The Chicano Movement (Chicano Studies)

Introduction
The Chicano movement was a social, cultural and economic challenge to the status quo that was long in the making, with some of its major demands coming out of the more traditional Mexican American civil rights movement. It expressed itself through the affirming of identity and the rejection of second-class citizenship. Its goals were to create a sense of peoplehood for those of Mexican descent; to make American principles applicable to the barrios of the United States; to empower Mexican Americans politically, and to do it both collectively and individually. It also sought to provide space for the development of Mexican American leadership. Chicano—an old barrio term often associated with lower-class Mexican Americans—became the self-descriptor of the individuals who promoted the movement, and history became the main weapon to fight internal defeatism and social alienation. Movement activists initially did this through a cultural nationalist ideological filter that embraced the arts and letters and promoted a racial and ethnic communal identity. The movement’s exact beginning is difficult to ascertain, though it likely began in the early 1960s with the rise of the United Farm Workers (UFW) union of César Chavez in California and the land grant movement of Reies López Tijerina in New Mexico. These organizations provided the earliest cultural and rhetorical foundation for the movement, but it was the establishment of La Raza Unida Party in Texas and the Crusade for Justice in Colorado that expanded the social movement across the nation throughout the Southwest and parts of the Midwest. From these organizations came numerous offshoots with different goals that made the movement a collection of struggles rather than one monolithic movement. The movement’s strength lay in its ability to combine the grievances of young people with the history of discrimination and racism that was ingrained in the memories of older Mexican Americans. Chicano intellectuals and activists were able to create a “historical narrative” that meshed all these experiences and feelings and created an indictment of American society over its treatment of Mexican Americans. Activists did this through journals, newspapers, and manifestos, and through their circuit speakers who went throughout the Southwest and Midwest preaching the “Chicano gospel.” From the movement came Chicano art, literature, and Chicano studies; self-help groups; feminists; and a new wave of Mexican American political and social leaders. A political and judicial backlash, ideological exhaustion, and an opening in the more mainstream political system let to its decline but did not diminish its legacy.
General Overviews
The first major books to depict what was happening in the barrios of the Southwest in the 1960s were Chicano Manifesto (Rendon 1971) and Chicano Power (Castro 1974), written by journalists attracted to the explosion of activism by Mexican Americans. They were popular accounts, with Castro using numerous quotes from movement leaders and rank-and-file participants to tell a dramatic story, while Rendon’s Chicano Manifesto was more of a personal journey and discovery that spoke in a raw fashion to the anger and frustration that Mexican Americans were feeling in the 1960s. Both authors saw the movement as a passionate social catharsis that was less politics and more outrage. The first works to come from scholars focused on the students within the movement and argued that it was they who were the major catalyst for the upheaval in the barrios. While not autobiographical, these works (Gomez-Quiñones 1978, Muñoz 1989) drew much from the authors’ own movement experience. In fact, personal experience was one of the bonds that connected many of the early authors of the scholarship on the movement. Thus, these works tended to be passionate, partly autobiographical, and often with recommendations or prognoses. While initial accounts tended to see the movement as almost monolithic, the filmmaker Jesús Treviño chronicled a much more diverse movement in his memoir (Treviño 2001), as did Hector Galán in the first major documentary on the movement (Galán 1996). But few spoke to the diversity and the complications of the movement as did Chicana feminists and other scholars who critiqued the movement’s nationalism and some of its sexist strains. These scholars sought not only to place women as early participants, but often as stepchildren of the male-oriented activism (see García 1997 and Chávez 2002). But whatever their approach to writing about the movement, most all of the scholars have shared the same view: that it was passionate, diverse, influenced by a myriad of ideologies, and in some ways radically different from movements of the past, even while retaining some of their activist strains.
Castro, Tony. Chicano Power: The Emergence of Mexican America. New York: Saturday Review Press, 1974.
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An outsider’s view of the Chicano movement that traces the Mexican American’s progression through disappointment, accommodation, and eventual radicalism.
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Chávez, Ernesto. Mi Raza Primero! Nationalism, Identity, and Insurgency in the Chicano Movement in Los Angeles. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
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Discusses four Chicano movement organizations in Los Angeles and their experimentation with cultural nationalism.
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Galán, Hector. Chicano!: A History of the Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement. 4 Videos. Los Angeles: NLCC Educational Media, 1996.
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The first documentary to chronicle the Chicano movement from 1965 to 1975.
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García, Alma M. Chicana Feminist Thought. New York: Routledge, 1997.
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Selection of writings that chronicle and analyze the women’s struggle to find their place within the Chicano movement, and to challenge its sexism.
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Gomez-Quiñones, Juan. Mexican Students por la Raza: The Chicano Student Movement in Southern California, 1967–1977. Santa Barbara, CA: Editorial La Causa, 1978.
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Chronicles the Chicano student youth movement, its beginnings, internal struggles, and eventual demise.
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Muñoz, Carlos. Youth, Identity, Power. London: Verso, 1989.
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Personal account of the origins of the 1960s Chicano civil rights movement by an activist scholar.
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Rendon, Armando B. Chicano Manifesto: The History and Aspirations of the Second Largest Minority in America. New York: Macmillan, 1971.
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The first book by a major press in which a writer articulates the condemnation of American society for its treatment of Mexican Americans and previews the rise of the Chicano movement.
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Treviño, Jesús Salvador. Eyewitness: A Filmmaker’s Memoir of the Chicano Movement. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 2001.
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An extensive and expansive view of the Chicano movement from the eye of a camera and from personal experience.
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Pre-Movement Times
These works provide a view of the civil rights and political activities of Mexican Americans before the advent of the Chicano movement, as well as some perspective on the conditions that Mexican Americans confronted and which caused many barrio residents to lose hope in the traditional civil rights movement of what some scholars have called the G.I. Generation. This generation believed in the broad political principles espoused by liberal leaders and politicians and had faith that the American system was capable of being both open and fair to those who fought for their rights. Because of this, they fought tenaciously for those opportunities. The Chicano movement, therefore, did not develop in a vacuum, given that prior activism. Still, the movement was more than an extension of that activity; it was in fact as much a reaction to government liberal policies, the war in Viet Nam, the black civil rights movement, and the perceived failure of their own leaders, whose work they saw as not sufficiently helpful. Without doubt, Chicano activists in the early stages of the movement could see that things in the Southwest and other areas where Mexican Americans lived were not good, since the people were suffering from all kinds of ills and confronting various forms of discrimination (Galarza, et al. 1969; Grebler, et al. 1970; Barrera 1979; Iber 2000). That was particularly the case with the youth of the barrio, who suffered from bad schooling, police harassment, lack of jobs, and an identity crisis. While some scholars were studying these youths to look for solutions, others tended to find fault with the young people’s culture and blamed them instead of American society for their marginalization (Heller 1966). Chicano activists rejected those notions and benefitted from the work of those organizers and reformers of the Mexican American generation who had begun the pushback against such scholarship (García 2002, Carroll 2003, Gomez-Quiñones 1990, Rosales 1996). Those earlier reformers had also begun to identify issues that would become central to the Chicano movement’s call for change. These included a call for “Mexicanos to be their own leaders” (García 2000, p. 82), protesting police brutality, demands for fairer elections, the end of farmworker exploitation, a respect for their Mexican heritage, and the need for better schools.
Barrera, Mario. Race and Class in the Southwest: A Theory of Racial Inequality. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1979.
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A study of the economic inequality of Chicanos in the Southwest from the Mexican-American War to the 1970s.
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Carroll, Patrick. Felix Longoria’s Wake: Bereavement, Racism, and the Rise of Mexican American Activism. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003.
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Fully researched account of a funeral parlor’s refusal to hold Private First Class Felix Longoria’s wake, and how it galvanized activists in both national and international contexts.
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Galarza, Ernesto, Herman Gallegos, and Julian Samora. Mexican-Americans in the Southwest. Santa Barbara, CA: McNally and Loftin, 1969.
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An assessment of Mexican Americans’ economic, political, and social conditions on the eve of Chicano movement.
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García, Ignacio M. Viva Kennedy: Mexican Americans in Search of Camelot. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2000.
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History of the creation of the Viva Kennedy Club that rallied Mexican American support for John F. Kennedy’s run for the presidency.
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García, Ignacio M. Hector P. García: In Relentless Pursuit of Justice. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 2002.
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Biography of the founder of the American G.I. Forum, the major civil rights organization of the postwar years before the Chicano movement erupted.
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Gomez-Quiñones, Juan. Chicano Politics: Reality and Promise, 1940–1990. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990.
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Examination of Mexican American leaders and organizations from the start of World War II through the Chicano movement era until almost the end of the 20th century.
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Grebler, Leo, Joanne W. Moore, and Ralph C. Will Guzman. The Mexican American People. New York: Free Press, 1970.
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Looks at the situation of urban Mexican Americans in the 1970s in terms of social and economic status, political activities, and cultural and religious developments.
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Heller, Celia S. Mexican American Youth: Forgotten Youth at the Crossroads. New York: Random House, 1966.
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Focuses on Mexican American youth, specifically two groups: the “delinquents” and the “ambitious.”
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Iber, Jorge. Hispanics in the Mormon Zion, 1912–1999. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2000.
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Account of the Mexican American subordinate experience in Utah and the reform movement that arose to challenge that subordination.
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Rosales, F. Arturo. Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. Houston, TX: Arte Público Press, 1997.
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A very detailed companion book to the documentary "Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement."
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Ideology of the Movement
Often referred to as “Chicanismo” the ideology, or at least the philosophical underpinnings, of the Chicano movement was a hodgepodge of ideas connected by their relevance in explaining the conditions of the Mexican American barrios, as well as articulating the action to be taken to relieve those conditions. Documents such as the Plan de Aztlán, Plan de Santa Barbara, Plan de Delano, and numerous others sought to express reasons behind the protests, boycotts, strikes, and political activity occurring in the barrio (García 1997). Other works sought to provide historicity to the way Chicanos thought, as well as a “perspective” on the why and how of Chicanismo (Muñoz 1970). Writers and poets contributed to the creation of a set of ideas, prevalent among those (and possibly the most important) was a discussion of place and peoplehood. Much of Chicanismo came out of speeches and writings by the recognized leaders of the movement (Gonzales 1972, Gonzales 2001), but it also came from the rhetorical battles fought by local leaders and local organizations throughout the Southwest and Midwest over numerous issues including the war in Viet Nam (Oropeza 2005). Added to this were songs, poems, teatro skits, Chicano newspaper reporting, and protest signs (Ontivero 2013). All of these created a sense that Chicanos had something to say, and that they were saying it loud and clear. Much of it reaffirmed an identity that spoke to their racial, ethnic, and class reality, and to a search for a homeland to call their own (Anaya 1989). It created heroes and a historical narration that made Mexican Americans agents in their own lives (Romano 1969). This philosophy or conglomeration of ideas, however, never developed into a systematic ideology that provided answers to all the challenges confronting the barrios of the United States. At times, movement leaders emulated political structures already in place (Navarro 1998). Most of the advocates for Chicanismo were activist-participants will little time to write, and there was so much diversity in thought among these individuals that Chicanismo remained a battle cry and a justification for action, but not a full-fledged ideology. Yet, this quasi-ideology did provide many activist and rank-and-file Chicano warriors with a foundation for the fight for civil rights in their community.
Anaya, Rudolfo A. “Aztlan: A Homeland without Borders.” In Aztlan: Essays on the Chicano Homeland. Edited by Rudolfo A. Anaya and Francisco Lomeli. Albuquerque, NM: Academia/El Norte, 1989.
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Writings on the meaning of Aztlán and its role in creating a Chicano identity.
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García, Ignacio. Chicanismo: The Forging of a Militant Ethos among Mexican Americans. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1997.
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A discussion of four phases of the movement and how they led to a philosophical foundation for Chicano movement activism.
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Gonzales, Rodolfo. I Am Joaquin/Yo Soy Joaquín. New York: Bantam, 1972.
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Epic poem associated with the Chicano movement that depicts the Chicano’s struggle with identity and American society.
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Gonzales, Rodolfo. Message to Aztlán: Selected Writings. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 2001.
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A collection of Gonzales’s writings that demonstrates his evolution of thought on Chicano human rights.
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Muñoz, Carlos. “Toward a Chicano Perspective of Political Analysis.” Aztlan 1.2 (Fall 1970): 14–26.
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Discusses the little research that existed at the time on Mexican American political thought, and points out the need for a Chicano perspective on political analysis.
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Navarro, Armando. The Cristal Experiment: A Chicano Struggle for Community Control. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.
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Study of Chicano ideology at the community level in Crystal City, Texas, the mecca of Chicanismo.
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Ontivero, Randy. In the Spirit of New People: The Cultural Politics of the Chicano Movement. New York: New York University Press, 2013.
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A discussion of how the visual arts as well as literature and song helped shape the movement’s message and ideology.
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Oropeza, Lorena. Raza Si! Guerra No! Chicano Protest and Patriotism during the Viet Nam War Era. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
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A discussion of how the war in Viet Nam impacted the political thought of Chicano activists.
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Romano, Octavio. “The Historical and Intellectual Presence of Mexican Americans.” El Grito 2.2 (1969): 32–46.
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One of the earliest discussions of the philosophical underpinnings of Mexican American identity and cultural nationalism.
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The Four Horsemen
The early works on the Chicano movement placed great emphasis on the men who led the most prominent organizations and who initially established the philosophical and ideological boundaries of most other Chicano/a activists. These men represented different geographic, cultural, and demographic strata within the Mexican American barrios, and their initial friendship seemed to tie all activist into a movement fraternity and create an image of familial struggle for civil and human rights. It also reflected the early male orientation of the leadership of the movement. Cesár Chávez and Reies López Tijerina represented the aspirations of the rural poor, the farm worker, and the long-term Hispano residents (Matthiesen 2000, Tijerina 2000), while Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales and José Angel Gutiérrez represented the young Chicanos as well as the smaller communities that were predominantly Mexican American but still controlled by whites (García 1989, Navarro 1998, Martínez and Vásquez 1974). The four men promoted their own version of a cultural nationalism that connected with the aspirations of different type of Chicanos across the Southwest and Midwest. Chávez combined his with a universal message of nonviolence and allowed young whites into his campaign. He was also the one who most understood the role that economics played in the life of Chicanos. Tijerina promoted a Hispano-Indian philosophy and a Hispano homeland, and he tied his nationalism to the land. The New Mexican leader also represented the man of action because of his Tierra Amarilla courthouse raid. “Corky” Gonzales spoke to the young urban dwellers alienated from American society through a revolutionary nationalism that sought to tie Chicano activism to the national liberation struggles worldwide (Vigil 1999, Gonzales 2001, p. 86). Gutiérrez spoke both to the long-term resident Tejano and the urban political Chicano who still believed in the electoral process and envisioned political control of hundreds of communities where Mexican Americans lived. Gutiérrez believed that after his party, La Raza Unida, gained control in a number of communities, he could negotiate with the mainstream political parties to gain resources for Mexican Americans in those same communities (Gutiérrez 1998).
Chávez, Cesár. An Organizer’s Tale: Speeches. Edited by Ilan Stavans. New York: Penguin Classics, 2008.
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A collection of speeches by Cesár Chávez that outlines his views of the struggle of the Mexican American people and the United Farm Workers Union.
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García, Ignacio. United We Win: The Rise and Fall of La Raza Unida Party. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989.
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The first in-depth history of La Raza Unida Party, identifying its leaders, issues, platforms, successes, and failures.
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Gonzales, Rodolfo “Corky”. Message to Aztlán: Selected Writings. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 2001.
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Selection of speeches, manifestos, and fiction writings of one of the most influential Chicano leaders of the movement.
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Gutiérrez, Jose Angel. The Making of a Chicano Militant: Lessons from Cristal. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.
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A controversial and dynamic political figure during the height of the Chicano movement, Gutiérrez offers an absorbing personal account of his life as one of those at the forefront of the Mexican American civil rights movement.
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Martínez, Elizabeth Sutherland, and Enriqueta Longeaux y Vásquez. Viva La Raza! The Struggle of the Mexican American People. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974.
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A discussion of the difficult conditions that Mexican Americans faced in major urban centers that led them to the Crusade for Justice and the Chicano movement.
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Matthiesen, Peter. Sal Si Puedes: Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
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A firsthand view of César Chávez and his efforts at organizing farmworkers amid the tumultuous 1960s and the rise of the Chicano movement.
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Navarro, Armando. The Cristal Experiment: A Chicano Struggle for Community Control. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.
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A comprehensive study of La Raza Unida Party’s control of a community where Chicanismo fully played itself out under the leadership of José Angel Gutiérrez.
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Tijerina, Reies López. They Called Me “King Tiger”: My Struggle for the Land and Our Rights. Translated by Jose Angel Gutiérrez. Houston, TX: Arte Publico, 2000.
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Translated memoirs that include the recounting of the history of the Federal Land-Grant Alliance and the protest activity that led to Tijerina’s conviction and incarceration.
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Vigil, Ernesto B. The Crusade for Justice. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999.
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A scholarly and personal account of the Crusade for Justice organization headed by Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, one of the premier ideologues of the Chicano movement.
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The Chicana Movement
One of the most important outcomes of the Chicano movement was the development of a Chicana feminist movement that both enhanced and challenged the efforts of the larger movement to bring change to the Mexican American people. In some communities, such as Crystal City, Texas, the home of La Raza Unida Party, women had been waging a battle against discrimination, racism, segregation, police brutality and political exploitation before the advent of the movement, and they were instrumental in inspiring Mexican American youth to get involved. They also served as the bridge between the youthful militants and the older members of their community. Chicanas, like their male counterparts, also sought a reinterpretation of history, but one that included them as active participants. They, too, tied themselves to historical events in Mexico and the early Southwest, showing that Mexican and Mexican American women had been active in establishing newspapers, running political campaigns, boycotting schools, and founding organizations to struggle against oppression, class exploitation, and sexism (Cotera 1977, Mora and Del Castillo 1982). Chicana feminists in universities, as well those who were public intellectuals, also engaged in creating theoretical and methodological frameworks to better understand the role of women in the barrio and in the civil and human rights struggles. Without such frameworks, the history of Chicana participation would have remained in the periphery (Cordova 1990, García 1997). Chicanas also sought to provide a perspective to the Chicano movement missing from many of the early works on the social catharsis of the 1960s. First, they posited that women had a long history of resistance; second, that they had participated in the creation of the earliest Chicano movement organizations and brought important ideas to the struggle; third, that Chicanas suffered a triple oppression of racism, sexism, and classism that was not fully accounted for in traditional Chicano movement rhetoric; and, finally, that Chicanas were as committed to their barrios and the overall liberation of their people as were the male leaders of the movement (Espinoza 1996, Bernal 1997, Vázquez 2006, Blackwell 2011). While there would be differences among the women activists, and though a schism would developed between those called “feminists” and those designated as “loyalists,” women on both sides were in agreement on many of the issues that pertained to women in the barrio.
Bernal, Dolores Delgado. “Chicana School Resistance and Grassroots Leadership: Providing an Alternative Framework for the 1968 East Los Angeles Blowouts.” PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1997.
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A discussion of the East Los Angeles school walkouts from a Chicana feminist perspective.
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Blackwell, Maylei. Chicana Power! Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011.
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Based on oral histories from pioneering Chicana activists, this book engages in a full-scale discussion of the social and political factors that led to the development of Chicana feminism.
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Cordova, Teresa, ed. Chicana Voices: Intersections of Class, Race, and Gender. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990.
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Collection of essays displaying the range of scholarship Chicanas were producing in the 1980s.
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Cotera, Martha P. The Chicana Feminist. Austin, TX: Information Systems Development, 1977.
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Seven essays and public presentations that discuss important events in Chicana feminist history since the 1800s to the present.
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Espinoza, Dionne. “Pedagogies of Nationalism and Gender: Cultural Resistance in Selected Representational Practices of Chicano/a Movement Activists, 1967–1972.” PhD diss., Cornell University, 1996.
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Examines the dialectic of nationalism and gender in selected popular mobilization efforts of Chicano movement activists, 1967–1972, and proposes a methodological and theoretical shift in the field of Chicana/o cultural and historical studies.
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García, Alma M., ed. Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings. New York: Routledge, 1997.
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Compilation of the writings of Chicana poets, writers, and activists, who reflect upon the Chicana feminist movement that began in the late 1960s.
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Mora, Magdalena, and Adelaida Del Castillo, eds. Mexican Women in the United States: Struggles Past and Present. 2d ed. Los Angeles: University of California Chicano Studies Research Center, 1982.
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Twenty-two essays documenting and appraising Mexican women’s participation in the struggle against national oppression, class exploitation, and sexism.
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Vásquez, Enriqueta. Enriqueta Vásquez and the Chicano Movement: Writings from El Grito del Norte. Edited by Lorena Oropeza and Dionne Espinoza. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 2006.
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Anthology of columns written by Enriqueta Vásquez for the Chicano newspaper El Grito del Norte.
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Chicana/o Reinterpretation of History
A significant result of the Chicano movement was the reinterpreting of the history of Mexicans in the United States. This new interpretation rejected traditional portrayals of Mexican Americans in the scholarly and popular press that blamed them for their problems, and instead fashioned a nuanced history that sought to empower the people in the barrio by making them active agents in their own history. To do this, Chicano scholars searched for frameworks and methodologies that allowed a deeper understanding of the historical precedents that created the conditions in which they lived (Montejano 1987, García 2001). The first part of developing this new reinterpretation of history required a critique and a rejection of the traditional scholarship (Romano 1970), and then the creation of new perspectives that placed Chicana/os at the center of their own lives, and that made them active participants in their history (Gomez-Quiñones 1971). One way to emphasize the agency of Chicana/os came through the chronicling of their resistance to oppression and exploitation, both through violent responses as well as through unionism, protests, and litigation (Acuña 1972, Rosenbaum 1981, Chavez 1984). This new history—and the subsequent social science it spawned—created Mexican American heroes, important events in the life of the barrio, and explanations of the problems faced by Chicanos. A major result of this reinterpretation was the development of Chicana feminist theories and methodologies that produced a deeper understanding of how American racism exacerbated gender inequalities within the Mexican American community. The reinterpretation of Mexican American history proved to be one of the fundamental elements in liberating Chicana/os from their social and political marginalization. More recent work continues to explore the historiographical contributions of the Chicano movement (Camarillo, et al. 2013).
Acuña, Rodolfo. Occupied America: The Chicano Struggle for Liberation. San Francisco: Canfield Press, 1972.
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Posits that Mexican Americans became part of an internal colony of the United States after the US–Mexico War.
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Camarillo, Albert M., Ernesto Chávez, Natalia Molina, Miroslava Chávez-García, Raúl A. Ramos, and Alexandra Minna Stern. Special Issue: Chicano/a History: Looking Forward After Forty Years. Pacific Historical Review 82.4 (November 2013).
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This collection of articles provides one the most extensive and most recent historiographical discussion of the Chicano interpretation of history.
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Chavez, John R. The Lost Land: The Chicano Image of the Southwest. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984.
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History of the changing of Mexican American self-perception over the last two centuries.
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García, Matt. A World of Its Own: Race, Labor, and Citrus in the Making of the Greater Los Angeles Area, 1900–1970. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
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Traces the history of intercultural struggle and cooperation in the citrus belt of Greater Los Angeles between white landowners and Mexican and Asian laborers.
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Gomez-Quiñones, Juan. “Toward a Perspective on Chicano History.” Aztlan 2.2 (Fall 1971): 1–49. Have it.
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Chicano history involves the creation of new definitions and interpretations based on the life experiences of the Mexican American community.
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Montejano, David. Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836–1986. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987.
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A history that debunks the old Texas nationalist narrative that sought to create anti-Mexican attitudes both in Texas and the Greater Southwest.
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Perez, Emma. The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.
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Poses a theory that rejects the “colonizer’s” methodological assumptions, and examines new tools for uncovering the hidden voices of Chicanas who have been relegated to silence.
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Romano, Octavio. “Social Science, Objectivity, and the Chicanos.” El Grito 4.1 (1970): 4–16.
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Challenges American social scientists’ scholarship on Mexican Americans. Enumerates the ways that Chicanos have challenged the social sciences’ portrayal of them.
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Rosenbaum, Robert J. Mexicano Resistance in the Southwest: The Sacred Right of Self-Preservation. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981.
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Documents numerous instances when Mexican Americans violently resisted Anglo American racism and exploitation.
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Chicana/o Literature
From the earliest days of the Chicano movement, writers, poets, essayists, amateur journalists, and cartoonists chipped in to both interpret the Mexican American experience and provide a rhetorical foundation for much of the activism that exploded in the barrios. Chicano literature, in all its variations, sought to promote a sense of community by highlighting the character of la gente, their daily struggles, their heroism, and also their zest for life, while directly or indirectly indicting the larger society for its indifference. Early Chicana/o literary scholars searched for a place for Mexican American literature within both the American and Mexican literary canons, and they also tried to provide a literary space for the passionate outcry of the barrios of the Southwest. Through their literature, Chicanos created a cultural self-description that ultimately proved valuable in casting Chicanos as a people rather than a minority group. This they did by first finding a name—Chicano—for themselves and empowering that term with a cultural and historical interpretation (Villanueva 1980). They then historicized their writing and artistic creations by finding the roots of their stories and narratives in much earlier times (Leal 1978). They also bound their literature to the everyday gente by discovering (or creating) a “folk base” in their writings that made their literature a working-class literature, though admittedly with some middle-class strains (Paredes 1979). In the process, they expressed their anger, frustration, and a sense of urgency that things had to change or the barrios would explode (Acosta 1989, Sánchez 1995). They thus created a protest voice that articulated their demands but also their aspirations (Valdez 1971). That voice, whether in protest or in description of their culture or way of life, was bilingual and had its distinct linguistic codes (Rivera 1995), but it also had indigenous roots that made it to an extent trilingual and tricultural. Chicana writers added their voz de la mujer—not by limiting their experiences to simply the home or the family, but by seeing themselves transcending a multiplicity of spaces (Trambley 1993. Chicano literature was fundamental in creating a milieu that allowed Mexican Americans to see themselves as a people with dreams, hopes, heroes, and a purpose, which was to liberate themselves from the limitations that society had imposed on them. As Chicano literature has matured, so have the themes, characters, and story plots.
Acosta, Oscar Zeta. The Revolt of the Cockroach People. New York: Vintage, 1989.
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An autobiographical novel about the Chicano movement that reflects some of the raw feelings that were often characteristic of some of the literature by Chicano writers.
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Alurista. Floricanto en Aztlán. Illustrated by Judith Hernández. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011.
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A collection of one hundred poems in both Spanish and English, and with words in and references to indigenous languages of Mexico. Originally published in 1971.
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Leal, Luis. “Cuatro siglos de la prosa aztlanense.” Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos 336 (1978): 387–410.
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A discussion of the historic time and spaces from which Chicano literature got its roots, and how they led to the flourishing of writings during the Chicano movement.
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Paredes, Américo. “The Folk Base of Chicano Literature.” In Modern Chicano Writers: A Collection of Essays. Edited by Joseph Sommers and Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, 4–17. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1979.
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Underscores the everyday life experiences that form the basis of most Chicano literature.
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Rivera, Tomás. Y no se lo trago la tierra—And the Earth Did Not Devour Him. Houston, TX: Arte Público Press, 1995.
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The story of a young migrant farm worker in the 1950s who embraces his cultural identity and comes to terms with the society around him. Originally published in 1971.
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Sánchez, Ricardo. Canto y grito mi liberacion—The Liberation of a Chicano Mind. Pullman: Washington State University Press, 1995.
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A poet’s heart-wrenching and angry articulation of a personal identity in the barrios of El Paso in the midst of the Chicano movement. Originally published in 1971.
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Trambley, Estella Portillo. Rain of Scorpions and Other Stories. Tempe, AZ: Bilingual Press, 1993.
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Collection of short stories on Chicanas that transcends the typical spaces and places that they inhabit. Originally published in 1975.
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Valdez, Luis. Actos. Fresno, CA: Cucaracha Press, 1971.
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Collection of one-act plays performed by Teatro Campesino that chronicle farmworker’s and other Chicanos’ efforts to free themselves from exploitation.
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Villanueva, Tino. “Sobre el término Chicano.” La Palabra 1.1 (1980): 2–15.
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A discussion of the meaning and origins of the term Chicano, and its usage during the Chicano literary renaissance.