Chicano Origin
Who is a Chicano?
What does the term Chicano mean? Where does the term originate? Why have Mexican-Americans in the past objected to being known as Chicanos? Why do so many Mexican-Americans today take pride in being Chicanos? There questions are frequently asked when the subject of the Chicano Movement comes up. This paper will seek to clarify the origins and meaning of the term Chicano and attempts to explain some of the implications of being a Chicano. A Chicano is an individual (usually with a Spanish surname) of Mexican parentage or ancestry who lives in the United States. Chicano is often used synonymously with Mexican-American, although many Chicanos presently make an ideological distinction between the two terms.
Scholarly research …show more content…
The concept was that those Mexicans living in the U.S. were no longer truly Mexicanos because they had given up their country by living in Houston, Los Angeles, "Guada La Habra," or some other city. They were now something else and something less. Little satellite Mexicans living in a foreign country. They were something small. They were chicos. They were now Chicanos.
If you lived near the U.S.-Mexican border, the term was more or less an insult, but always some kind of insult. In the early days, the connotation of calling someone a Chicano was that they were poor, illiterate, destitute people living in tin shacks along the border. As soon as they could get a car loan and could move farther away from the border, the term became less of an insult over the years. But the resentment still lingered.
Some ask "Why can 't you people just all be Hispanic?" Same reason that all white people can 't just be called English. Just because you speak English or Spanish does not mean that you are one group. Hispanic is a census term that some dildo in a government office made up to include all Spanish-speaking brown people. It is especially annoying to Chicanos because it is a catch-all term that includes the Spanish conqueror. By definition, it favors European cultural invasion, not indigenous roots. It also includes all Latino groups, which brings us together because Hispanic annoys all Latino
What does the term Chicano mean? Where does the term originate? Why have Mexican-Americans in the past objected to being known as Chicanos? Why do so many Mexican-Americans today take pride in being Chicanos? There questions are frequently asked when the subject of the Chicano Movement comes up. This paper will seek to clarify the origins and meaning of the term Chicano and attempts to explain some of the implications of being a Chicano. A Chicano is an individual (usually with a Spanish surname) of Mexican parentage or ancestry who lives in the United States. Chicano is often used synonymously with Mexican-American, although many Chicanos presently make an ideological distinction between the two terms.
Scholarly research …show more content…
The concept was that those Mexicans living in the U.S. were no longer truly Mexicanos because they had given up their country by living in Houston, Los Angeles, "Guada La Habra," or some other city. They were now something else and something less. Little satellite Mexicans living in a foreign country. They were something small. They were chicos. They were now Chicanos.
If you lived near the U.S.-Mexican border, the term was more or less an insult, but always some kind of insult. In the early days, the connotation of calling someone a Chicano was that they were poor, illiterate, destitute people living in tin shacks along the border. As soon as they could get a car loan and could move farther away from the border, the term became less of an insult over the years. But the resentment still lingered.
Some ask "Why can 't you people just all be Hispanic?" Same reason that all white people can 't just be called English. Just because you speak English or Spanish does not mean that you are one group. Hispanic is a census term that some dildo in a government office made up to include all Spanish-speaking brown people. It is especially annoying to Chicanos because it is a catch-all term that includes the Spanish conqueror. By definition, it favors European cultural invasion, not indigenous roots. It also includes all Latino groups, which brings us together because Hispanic annoys all Latino