I Am Joaquin Summary

On 1821, after attaining Independence from Spain, Mexico became conflicted with the U.S. A dispute over the boundary separating Mexico and the newly annexed Republic Texas was the main issue that drove Mexico and the United States to engage in a two-year long war from 1846-1848 (Vargas 79). The Mexican American War resulted in the defeat of Mexico and the loss of Mexico’s northern territories. The Treaty of Guadalupe was later negotiated which guaranteed Mexican the full rights of U.S. citizenship and the inviolable protection of their property rights. However, the United States failed to honor this latter part of the agreement by omitting Article 10 allowing the U.S. government to deny the explicit legitimacy of all Mexican land grants, creating

legal loopholes which resulted in the seizure of Mexican lands (Romero, 10/4/15). The loss of these Mexican Americans lands fostered the creation of social inequality for Mexican Americans and began the reign of an Anglo-dominated society that serves to oppress Chicanos. It was not until the 1960s, however, that Chicanos recognized this initial creation of inequality and those that followed, under the creation of the larger Chicano movement. The Chicano movement brought unity, nationalism, and cultural pride by addressing social and civil right issues. However, the Chicano social identity that arose in the 1960’s was not inclusive to Chicanas because they were not referred as active, revolutionaries, and women’s issues were not seen as imperative matters. Moreover, it did not acknowledge and encompass the transculturation of Central Americans and the contribution of transnational smuggling networks invented by the Chinese Mexicans. The Chicano social identity definition has to be altered and called Chicana/o- Latina/o to be inclusive, reflective, and accommodate all the configurations, and diverse expressions of people of Mexican and Latin American descent such as Chicanas, Central Americans, and Chinese Mexicans. At the beginning of my paper I will define Chicano social identity and examine its value in today’s society, secondly, I will highlight the strengths but also reveal its limitations concerning Chicanas, Asian Mexicans, and Central Americans and in the end I will focus on my recommendation on the revision of the traditional definition of Chicano social identity.
Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales wrote and published “I am Joaquin”, a poem that was the cornerstone of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement and was crucial to the expression and the emergence of Chicano identity.

Gonzales was able to give Chicanos a collective voice by uniting them under a single title to address and correct systemic injustices that affected their communities. “I Am Joaquin” brought about a new consciousness, unified, and propelled people to action during the Chicano Movement. In week one, Romero, introduced the three defining characteristics of the Traditional Chicana/o Social Identity, Cultural Pride, Consciousness, and Commitment to Activism. Cultural pride is having pride in Mexican culture, history and acknowledging mestizaje, or the process of mixture of Spanish and indigenous cultures. Consciousness is having an awareness that Chicanos/Latinos are and have been unfairly treated in a discriminatory manner and commitment to bringing social change. Commitment to activism is having a lifestyle of social activism and advocacy on behalf of Chicano/Latino community through education, law, politics, and medicine (Romero, 9/30/15). Despite the poem being a fundamental piece of the Chicano Movement, the movement recounts a vast majority of male expression of Chicano activism, history and culture. Gonzales failed to recognize roughly half the Mexican-American population. The representation of women was limited, the poem failed to address the issues of women in the movement, and neglected the pivotal role of women and Chicanas

ideology.