Chicano Struggles

The Struggles of Being a Chicano
Each and every day is hard to live through since whatever that can happen to my family absolutely terrifies me. Being a Chicana in the late 1960s hasn’t been a bed of rose petals, but I’m seizing every opportunity America will grant me. One of the biggest challenges is arriving home one day and my family is no longer there and they’re deported back to Mexico. Another huge obstacle is discrimination, we’re often called demeaning terms by complete strangers and it’s difficult to understand why or how they could be so cruel to someone they don’t know. It’s been tough to also learn a whole new language than the one I had been accustomed to. English is difficult with their pronunciations and strange spelling

of such simple words. With the difficulty in English, some of my friends had trouble in school because everything was hard for them to understand and even when they tried to, it was just too much. Due to that deficiency, some opportunities in education are taken away because the white kids were better than us. Ultimately, we are human and we deserve equal rights, and that shouldn’t be taken away for the simple fact of where we’re from.
The mistreatment has been going on for ages, but it really hits close to home when I see my parents face unfair treatment every day of their lives. My mother has worked on a farm for longer than my own existence on this Earth. She’s hurt her back, pricked her fingers, and walked endlessly to pick the best crops for those rude Americans to eat. She deserves a better life than that and so do every Chicano/Chicana out there working so hard they bleed just to have dinner on the table. Many of my friends’ parents, as well as mine, are here to work, for better opportunities for both themselves and their children and the least they deserve is equal rights. MY parents should not have to continuously work and bleed if they are going to continue being horribly treated. My parents have helped make this economy the glorious one it is today, so they deserve their rights just like every Mexican-American out there.
We are Chicanos and whether or not that’s chosen to be accepted into society, we will have our fair treatment that is more than deserved. We are out in the fields doing back-aching work just to collect an amount so cheap, it’s difficult to eat. We are protesting among the downtown streets, fighting and begging that we can be equal in a racist-filled society that is terrible to endure. We are the students with heavy backpacks filled with books that are waiting for to fill our brains with new knowledge. We are working twice, maybe thrice as hard to be where the white folk are, to have the lifestyles they had handed down to them. We aren’t the white man’s laborer, only designed to do the work and be in dirt while they get to live their luxurious lives. We aren’t criminals, only being known for some petty crimes that were committed only because we lacked the funds to attain necessities. We aren’t hot-tempered because we allow ourselves to feel and react to the constant social injustices we face. We aren’t poor, even if we lack in funds we will always be rich in our culture and family for we stay true to ourselves. We are Chicanos, but we aren’t going to allow anyone but us to define who we are. We are children of immigrants and we will always be proud of that fact as we fight for the well-deserved equal rights.
As a Chicana, I understand that some of my people can be heavily flawed that it affects our movement as a whole.

There are cases where people surround themselves with dangerous people, and they then put themselves into troubling situations. Chicanos can affiliate with those in gangs and put their lives, as well as others, on the line just so they can belong through impressing others. Others can surround themselves with people who don’t care about what happens so they act to impress. My people have been criminals, murderers, and thieves and I, along with many others, am not proud of it. For that reason, we should have better rights that make everyone equivalent to another sister and brother. If we were equal, I wouldn’t have to lose a friend because they thought it would be cool to stand up to a racist cop with no morals. Equality among all helps set us Chicanos on the paths to righteousness, wanting to do better as a whole rather than individually. We wouldn’t have to be horrible people just to fit a stereotype only because we’re tired of being told about it to the point of becoming what is expected of

us.
Chicanos deserve equal rights because we have built this economy, brought character to this society to be treated fairly in it.

We are Chicanos who will continue to fight for our rights even if it means repeating ourselves through the walk of many cities. Yes, we aren’t perfect and have made huge mistakes that will always be remembered, but being treated better can motivate us to get our lives together and be greater overall. Now, we will stand up heavy with our pride and culture, and demand for those equal rights. We will be loud and share our story to million in order to have some act, amendment passed in our favor. We will have tear-stained cheeks and blistered feet, but we will go to hell and back just to get a taste of that “American

dream.”