Political Challenges Of The Chicano Movement

Many Chicanos remember their civil rights movement and many Chicano writers wrote about Chicano movement. A famous Chicano writer, Rodolfo Corky Gonzales wrote a poem, “I am Joaquin”. This poem describes Chicanos struggles and social discrimination at 1960s. When I read this poem, I could find similarity with Gloria Serna’s story and could think about Chicanos feeling.

In the hallways, a number of students emerged out of their classes. Not a lot, but more than [he] imagined. (179-180). The walkout was a tactic Luis and TohMAS, a group of Hispanics thought wanted social justice, used to try to fight for Hispanic rights. This shows that Luis, people that were considered outcasts, and minorities are qualified for improving their society.

One of the many similarities about the Mexican American Civil Rights movements and the Chicano Movement in the 60s- 70s is that they fought for what they believed they had a right to have. Many in the 1940’s and in the 1960’s stepped up to show their loyalty to the United States by joining the military and sadly manly lost their lives during World War II and the Vietnam War. They were many Mexican Americans who were stationed in infantry and many dangerous areas during the war. They all fought with courage and fought with heart to accomplish the same goal each soldier had. Even though both the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement and the Chicano Movement seemed to have many similarities, they had many differences. I argue that The Chicano Movement and The Civil Rights Movement are different in many ways because they fought for different motives and wanted a better life for themselves as Mexican Americans in America. They of course had many similarities but took different extremes.

The Hispanic population in America has reached more than twenty-one million and is constantly growing, yet they continue to face constant discrimination and “are widely perceived as the drugs of society.” (Chavez, Pg. 57) Chavez declares that Hispanic advocates focus more on the idea of their community’s suppression rather than highlight how Latinos contribute to American society and their admirable efforts in reaching such feats. Research has shown that “the words Hispanic or Latino occurred in close connection with the word poverty” in more than eighteen hundred stories found in print media. (Chavez, Pg. 58)

During the 1970’s, Mexican Americans were involved in a large social movement called the "Chicano movement." Corresponding with the great development of the black civil rights movement, Mexican Americans began to take part in a series of different social protests in which they demanded equal rights for themselves. Composed mainly of Mexican American students and youth, these activists focused on maintaining a pride for their culture as well as their ethnicity to fuel their political campaign. Left out of this campaign initially though were Mexican immigrants.

Chavez uses the “Latino Threat Narrative” to compare the Hispanics to the “German language threat, the Catholic threat, the Chinese and Japanese language threat, and the southern and eastern European threats.” He suggests that “each was pervasive and defined “truths” about the threat posed by immigrants that, in hindsight, were unjustified or never materialized in the long run of history.” Chavez was trying to explain that the Hispanic would pattern these other threats by upsetting the America people. He states that “… the Latino Threat Narrative is part of a grand tradition of alarmist discourse about immigrants and their perceived negative impacts on society.”

Mexican American empowerment was the goal of The Chicano Movement of the 1960s, it was a civil rights movement extending the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. During this movement there were three goals that were achieved, which was land was restored, education reforms were gained and the rights for farm workers. . Latinos lacked influence in the national political arena prior to the 1960’s but that changed when the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA) were diligent in working to get John F. Kennedy elected president in 1960, which in turn established Latinos as a significant voting bloc. Once in office Kennedy had shown his gratitude towards the Latino community by addressing their concerns of the Hispanic community

In his book Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice, Ian F. Haney Lopez studies the change that in racial politics brought about by the Chicano movement. He examines why Chicano activists embrace their identity as members of the Brown race, an action that is a rejection of previous generations ' attempts to gain civil rights by claiming to be White. He analyzes this racial transformation in the context of race as a socially constructed idea meant to preserve power dynamics.

In American history, civil rights movements have played a major role for many ethnics in the United States and have shape American society to what it is today. The impact of civil rights movements is tremendous and to an extent, they accomplish the objectives that the groups of people set out to achieve. The Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement, more commonly known as the Chicano Movement or El Movimiento, was one of the many movements in the United States that set out to obtain equality for Mexican-Americans (Herrera). At first, the movement had a weak start but eventually the movement gained momentum around the 1960’s (Herrera). Mexican-Americans, also known as Chicanos, began to organize in order to eliminate the social barriers that

More than a century of prejudice against one of the largest minority residing in the United States that continues today. To these days Hispanics are targets of discrimination and are not offer equal opportunities in jobs and education. The roots of discrimination go back to the end of the Mexican War when thousands of Mexicans became American citizens overnight. The sign of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo not only transfer land to the United States but also the people that live there before it became territory of the United States. These people began to suffer from discrimination in their owl land. Their sons and daughters did not have better luck because even thought they were born in the United States therefore they are American citizens

The Chicano power movement of the 1960's is characterized by Carlos Munoz, jr. as a movement led by the decedents of Mexican Americans who pressed for assimilation. These young people, mostly students, became tired of listening to school rhetoric that stressed patriotism when they were being discriminated against outside the classroom. Unlike their parents, the young people of the Chicano movement did not want to assimilate into mainstream America and lose their identity, they wanted to establish an identity of their own and fight for the civil rights of their people.

The presence of Latino leaders in all levels of government is necessary in order to have advocates who will represent the needs of the Latino community. Although the Latino population is on the rise and quickly becoming one of the largest ethnic minorities in the United States, the ethnic and racial backgrounds of leaders in government positions are not reflective of our nation’s diversity. Leadership can be developed within the Latino community by individuals who are active participants, have strong roots in their community, and

The Latino Threat is a concept of an imposing threat of the Latino, whether they be from Mexico or any other Latin country, and how they affect the U.S. and its citizens. This concept is described heavily Leo R. Chavez’ book aptly titled The Latino Threat. In the book, he describes how the Latino threat as a concept has been used routinely to underline the aspect of United States citizenship in a tit for tat manner; that being dehumanizing the Latino to raise the standing of U.S. citizenship. The U.S. as a nation believes it should feel better about itself because it is the one that turns people away rather than being the place where people run from. Over the history of America this isolationist view on illegal immigrants has waned and

Hispanics have been arriving in the United States since the late 1800's, but it was not until the 1950s that a great surge of Hispanics immigrated to the United States. They arrived during a time where racial tensions in the United States were at an all-time high. The discrimination facing African Americans who were fighting for their civil liberties interfered with Hispanics' adaption to a new country. To differentiate themselves from the White Americans and from the bigotry against African Americans, the term Hispanic was coined. This allowed them to have their own

Several say that Hispanics are coming to America to take all the jobs, as well to take full advantage of all the benefits the United States offer like welfare and section 8 housing. It’s sad to see how Hispanics are treated differently since there a different ethnicity. This discrimination will keep happening due to that the government system is corrupt, and because they don’t assign stricter sentences when it comes to racism or hatred crimes towards Hispanics. Although, if it was the other way around for Hispanics or African Americans being racist towards the white people or do hateful crimes to them, then it would totally be a big deal.