The Chicano Movement Analysis

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The Chicano history is a history of transformation based on conquest and struggle under a racial hierarchy. The Anglo-Americans’ intentions of creation of this racial foundation and segregating culture was to justify their act of assigning socio-economic functions to Mexican-Americans, limiting them to a cycle of exploitation and poverty. The meaning behind the contradiction of double aims was identified in El Plan de Santa Barbara’s manifesto and Menchaca’s Recovering History, which emphasized the neglect and distortion of Mexican-American history as a political act by Anglo-Americans to generate a negative, inferior image of these minorities, in comparison to their progressive “American” culture. This ultimately kept the two cultures unreconciled, …show more content…

This limited them to a cycle of impoverishment and the idea that Anglo-Americans assign socio-economic functions. The Chicano movement was formed to address the injustice in society and acted through a series of protests. The act to “move against those forces which have denied us freedom of expression and human dignity” (EPDSB, 9) is an example of engaging in praxis. Praxis is simultaneously acting and reflecting with the ultimate goal of transforming the community to embrace this new ideology of being a Chicano. Without praxis, the cost of the American dream would be assimilation. Du Bois explains the pros in which engaging in American culture means having opportunities Americans are advantaged with, specifically higher education; This was described when Du Bois states “He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa” (Du Bois 1), however it would also mean losing part of one’s …show more content…

This is exemplified in Rich’s article regarding the lack of Latino representation in books which led students to thinking their “values as not belonging in school” (Rich, 3). Tokenism is not a solution, and depicting Latinos of their stereotype is merely another form of transferring ahistorical facts. Without education, history will be neglected and Chicano would not be re-signified, but continue to enforce boundaries and leave the double aims unresolved. With the absence of Chicano representation, history would remain ahistorical in the hands of Anglo-Americans who have generated “deficit thinking discourses in efforts to blame Mexican Americans for the social and economic problems” (Menchaca, 15). This refers to Du Bois’ blaming the victim in which underrepresented groups were blamed for their status due to their beliefs and were denied of their contribution in the nation’s infrastructure. There is the issue of choosing one culture over the other, because one will either be criticized by their peers for assimilating, or remain excluded from opportunities. The basis of American Negro history is strife, similar to the Chicanos being struggle. Both require the community to acknowledge this adversity, and to reflect and understand why the system functions that way and what needs to be done to enact changes and transform the community’s way of

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