A Review of The Chicano Movement In the book The Chicano Movement several different authors come together to explain different events that happened during the Chicano Movement during the 50s, 60s, and 70s. The collection spreads across the country and provides specific examples and events that happened during the movement. All of the authors kept a similar vernacular so the articles were fairly easy to understand and follow. One of the strengths of the book is the specificity. I like how the authors hone in one specific area, or topic; there are no generalizations. Some of the topics that I read about include racism, protests, and schooling issues. The first chapter that I read was by Rosie C. Bermúdez and it is titled Alicia Escalante, …show more content…
Moreno and it is titled ¡Ya Basta! The Struggle for Justice and Equality. The article is about the Chicano Power Movement in Oxnard California between 1965 and 1975. The Chicana/o community in Oxnard was the backbone of the billion-dollar agricultural industry, and the children of farm workers were seeking justice and equality. The Chicano Power movement, also called the movimiento, took place all over the United States, but the Chicana/o youth that were involved traveled to Los Angeles to participate in marches, events, etc. It was encouraging for the youth to meet people like them from other cities. Moreno talks about how the people of Oxnard resisted acts of racial injustice, while fighting to bring equality. One of the main events that helped the people was the Great Society initiative, put on by Lyndon B. Johnson; the people used the War on Poverty programs to “empower themselves to demand social and political changes” (Moreno, 133). Moreno also talks about how Chicana/o people faced police brutality for decades. In 1968, Chicana/o youths had formed the Brown Berets, a group established to defend the community from police brutality. The Brown Berets were also there to “empower the community through educational and community programs” (Moreno, 133). The article sheds light on the specifics of one small area of the United States. It is nice to read about specifics, instead of getting a broad generalization. Moreno used understandable vernacular, while keeping his information
Chapter eight form the book From Indians To Chicanos by Diego Vigil, talks about the intact and stable social order. There are three subtopics in this chapter the first one is the industrialism and urbanization in classes. The second one is assimilation vs acculturation and the third one is the color of the intergroup that has to do with racism. All these subtopics are important because it was what made the social classes get united or separated.
Many Mexicans immigrated to the United States throughout the 1920’s forming their own communities like East Los Angeles. Throughout the years, they overcame hardships like segregation, bad stereotypes, etc. They created a movement for civil rights, where their culture began to flourish around the country, known as the Chicano Movement. One big contributor to the Chicano Movement is Cheech Marin. “Being a Chicano in Hollywood, my experience is that you're not given credit for any sophistication... You're just kind of some guy that just crossed the border, you know, on the back of a truck and that's it (Cheech Marin).” Cheech Marin has brought many talents to the Chicano community from the 1970’s to now. He is an author, actor, director, writer, and art collector. His most famous works include the famous comedy duo Cheech and Chong, his solo film Born in East L.A., and his wide-range collection of Chicano art.
This is critical for the readers to know the show the bias, injustice, and premeditated ignorance of the United States educational system. It also demonstrates that Chicano Studies is not important regardless of the Hispanic population in this supposed “free” country. It seems as if the Chicano Studies was made only to fail by keeping it under funded and understaffed. By doing so, it has an affect on keeping away good scholars to maintain the historical development of Hispanics in the United States as well as its own history.
This book was published in 1981 with an immense elaboration of media hype. This is a story of a young Mexican American who felt disgusted of being pointed out as a minority and was unhappy with affirmative action programs although he had gained advantages from them. He acknowledged the gap that was created between him and his parents as the penalty immigrants ought to pay to develop and grow into American culture. And he confessed that he got bewildered to see other Hispanic teachers and students determined to preserve their ethnicity and traditions by asking for such issues to be dealt with as departments of Chicano studies and minority literature classes. A lot of critics criticized him as a defector of his heritage, but there are a few who believed him to be a sober vote in opposition to the political intemperance of the 1960s and 1970s.
The years of injustices at the LAPD came to a head-on August 29, 1970, during an anti-Vietnam war protest went from a peaceful assembly of the Latino community until a disturbance made the LAPD spring into action to “keep the peace” — through violent means, according to Edward J. Escobar by employing tactics to like “... [charging] the crowd, shooting tear gas, and beating fleeing demonstrators with nightsticks.” (Escobar Par 2), to make crowds disperse which — unsurprisingly — caused panic which induced chaos. Up until the police had overreacted to a peaceful demonstration of civil disobedience and gathering of Chicanos against the government’s actions in Vietnam, there was nothing illegal being done, the only offense the protestors had committed was going against the government. Once the dust settled, police had arrested over one hundred people, forty people injured, and three lay dead or dying. One of the dead was Ruben Salazar (Escobar Par 2). Salazar was journalist killed by a tear gas canister was made a martyr who died at the hands of the LAPD because of his history of giving voices to the more vocal critics of the police. His death was used by Mexican-American activists who referred to themselves as Chicanos. The Chicano movement was in its infancy but was quickly growing because the tension between the LAPD and the Latino community was no longer one sided, the Chicano side was now organizing to fight for their rights, but the LAPD being the authority still had the upper-hand. According to Edward Escobar the LAPD engaged in intimidation tactics, investigations, and smear tactics to undermine the movement, but is was to no avail (Escobar Par 5). There did not result in a single successful prosecution of a major Chicano movement figure (Escobar Par 27). The police not only suppressed the Chicano community by trying the bring down the full power of
Although it is desirable to incorporate personal experiences of others to get a feel of the encounters that occurred to the typical or atypical individual within the Chicano movement, this does not entirely mean that the filmmakers left out those who studied the history of it. Historian Mario T. Garcia was a prominent addition in contributing to the historical experiences within the movement and brings in credibility. The concept of utilizing Chicanos who endured the reign of oppression and discussed their involvements to the impartiality efforts was a thrilling and clever one, there was still a need of a backbone in the factual side of it. By introducing an essence of experience, it generates a personal and emotional aspect in the documentary that can be unfavorable and stray from the informative attitude of a documentary. Having Garcia apart of the documentary grounds this enlightening dimension that insights as preventative measure which is an adept move on behalf of directors Luis Ortiz and Antonio
Moraga, Cherrie. “Queer Aztlan: the Reformation of Chicano Tribe,” in The Color of Privilege 1996, ed Aida Hurtado. Ann Arbor: University Michigan Press, 1996.
Fernandez, Lilia. "Introduction to U.S. Latino/Latina History." History 324. The Ohio State University. Jennings Hall 0040, Columbus, OH, USA. Address.
Imagine seeing 10,000 of your classmates walking out of your school because they wanted a better education - a better way of life. In the 1960s’ Chicano students were being “pushed out”(Esparza) of school or being pushed towards vocational programs. East L.A was home to schools were “one out of every four Chicano’s completed high school”(Esparza). Instructors and the school board alike did not have an interest in helping Chicanos finish school to become someone other than a laborer and was expected of them to keep being a laborer. In “Taking Back the Schools”, Sal Castro a high school counselor claims, “I think the bottom line is the lack of concern of the teachers towards the kids and whether the kids were really getting an education or not...the reality set in that the teachers weren’t really concern for the kids.”(Esparza).
Torres, Hector Avalos. 2007. Conversations with Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Writers. U.S.: University of New Mexico press, 315-324.
The Chicano Movement, like many other civil rights movements, gained motivation from the everyday struggles that the people had to endure in the United States due to society. Mexican-Americans, like many other ethnicities, were viewed as an inferior group compared to white Americans. Mexican-Americans sought to make a change with the Chicano Movement and “the energy generated by the movement focused national attention on the needs of Mexican-Americans” (Bloom 65). The Mexican-American Movement had four main issues that it aimed to resolve and they ranged from “restoration of la...
The year of 1967 witnessed the formation of a puissaint AN organization tCALLED hat went by the name Tthe Brown Berets was formed. This revolutionary group was pro-Chicano and played a major role in The Chicano Civil Rights Movement, in the 1960’s. The nickname “Chicano” is traditionally used to identify those who have Mexican origin. Many Mexican Americans and other people of Latin American decent use this name to describe themselves with pride. This powerful group wanted to make a great change in society by demanding better communities, better education, and overall better treatment for Chicanos. They wanted to protest as peacefully as they could but that was not always possible with the amount of police brutality they would receive. The Brown Berets took a great stand in history by challenging society with their actions and fighting for their ideals.
To demonstrate the increase of the Mexican American neighborhood violence there were 200 sailors in East Los Angeles who were searching for Mexican Americans to assault. For example, The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) responded to the incident and arrested them, but released the sailors (Chiodo 3). There were many cases in which the Mexican Americans were assaulted by the sailors, in their own neighborhood and the police proceeded to arrest only the Mexican Americans. With this in mind, Sal Salvador saw when a couple was walking down the street and two sailors tried to pull down the pants of the Mexican American woman. It took the police five minutes to get to the scene but instead of arresting the sailors they arrested the Mexican American couple (The Start of Mexican American Gangs in Los Angeles, CA). The Los Angeles police department was bias during the Zoot Suit Riots by favoring the sailors for being war-heroes and on account of the majority of them were white. In other words, a police officer said, “You can say that the cops had a “hands-off” policy during the riots. Well, we represented public opinion. Many of us were in the First World War, and we are not going to pick on the kids in the service” (People & Events: The Zoot Suit Riots of 1943). This is a perfect example of the favoritism sailors received, owing to the police sharing a connection with them. Many of the sailors
In “One Crazy Summer” by Rita Williams-Garcia, the topic, African-American Civil Right Movement is taught to the readers by the setting. As the main character, Delphine and her sisters, Vonetta and Fern travel to Oakland, California in the 1960's. There they visit their mother and see the Black Panthers, a group who fought for black rights. Delphine and her sisters go to the center, run by the Black Panthers, daily. This new setting causes the girls become involved in their Civil Rights and the Black Panthers.
Again we would see the celebration of Dia De Los Muertos. In the 1970s, Self Help helped encourage the art that participated. It helped bring to community together and create large ensemble of art, parades, and festivals revolving around in the Chicano community.