Mexican Americans and the Chicano Movement

Pre-Movement Mexican Americans:

• Believed in a capitalist society without rigid class distinctions.
• Individual success was dependent on abilities or shortcomings.
• Solutions were within their grasp, and progress was assured for those who sought it.
• They often had faith in American institutions.
• They held a strong anti-Communist or anti-foreign bias.
• They showed a disdain for militant ethnic or group consciousness.
• They believed in the fundamental goodness and "fairness" of American society, despite engaging in numerous reform campaigns.
• They attempted to reach out to the mainstream by:
  • Developing patriotic organizations.
  • Serving in the armed forces in large numbers.
  • Adopting American ideals.
  • De-emphasizing their national origins.
• Despite their efforts, they remained outside the mainstream, and the gap widened between them and other Americans.
• The liberal agenda de-Mexicanized them but failed to Americanize them as a group, allowing them into the mainstream as individuals but not as a community.
• Even this entrance had limited benefits, as Mexican Americans continued to be targets of racism and cultural insensitivity.
• Mexican Americans were allowed into the American mainstream to the degree that they rejected their "Mexicanness" or diluted their historical experience.
• A false historical experience became the "Spanish" missions, the fiestas, the Mexican participants in the Alamo, and the "Frito Bandito."

Chicano Activists:

• Lost faith in an abundant society.
• Rejected the notion of a classless America.
• Questioned the historical continuity with American society.
• Rejected the study of the Mexican "contribution" to American society and the philosophical similarities between Mexican Americans and Anglo-Americans.
• No longer saw the value of patriotism or of liberal leaders.
• Believed American institutions, such as the government, schools, churches, and social agencies, had failed.
• Considered American institutions inherently racist.
• Many lost faith in a pluralistic society, arguing that it meant diluting their cultural and philosophical ideas to belong to the whole, which remained dominated by those who believed in capitalism, regarded African Americans as the only oppressed minority, and had no historical understanding of the Mexican American experience.
• The rejection of the liberal agenda led to a search for new solutions that were oriented inward, born of experience, and based on cultural and philosophical tendencies native to the community.
• New leaders arose who were part of the community, and the organizations they founded shunned assimilation and sought legitimacy not from the integrationist middle class but from the nationalistic working class.
• These organizations accentuated their ethnic culture for organizing purposes and tended to be wary of liberal condescension.
• In rejecting the liberal agenda, Chicano activists sought to destroy the sense of inadequacy that many Mexican Americans felt in their relationship with mainstream society.
• This emboldened many to fill the vacuum of leadership that developed when Anglo-Americans and middle-class Mexican Americans lost legitimacy in the numerous barrios across the country.
• Numerous organizations competed with integrationist organizations:
  • Crusade for Justice in Colorado
  • La Raza Unida Party in Texas
  • Alianza Federal de Pueblos Libres in New Mexico
  • League of United Latin American Citizens
  • American G.I. Forum
  • Political Association of Spanish-Speaking Organizations
• Other organizations staked out a ground between the two extremes:
  • Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
  • Southwest Voter Registration and Education Drive
  • Mexican American Democrats

Reinterpreting the Past:

• Mexican American activists saw a need to reinterpret the past.
• They believed Mexican Americans could overcome their powerlessness only if they could see themselves as a historical people with heroes, legends, triumphs, and legacies.
• Chicano historians discovered old heroes and reinterpreted old events through a new nationalist framework that made Mexican Americans active participants in history.
• This reinterpretation led Mexican Americans to discard the stereotypes of the lazy, passive, manana-oriented mexicano and replace it with the proud, historically rich Chicano or Chicana, who was ready to fight for his or her community.
• Scholars, writers, dramatists, poets, and essayists found new protagonists in the forgotten history.
• They discovered revolutionists, journalists, lawyers, union organizers, and others who had fought against an overwhelming.