Discrimination In The Chicano Movement

Chicanos’ incorporation into the U.S. has been plagued by discrimination. Chicanos have been systematically oppressed, but they have not let themselves be victimized. Chicanos have not succumbed in the face of oppression, but rather resisted their incorporation into the United States. The Chicano Movement empowered the people to seek change in the inequality imposed on them. Much progress was made economically, politically, and socially in the movement, and now after the movement art continues to forge this identity of resistance in the U.S. Chicanos’ resistance and progress is evident in the film and media industry and in the reclamation of their cultural identity.
Chicanos have faced a unique kind of discrimination in the United States

Their own film culture would encourage more Chicano filmmakers and lessen the damage created by stereotypes in the film industry (Berg 33). A Chicano film culture resists the past incorporation of Chicanos into the American industry and allows for a space to tell their own story and forge their identity. An excellent example of a film that does this is Walkout. Walkout is a film about Chicanos for Chicanos directed by a Chicano. The film tells the true story of the 1968 East L.A. walkouts, a successful protest against unjust conditions and opportunities for Chicanos. The director, Edward James Olmos, himself starred in the film Stand and Deliver, another true story set in an East L.A. high school, directed by Ramón Menéndez another Latino. The Chicano film culture is educational in that it has the powerful to inform on the complexities and history of Chicanos in response to their socioeconomic

Corky Gonzalez’s I am Joaquin was a powerful rallying cry against the socioeconomic conditions, especially in education. “Street hop” artists use music to express their “loco” identity discussed in “Barrio Locos: Street Hop and Amerikan Identity” by Pancho McFarland. Often politically charged, this rap is much like spoken word poetry. Music has often been associated with identity and history in the Latino culture like in corridos. In the modern setting, these artists continue to resist and tell their own stories. “Barrio loco” is quite a political term as it refers to the resistant class that has “the right to rebel” because of societal conditions. The economic and social construct are important for the street artists that choose to rebel as they are against the capitalist and colonizing empire, and they are not a part of other artists who have become a part of corporate America and are sell-outs (120-121). These sell-outs could be considered the incorporated into America, while the “barrio locos” resist. The street artists are concerned with assimilation and the preservation of their culture. There are generation anxieties about assimilation; there has been a discourse on this since the term “barriology” was used in the 1960s. There are questions Chicano youths face about if they are Chicano enough and Thief Sicario discusses the barriology test in his song “La Prueba” (123). The