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The Chicano Movement And The Civil Rights Movement

Decent Essays

The Chicano movement is a Civil Rights movement that embodied the identification of Latino Americans in the United States. In the modern day, most people wouldn’t know about the struggle that Latino’s had to endure before being recognized by their diverse nature. However, the Chicano movement, just like the Civil Rights Movement, was a significant part of equality within the United States over the course of the past half a century. The Chicano movement had its roots dating all the way back to when the United States were attempting their Manifest Destiny from which they went to war with Mexico for the land now known as the south west of the United States. Ever since then, the United States had been treating Mexican’s and Mexican American’s without a regard for their existence. While Latino’s are finally beginning to receive recognition for it’s vast diversity, Latino’s nationwide still face the uphill battle against ignorance. The Chicano Movement aimed to gear towards equality for Latinos as human beings in the United States. As recently as the 1930’s, Latino American’s were not allowed to attend the same schools as Caucasian American students. This caused major outrage nationwide due to Latino Americans not receiving the same rights as their Caucasian American counterparts. One major case that stimulated protest for educational change for Chicano youth was Westminster v. Mendez in 1947. This case was brought upon after the child of Mr. Gonzalo Mendez named Sylvia Mendez

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