican-American soldier was not given the proper honors for serving his country, there was uproar among the Chicano community in Texas (The Longoria Affair, 2010). In the Longoria Affair, the League of United Latin American Citizens was aided by the American G.I. Forum, founded by Dr. Hector Garcia, a WWII veteran. Felix Longoria, a...

…the Bracero Program, or the horrors of Operation Wetback, or whatever else came their way. The Defense Industry had sought to make Mexican-American women feel like insiders in the culture so that they would support the war effort during WWII (Escobedo, 2013). But by the revolutionary decades of the 1960s and 1970s, all that would change. The Chicana women would be determined to assert themselves.

The Mexican Renaissance artists were an important aspect of this rejection of assimilation. Jose Orozco and Diego Rivera were two such artists who pioneered an innovative approach to art that was distinctly Mexican-American. Chicana women artists were also part of that development, and so too was critical theory in literature. The poetry of Corky Gonzales and Alurista combined prose and politics to advance ideas that could be discussed in the public. For instance, the Raza Unida Party continued to focus on the needs of the Mexican-American population, and it was often pointed out that Chicanos were 15% of the population yet only made up 2% of the representation in political office (Partido La Raza Unida, n.d.). Although the Raza Unida Party was criticized for being exclusively focused on the Mexican ethnicity, it was this exclusivity that enabled Mexican-Americans to embrace and uphold their own customs and culture in a nation that still wanted to marginalize them.

Conclusion

The Chicano movement focused on achieving political, economic and social equality. It had to contend with various factors and forces, such as discrimination, vigilantism, marginalization, and exploitation. However, the movement grew over the years and embraced its own identity and ethnicity rather than seek to blend into the American melting pot. The Chicano movement conducted walkouts and protests, got engaged in politics and pushed for equal opportunities for Mexican men and women; it pushed back against assimilation and used art (both literary…