Commitment to activism, consciousness, and cultural pride; the three defining characteristics of the traditional Chican@ definition. With such brevity, its easy for one to overlook the imperative value that this definition had to its identifiers. To be Chican@, was not just a geographical symbol, but rather an identity based on political culture that impacted the everyday choices of these individuals. As displayed within Rodolfo Corky Gonzales’s “I Am Joaquin”, the poem and the traditional Chican@ definition are almost parallel to one another, however Gonzalez’s piece depicts the Chican@ identity to contain various classifications including one to be a Mexican American male, catholic, that faced systematic oppression, in order to be distinguished
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The Chican@ identity was the beginning of an onset of various social movements aimed at earning political and social rights that were not granted to the Chicna@ people within the United States. Moreover, one aspect of the traditional Chican@ definition is comprised of having cultural pride in the Mexican culture with acknowledgement to the Mestizaje (Romero, PPT, 9/28/15). Cultural pride is an area of the Chican@ definition that is especially important because it enables people to be proud and accept who they are, rather then just switch their identity to one that may be less “problematic” (Romero, PPT, 9/28/15). This pride in one’s identity plays a essential role in encouraging their efforts to attain their rights rather then just accept what they are being deprived of. For example, Reies Lopez Tijerina played an immense role in striving towards attaining dignity to the Treaty of Guadalupe, in an effort towards gaining an equal playing field on the areas of education, and land attainment. As mentioned by Chao-Romero, this pride in one’s identity has lead many to recognize that the Chicano@ community face harder circumstances in terms of access to the “pond” (Romero, PPT, 10/12/15). Nonetheless cultural pride to this day motivates many to work towards equality. This aspect of the definition in itself is immensely crucial because it reinstates the importance about the various historical times …show more content…
Legal change is one of the biggest parts to the definition, because it brought attention to the many areas of the Chican@ community that were being undoubtedly suppressed. Some of these “Anti Mexican Laws” included the Greaser law passed in CA in 1855 where “persons commonly known as greasers who are vagrants and who go armed, may be punished”, this in itself provided an excuse to seize Mexican Lands, and was a precursor to racial profiling (Romero, PPT, 10/19/15). Moreover, another law overturned the requirement that California state laws be translated into Spanish, which was a forerunner to the English only movement. (Romero, PPT, 10/19/15). However, with all these constraints in mind this idea of commitment to activism is clearly displayed within the Chican@ Youth Liberation conference where youth from across the country were present, and helped to advocate cultural nationalism and the new social identity of Chicano. (Romero, PPT, 11/9/15). This conference alone displays a huge impact as a result of the Chican@ identity, because this was the birth of many Chicano civil rights movements to come, such as the Chicano War Moratorium, The Chicano Student Movement and the East L.A. Walkouts…. The power of this Chicano identity as expressed in “I Am
The Chican@ identity was the beginning of an onset of various social movements aimed at earning political and social rights that were not granted to the Chicna@ people within the United States. Moreover, one aspect of the traditional Chican@ definition is comprised of having cultural pride in the Mexican culture with acknowledgement to the Mestizaje (Romero, PPT, 9/28/15). Cultural pride is an area of the Chican@ definition that is especially important because it enables people to be proud and accept who they are, rather then just switch their identity to one that may be less “problematic” (Romero, PPT, 9/28/15). This pride in one’s identity plays a essential role in encouraging their efforts to attain their rights rather then just accept what they are being deprived of. For example, Reies Lopez Tijerina played an immense role in striving towards attaining dignity to the Treaty of Guadalupe, in an effort towards gaining an equal playing field on the areas of education, and land attainment. As mentioned by Chao-Romero, this pride in one’s identity has lead many to recognize that the Chicano@ community face harder circumstances in terms of access to the “pond” (Romero, PPT, 10/12/15). Nonetheless cultural pride to this day motivates many to work towards equality. This aspect of the definition in itself is immensely crucial because it reinstates the importance about the various historical times …show more content…
Legal change is one of the biggest parts to the definition, because it brought attention to the many areas of the Chican@ community that were being undoubtedly suppressed. Some of these “Anti Mexican Laws” included the Greaser law passed in CA in 1855 where “persons commonly known as greasers who are vagrants and who go armed, may be punished”, this in itself provided an excuse to seize Mexican Lands, and was a precursor to racial profiling (Romero, PPT, 10/19/15). Moreover, another law overturned the requirement that California state laws be translated into Spanish, which was a forerunner to the English only movement. (Romero, PPT, 10/19/15). However, with all these constraints in mind this idea of commitment to activism is clearly displayed within the Chican@ Youth Liberation conference where youth from across the country were present, and helped to advocate cultural nationalism and the new social identity of Chicano. (Romero, PPT, 11/9/15). This conference alone displays a huge impact as a result of the Chican@ identity, because this was the birth of many Chicano civil rights movements to come, such as the Chicano War Moratorium, The Chicano Student Movement and the East L.A. Walkouts…. The power of this Chicano identity as expressed in “I Am