Chicano
From WikiLatino
Chicano (feminine Chicana) is a politically-loaded word for a Mexican American (in the sense of native-born Americans of Mexican ancestry, as opposed to Mexican natives living in the United States). The terms Chicano and Chicana (also spelled xicano) are used specifically by and regarding some Americans of Mexican descent.
Contents |
Etymology
The origin of the word is not clear. Mexican researcher Villar Raso attempted to trace the origin to 1930s and 1940s California, although most Chicanos believe the terms far predates that assessment. Nevertheless, according to Raso, the term supposedly stems from "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."
The pronunciation was supposedly misunderstood by some Mexican Americans, who exaggerated the sound. In both cases, the term and its pronunciation are analogous to the Nahuatl word Mexica.
Chicano poet and writer Tino Villanueva traces the first documented use of the term to 1911 as referenced in a then-unpublished essay by anthropologist Jose Limón.<ref>Felix Rodriguez Gonzalez, ed. Spanish Loanwords in the English Language. A. Tendency towards Hegemony Reversal. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1996. Villanueva is referring to Limón's essay "The Folk Performance of Chicano and the Cultural Limits of Political Ideology," Limon refers to use of the word in a 1911 report entitled "Hot tamales" in the Spanish language newspaper La Cronica in 1911.</ref> Linguists Edward R. Simmen and Richard F. Bauerle report the use of the term in an essay by Mexican American writer, Mario Suarez, published in the Arizona Quarterly in 1947.<ref>Edward R. Simmen and Richard F. Bauerle. "Chicano: Origin and Meaning." American Speech 44.3 (Autumn 1969): 225-230.</ref> Mexican Americans were not identified as a racial/ethnic category prior to the 1980s US Census when the term Hispanic was first used.
An alternate etymology that predates Raso holds that the conversion of the pronunciation of the "x" in Mexicano was converted to.
Some believe that the word chicamo somehow became chicano, which, unlike chicamo, reflects the grammatical conventions of Spanish-language ethno- and demonyms, such as americano, castellano, or peruano. However, this is highly unlikely and Chicanos generally do not agree that "chicamo" was ever a word used within the culture as its assertion is thus far entirely unsubstantiated. Therefore, most Chicanos do not agree that Chicano was ever derived from the word "chicamo". In fact, it is common knowledge within most Mexican American communities that the term "Chicano" has been used for centuries as an indigenous self-identifying reference. There is ample literary evidence to further substantiate that Chicano is a self-declaration as a large body of Chicano literature exists with publication dates far predating the 1950s. There is also a substantial body of Chicano literature that predates both Raso the Federal Census Bureau.
As stated in the Handbook of Texas:
- "According to one explanation, the pre-Columbian tribes in Mexico called themselves Meshicas, and the Spaniards, employing the letter x (which at that time represented a sh and ch sound), spelled it Mexicas. The Indians later referred to themselves as Meshicanos and even as Shicanos, thus giving birth to the term Chicano."
Thus far, the origins of the word remain inconclusive as the term is not widely used outside of Mexican American communities, further indicating that the term in primarily a self-identifying description.
Meanings
The term's meanings are highly debatable, but most Chicanos view the term as a positive self-identifying social construction. Outside of Mexican American communities the term might take on subjective view but usually consists of one or more of the following elements:
Ethnic identity
From a popular perspective, the term Chicano became widely visible outside of Chicano communities during the American civil rights movement, although it was commonly used as a historical point of reference within those communities for some time, during the mid 1960s by Mexican American activists <ref>Moore, J. W., & Cuéllar, A. B. (1970). Mexican Americans. Ethnic groups in American life series. Englewood, Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. p. 149. </ref>, who, in attempt to reassert their civil rights, rid the word of its polarizing negative connotation, and reasserted a unique ethnic identity and political consciousness, reconfiguring its meaning by proudly identifying themselves as Chicanos.
Political identity
According to the Handbook of Texas:
Inspired by the courage of the farmworkers, by the California strikes led by César Chávez, 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.
At certain points in the 1970s, Chicano was the preferred, politically correct term to use in reference to Mexican-Americans, particularly in the scholarly literature. However, as the term became politicized, its use fell out of favor as a means of referring to the entire population. Since then, Chicano has tended to refer to politicized Mexican-Americans.
Sabine Ulibarri, an author from Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, once attempted to note that Chicano was a politically "loaded" term, although Ulibarri has recanted that assessment. In fact, most agree that Chicano is widely considered to be a positive term of honor by many.
Ambiguous identity
- 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!!"
- Bruce Novoa: "A Chicano lives in the space between the hyphen in Mexican-American", . . Houston: , 1990.
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 the United States while maintaining the cultural sense developed as a Latino-cultured U.S. born Mexican child.
Indigenous identity
- Ruben Salazar: "A Chicano is a Mexican-American with a non-Anglo image of himself."
- Leo Limón: "...because that's what a Chicano is, an indigenous Mexican American".
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.
Political device
- Reies Tijerina: "The Anglo press degradized the word 'Chicano'. They use it to divide us. We use it to unify ourselves with our people and with Latin America."
However, it should be noted that Reies Tijerina was a vocal claimant to the rights of Hispanics and Mexican Americans, and he remains a major figure of the early Chicano Movement.
Term of derision
Long a disparaging term in Mexico, the term Chicano gradually transformed from a class-based term of derision to one of ethnic pride and general usage within Mexican-American communities beginning with the rise of the Chicano movement in the 1960s. In their "Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia," Vicki Ruíz and Virginia Sánchez report that demographic differences in the adoption of the term existed; because of the prior vulgar connotations, it was more likely to be used by males than females, and as well, less likely to be used among those in a higher socioeconomic status. Usage was also generational, with the more assimilated third-generation members (again, more likely male) likely to adopt the usage. This group was also younger, of more radical persuasion, and less connected to a Mexican cultural heritage.
Outside of Mexican American communities, the term might assume a negative meaning if it is used in a manner that embodies the prejudices and bigotries long directed at Mexican and Mexican-American people in the United States. For example, in one case, a prominent Chicana feminist writer and poet has indicated the following subjective meaning through her creative work.
- Ana Castillo: "[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."
Ana Castillo has referred to herself as a Chicana, and her literary work reflects that she primarily considers the term to be a positive one of self-determination and political solidarity.
The Mexican archeologist and anthropologist Manuel Gamio reported in 1930 that the term chicamo (with an "m") was used as a derogatory term used by Hispanic Texans for recently arrived Mexican immigrants displaced during the Mexican revolution in the beginning of the early 20th century. At this time, the term Chicano began to reference those who took pride in their Mexican heritage, while the term Pochos referred (often pejoratively) to those who strongly advocated assimilation. See: Adalberto M. Guerrero, Macario Saldate, IV, and Salomon R. Baldenegro. "Chicano: the term and its meanings." A Paper Written for Hispanic Heritage Month. Arizona Association of Chicanos for Higher Education 1999 conference Newsletter.
In Mexico the term is associated with a Mexican-American person of low importance class and poor morals. The term Chicano is not widely known or used in Mexico since indigenous groups which originated the term are a very small minority of the country's largely mestizo population.
Synonyms
The following terms are often used in conjunction with Chicano:
La raza (literal translation equates to "the race", however the terms technically refers directly to "La Raza Cosmica" a 1925 work written by José Vasconcelos referring to the "the human race," which also connotes "el pueblo" or "la gente", both of which mean "the people"), which refers generally to the people of habla Hispana (Spanish speaking) America who share the cultural and political legacies of Spanish Colonialism, including the Spanish language and culture, and their descendants,as well as their Meso-American indigenous roots.)
- la raza de bronce ("the bronze race") (used to emphasize the "brown" or "bronze" Indigenous ancestry over their white or black ancestry)
- americanista (common in early twentieth-century)
- indigenist (common in early twentieth-century)
- la raza cósmica (the cosmic race)
Chicano has criss-crossed to some from other Hispanic/Mexican-American communities: Some who may identify themselves as Californio, Hispano, Isleño, Mexican Texian, New Mexico Spanish, Spanish American and Tejano. The word chico, not "Chicano", as some Anglos commonly confuse the term, is sometimes described for a child of Mexican immigrants, or resides in urban areas of (esp. Southern) California, Colorado and Arizona, or from a Mestizo instead of fully Spanish background. One must note that Chicano most likely originated though from Northwest Indiana in the mid 19th century.
Please note that this section does not cite any references or sources, with the exception of Vasconcelos.
Rejection
While many Mexican Americans embrace the term Chicano, others prefer to identify themselves as:
- American (sometimes the term first like "American-Mexican")
- American of Mexican descent
- Hispanic
- Hispanic American
- Hispano/a
- Latino/a
- Latin American
- Mexican(o/a)
- Mexican American
- Spanish
- Spanish American
- "Brown" people, race, pride, etc.
- Californio, Nuevomexicano (New Mexico Spanish) or Tejano/a.
- Norteno as in the Mexicans referred the Southwest U.S. as el Norte, although anyone from the U.S. is NorteAmericano, since Mexico and Latin America (Central and South) long identified themselves as Americanos. Mexican Americans don't actually call themselves Nortenos. In fact the only group that identifies themselves as Nortenos are chicanos from Northern California. Many people presume they are a gang, when in truth they are a culture of over 300 years of Mexicans in Northern California, 400 years of spainards in Northern California, And over 2000 years of native Americans in Northern California wrapped up into one.
According to some Neo-Conservative American groups that aim to strip Mexican Americans of the term Chicano, the reasons for rejecting the term Chicano are supposedly numerous and varied, however most groups generally associate the term with the American civil rights movement and more directly associate the word with the Left-wing politics of the 1960s and 1970s. Supposedly, some families, particularly in the state of New Mexico, have attempted to trace their ancestry back to the original Spanish settlers of the colonial era.
Another alternative indicates that the generation of Chicano and Chicano culture is only preserved and prolonged by academics, which is in turn only perceived as an appreciation of the historical context of the Chicano movement. It is far more likely to find someone living in California that identifies themselves as a Chicano than to find a Mexican-American living in Montana that will identify themselves as Chicano. This signals that the usage of the term Chicano is geographical and has to do with sharing a common heritage in a specific place and time. Because of some derogatory connotations associated with the term Chicano, many choose not to identify themselves as Chicanos. The strong loyalty with Chicano identity is generational (from a generation of the Chicano movement), some generations choose to disassociate themselves with this connotation. From this perspective, it is believed that it is now only a personal decision one makes of whether to identify themselves as Chicanos, whether this comes from their heritage, personal experience or a personal attachment to Chicano culture.
Social aspects
Chicanos, regardless of their generational status, tend to connect their culture to the Indigenous peoples of North America and to a nation of Aztlán. According to the Aztec legend, Aztlán is a region; Chicano nationalists have equated it with the Southwestern United States. Some historians may to place Aztlán in Nayarit or the Caribbean while other historians entirely disagree, and make a distinction between legend and the contemporary socio-political ideology.
Whether this is true is still studied by archaeologists who studied ruins of ancient Amerindian civilizations in Arizona (the Hohokam), California (the Imperial and Palo Verde valleys), Colorado (Mesa Verde national park), Nevada, New Mexico, Texas (the El Paso area) and southern Utah. To actually pinpoint the exact location of the mythical land of "Aztlan" might produce further vindication to Chicano and Mexican nationalists.
Political aspects
Many currents came together to produce the revived 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,Corky Gonzales and Reies Tijerina stirred up old tensions about New Mexican land claims with roots going back to before the Mexican-American War. Simultaneous movements like the Young Lords, 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.
Since Chicanismo covers a wide array of political, religious and ethnic beliefs, and not everybody agrees with what exactly a Chicano is, most new Latino immigrants see it as a lost cause, as a lost culture, because Chicanos don't identify with Mexico or wherever their parents migrated from like new immigrants do. So in essence new immigrants are not Chicanos and their kids will not be Chicanos because Chicanoism is now only being prolonged by academics; it's an appreciation of a historical movement.
For some, Chicano ideals involve a rejection of borders. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 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. 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.
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. Hurtado Chicano identity has expanded from its political origins to incorporate a broader community vision of social integration and nonpartisan political participation.
The shared Spanish language, Catholic faith, close contact with their political homeland Mexico to the south, a history of labor segregation, ethnic exclusion and racial discrimination encourage a united Chicano or Mexican 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 literary, artistic, and musical movements that emerged with the Chicano Movement.
Literature
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, while José Antonio Villarreal's Pocho is widely recognized as the first major Chicano/a novel. Other important writers in the genre include Rudolfo Anaya, Sandra Cisneros, Gary Soto and Oscar Zeta Acosta.
Arts
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. Rasquache art is a unique style subset of the Chicano Arts movement.
One of the most powerful and far-reaching cultural aspects 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 arrival 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.
Alternative Stories
In New Mexico or Nuevo Mexico or by its colonial term Nueva Espana, the term Chicano is synonymous with the term Mestizo. The ancestral stories indicate that mestizo and chicano are terms to describe peoples of the new world or mixed-blood. Mestizo is widely taught and passed down in the modern Barrios or as some spell it Varios of the valle de Albuquerque the terms literally mean mixed-tongued. Usually in the New Mexico areas many families trace their lineage from Spanish conquistadors or expeditions settlers and intermarriage with native populations; more so and more directly with the Pueblo Indian culture. (In fact today most sacred and public, traditional ceremonies or gatherings are a unique mixture of Spanish Catholic and Pueblo Indian traditions, most notably the Matachines or holy dancers. The matachines are the prime example of Roman Catholic traditions merging with traditional Kachina of Kiva dances of the Pueblo Indians. Today major matachine ceremonies occur in the Town of Bernalillo which is the county seat for Sandoval County in the state of New Mexico; as well a major matachine ceremonies held in several pueblos such as San Ildelfonso or the pueblos of Picuris, Santa Clara and San Juan. Some argue that the matachines also have a basis in Apache crown dancers, however ancestral stories from the modern Pueblo peoples indicate that crown dancing was a stolen tradition as the terms Apache and Navajo are considered ancient Pueblo words for 'enemy,' 'thief,' or even more derogatory, 'bastard.' It is known that the Tewa, Tiwa, Towa, Picuris, Keres, Zuni and other Pueblo lineages had considerable war-fare with the Navajos or Dine and the Apaches or Ende. This relates to historic accounts and old stories indicating that the Navajo and Apache peoples are descendant of Athabascan raiders and refugees that settled on traditional Chaco or Pueblo lands thus causing an ongoing dislike among the New Mexican native populations. Spanish settlers adopted this hatred for Navajos and Apaches since they were now intermarried with pueblo peoples and thus were also victims to the notorious and sometimes deadly raids the tribes would perpetuate against both pueblo and Spanish settlers.) Chicano is widely considered to have its basis and origin in the lands of New Mexico more aptly in the urban settlements of Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Las Cruces, Socorro, Santa Rosa, and Tierra Amarilla New Mexico to name a few. Many contemporary chicano writers indicate the term refers to Mexican-American peoples, however in New Mexico Chicano refers simply to those of direct Spanish and Pueblo descent and is considered 'very' different from Mexican-American; perhaps relating to the conflicts of traditional Spanish settlements in New Mexico that did not agree or even assist the populations of modern Mexico in their fight for independence, and remained loyal to the Spanish Emperial Crown. (In fact many local New Mexican historians argue if this generated the hated Spanish term 'Mojado' or in its English form, 'wet-back.') The ideology of Atzlan is more so a contemporary California-Chicano-Mexican-American concept since New Mexicans show loyalty to the Pueblo tribes and historically the Aztec tribes never reached New Mexico however the Pueblos are known to have traded with them, and in some ancient stories the Aztecs are considered 'out-casted' pueblo peoples because they believed in human sacrifice and the other pueblos exiled them to the southern deserts. In fact Aztlan has no basis in North American since California was not associated with Aztec, Olmec, Zapotec or any other Mexican Tribal nation but had their own native groups such and Pipa Aha Macav better known as the Mojave people or Fort Mojave people, the Hohokam, the Paiute, Cocopah, Pai peoples, etc who today look upon their sacred holy lands being described as 'Aztlan' as derogatory, since they were ancient enemies with the Aztecs who tried at one point to invade but failed against the combined strength of the northern tribes. Though debatable Chicano is a term that is definitely rooted in the modern tongue, and will probably be around for many more generations. Chicano in New Mexico is not solely an identity of anti-assimilation or radical term of protest, rather its a culture in itself, with its own set of beliefs, its own ceremonies, and stories. Chicano today is widely used to describe those of Spanish descent living in New Mexico, Arizona and southern Colorado, even in Texas, however NuevoMexicanos make clear the dichotomy from Tejanos. Chicano is a favored self-identifying term over Raza, Hispanic, Mexican, Latino which fall short for the peoples of New Mexico in grasping the complexities and the deep historical rooting in both European and New World ideologies, a unique culture born of the conquests, and has endured in the hearts of modern New Mexicans for 500 years.