Chicano Movement
Riding the wave of the American Civil Rights movement, the Chicano Movement was not far behind. While it is well known that African American citizens were discriminated against heavily until Martin Luther King Jr. led a protest against it, it is much less common knowledge that Mexican Americans and other Americans of latin descent experienced a similar problem. The Chicano movement was a series of protests by Latin Americans to eliminate discrimination of all forms against people of Latin descent. This did not simply mean that they wanted to have the same water fountains and schools, they also demanded improved working conditions, wages, and even land grants.
Much like the Civil Rights movement, the Chicano movement precipitated from years of discrimination, finally pushing many citizens into making a stand. The Chicano movement particularly gained steam after World War II, where several Chicano soldiers who died fighting for the United States were denied funeral services. The movement also caught speed when migrant farmworkers such as Cesar Chavez finally decided they had to stand and fight.1
Farming conditions could be extremely brutal for Chicanos. After toiling all day in the fields, they would generally get paid very low wages, if they were paid at all. Furthermore, they were seen as farming tools rather than farmers. That being said, it wasn’t particularly important to an employer if a worker had a sick family member, no place to live, etc. Since many Chicanos were desperate for work, an employer could easily offer very low pay for a job and still get people to do it. However, this took a major toll on Chicanos. It was not uncommon for children to roam the streets looking for food, nor was it uncommon for Chicanos to die within their 40’s due to overworking. 2
The Essay on “Chicano” Mexican-American Movement
Chicano – a political term made popular in the sixties with the Chicano Civil Rights Movement which followed the example of the Black Civil Rights Movement. The people of the Movement adopted the word Chicano for themselves just as the African Americans had adopted Black. The Chicano Movement fought for all people of the Southwest of Mexican descendancy. These people included those whose ...
Cesar Chavez, a man who started working on farms at the age of 15, was a major leader of the Chicano Movement. By the age of 19, he had joined his first farm workers union. In 1962, at the age of 35, Chavez co-founded the National Farm Workers Association along with Dolores Huerta. Chavez encouraged Californian farm workers to fight for better working conditions. However, he, like Martin Luther King Jr., believed in nonviolent protest. Rather than burning down the farms in which he worked, Chavez would go on hunger strikes to show America how determined he was. Also much like Martin Luther King Jr., Chavez was a very religious man, but he did not try to back his side of the protest with God. Rather, he would use reason and common sense in an attempt to get America to give his people equal rights. Eventually earning Robert Kennedy’s support, Cesar Chavez played a big role in the Chicano movement.3
Another Chicano that played a large role in the movement was Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez. Rodolfo originally studied engineering. However, after he ran out of money to pay for college, Rodolfo went into boxing. Despite having an amazing record of 65-9-1, he was never given a shot at the featherweight title.4 Although he never had the opportunity to win the title, Rodolfo continued to strive throughout his life. In 1968 he held the first national Chicano youth conference, known as the Crusade for Justice.5 He also motivated young Chicanos through his epic poem Yo Soy Joaquin. This poem talked about what it was like to be a Chicano, oppressed and disadvantaged, but still finding hope in the world and working for a better future. This inspiring poem was extremely popular among Chicanos, and was used as a motivational tool to continue the push for equal rights.
A major issue for Chicanos was the issue of land. Many Chicanos who had legitimately bought land in the past had their land unrightfully taken by Anglo Americans. Reies Lopez Tijerina was an activist to reclaim these land grants for Chicanos. While not following the general trend of nonviolent protest, Tijerina was still effective. In his famous march from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, he was unsuccessful in his petition to the government to recover land from land grants. He then took a national forest that was originally part of a land grant. However, when forest rangers attempted to evict Tijerina from the forest, he and his men arrested and tried the rangers for trespassing. Tijerina and his men were eventually arrested for assault. Tijerina later staged a raid on a courthouse, but still proved to be ineffective. While Tijerina had good intentions, his tactics were highly ineffective, and only drove people into thinking that all Chicanos were violent and unreasonable.6
The Essay on Chicano Movement 2
The Chicano Movement of the 1960s, also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, is an extension of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement which began in the 1940s with the stated goal of achieving Mexican American empowerment.The Chicano Movement emerged during the Civil Rights era with three main goals: restoral of land, rights for farm workers and to education reforms.The Chicano Movement ...
Chicanos , while fighting for equal legal rights, also attempted to negate negative stereotypes about them. Rodolfo Gonzales inspired Chicanos everywhere to show that they were not dirty, lazy, or subhuman in any way. While this was a smaller concern among Chicanos, it was still a very important one, as without this effort Americans may have still discriminated against Chicanos based on untrue assumptions.
Finally, Chicanos fought for educational reform. Many Chicanos faced problems with the schooling program, including a lack of Chicano teachers, high dropout rates, and generally poorly built/maintained schools. Without an education, Chicanos felt that they had less potential as reformers7. Therefore, many Chicanos took it upon themselves to attempt to go beyond the education their schools offered, both in an attempt to better themselves and to better the situation for their fellow people.
Overall, the Chicano movement was successful and effective, just as the civil rights movement. With great leaders such as Cesar Chavez forcing the nation to pay attention and change, Chicanos had finally achieved a legal equality with other Americans. While discrimination against Chicanos was and is somewhat prevalent, it is now significantly less severe and rare than sixty years ago. No longer do we see people treating Chicanos like tools rather than people and getting away with it.
Bibliography
Portales, Marco. Crowding out Latinos : Mexican Americans in the public
The Review on Civil Rights Movement african americans 20th Century
Civil rights movement (African-Americans) 20th century The number of books, films, and other media that recount the Civil Rights Movement uniquely demonstrates Americas insatiable quest for knowledge about this unparalleled moment in our countrys recent past. In Partners to History: Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and the Civil Rights Movement, Donzaleigh Abernathy, the youngest ...
consciousness. Philidelphia: Temple University Press, 2000. Print.
Chicano! : the history of the Mexican American civil rights movement. Dir. KCET.
1996. National Latino Communications Center. Videocassette.
Mariscal, George. Brown-eyed children of the sun : lessons from the Chicano
movement. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005. Print.
Gonzales, Michael J. This small city will be a Mexican paradise : exploring the
origins of Mexican culture in Los Angeles. Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press, 2005. Print.
Endnotes
1. Portales, Marco. Crowding out Latinos : Mexican Americans in the public
consciousness. (Philidelphia: Temple University Press, 2000.) 23
2. For more information on Chicano farmworker’s working conditions, see Mariscal, George. Brown-eyed children of the sun : lessons from the Chicano
movement. Albuquerque: (University of New Mexico Press, 2005.) 57
3 Chicano! : the history of the Mexican American civil rights movement. Dir. KCET.
1996. National Latino Communications Center. Videocassette.
4. Portales, 127
5.Portales, 132
6. Marsical, 159
7. Gonzales, Michael J. This small city will be a Mexican paradise : exploring the
origins of Mexican culture in Los Angeles. (Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press, 2005.) 95
