Chicano Movement
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The Chicano Movement of the 1960s, also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, also known as El Movimiento, it is an extension of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement which began in the 1940s with the stated goal of achieving "social liberation" and Mexican American empowerment.
Introduction
Socially, the Chicano Movement addressed what it perceived to be negative ethnic stereotype of Mexicans in mass media and the American consciousness. It did so through the creation of works of literary and visual art that validated the Mexican-American ethnicity and culture.
The Chicano Movement also addressed discrimination in public and private institutions. Early in the twentieth century, Mexican Americans formed organizations to protect themselves from discrimination. One of those organizations, the League of United Latin American Citizens formed in 1929 and remains active today.[1]
The movement gained momentum after World War II when groups such as the American G.I. Forum, which was formed by returning Mexican American veterans, joined in the efforts by other civil rights organizations.[2]
Mexican American civil rights activists achieved several major legal victories including the 1947 Mendez v. Westminster Supreme Court ruling which declared that segregating children of "Mexican and Latin descent" was unconstitutional and the 1954 Hernandez v. Texas ruling which declared that Mexican Americans and other racial groups in the United States were entitled to equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.[3][4]
The most prominent civil rights organization in the Mexican-American community is the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), founded in 1968.[5] Although modeled after the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, MALDEF has also taken on many of the functions of other organizations, including political advocacy and training of local leaders.
Student walkouts
After World War II, Chicanos began to assert their own views of the history and status of Mexicans in the United States and critically analyze what they learned in public schools.[6]
In the late 1960s, when the student movement was active around the globe, the Chicano movement brought about more or less spontaneous actions, such as the mass walkouts by high school students in Denver and East Los Angeles in 1968 and the Chicano Moratorium in Los Angeles in 1970.[7] There were also many incidents of walkouts outside of Los Angeles County. In Covina, California at a high school named Northview students marched to fight for the rights of their people.
Student and youth organizations
Chicano student groups such as United Mexican American Students (UMAS), Mexican American Youth Association (MAYA) in California, and the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) in Texas, developed in universities and colleges in the mid 1960’s. [8] At the historic meeting at the University of California, Santa Barbara in April of 1969, the diverse student organizations came together under the new name Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA). Student groups such as these were initially concerned with education issues, but their activities evolved to participation in political campaigns and to various forms of protest against broader issues such as police brutality and the U.S. war in Southeast Asia. [9] The Brown Berets, a youth group which began in California, took on a more militant and nationalistic ideology. [10]
Bibliography
- Yolanda Broyles-Gonzalez, El Teatro Campesino: Theater in the Chicano Movement (University of Texas Press, 1994).
- Ignacio M. García, Chicanismo: The Forging of a Militant Ethos Among Mexican Americans (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1997).
- Mario T. García, Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology, & Identity, 1930-1960 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989).
- George Mariscal, Brown-Eyed Children of the Sun: Lessons from the Chicano Movement, 1965-1975 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005).
- Carlos Muñoz, Jr., Youth, Identity, Power: The Chicano Movement (New York: Verso, 1989). ISBN 0-86091-913-7
- Juan Gómez Quiñones, Chicano Politics: Reality & Promise, 1940-1990 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990). ISBN 0-8263-1213-6
- F. Arturo Rosales, Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1996). ISBN 1-55885-201-8
- F. Arturo Rosales, Testimonio: A Documentary History of the Mexican-American Struggle for Civil Rights (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2000).
Notes
- ^ http://www.lulac.org/about/history.html
- ^ http://www.americangiforum.org/about.cfm
- ^ LatinoLA - Latino Hollywood - On Screen and Behind the Scenes
- ^ hhttp://www.oyez.org/cases/1950-1959/1953/1953_406/
- ^ http://www.maldef.org/about/index.htm
- ^ http://www.denver-rmn.com/millennium/0921mile.shtml
- ^ http://www.laep.org/access/attitudes/blowouts/index.html
- ^ Moore, J. W., & Cuéllar, A. B. (1970). Mexican Americans. Ethnic groups in American life series. Englewood, Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. p. 150. ISBN 0135794900
- ^ Moore, J. W., & Cuéllar, A. B. (1970). Mexican Americans. Ethnic groups in American life series. Englewood, Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. p. 150. ISBN 0135794900
- ^ Moore, J. W., & Cuéllar, A. B. (1970). Mexican Americans. Ethnic groups in American life series. Englewood, Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. p. 151. ISBN 0135794900