The History of Chicano Music
The History of Chicano Music
My both my father and uncle were in their prime during the 1960s and 70s during the Chicano Movement. My father had me growing up listening to dedications Art Laboe 's Killer Oldies every Sunday night. My uncle traveled throughout California with bands of his own since the 1970s. I grew up listening to musicians like El Chicano, Los Lobos, Little Joe y la Familia. I knew Chicano music.
What is Chicano?
During the Civil Rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s, young Mexican-Americans were in search of their own identity. They were not Mexican enough in the eyes of older Mexicans, nor were they American enough for mainstream white America. As a result, the Chicano Movement was born. Chicano artistic expression grew out of Mexican American experiences, drawing from distinctly Mexican and U.S. culture and traditions. Chicanos felt a need to create a cultural identity and cultural expressions that affirmed Mexican American experiences. This included good and bad experiences; celebration and suffering, pride and discrimination, family and alienation to name some. Thus art, music, literature, dance and theater by Chicanos became a form of cultural and political empowerment like that of the Black Power movement for African-Americans.
The Birth of Chicano Music
Chicanos had extensive and diverse musical traditions to draw from. Various types of Latino music were becoming popular within the U.S and American pop music was gaining an audience in the Mexican American communities. The music was a fusion of native people 's music; Mexican regional music, instruments and music brought over form Spain and other European countries; Afro-Caribbean music; and US jazz, R&B, country western, rock. Many groups began imitating and combining these styles that became very popular among the young members of the Chicano Generation. Mexican American communities desired a mix of popular American music and popular Latino and Mexican music.
My both my father and uncle were in their prime during the 1960s and 70s during the Chicano Movement. My father had me growing up listening to dedications Art Laboe 's Killer Oldies every Sunday night. My uncle traveled throughout California with bands of his own since the 1970s. I grew up listening to musicians like El Chicano, Los Lobos, Little Joe y la Familia. I knew Chicano music.
What is Chicano?
During the Civil Rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s, young Mexican-Americans were in search of their own identity. They were not Mexican enough in the eyes of older Mexicans, nor were they American enough for mainstream white America. As a result, the Chicano Movement was born. Chicano artistic expression grew out of Mexican American experiences, drawing from distinctly Mexican and U.S. culture and traditions. Chicanos felt a need to create a cultural identity and cultural expressions that affirmed Mexican American experiences. This included good and bad experiences; celebration and suffering, pride and discrimination, family and alienation to name some. Thus art, music, literature, dance and theater by Chicanos became a form of cultural and political empowerment like that of the Black Power movement for African-Americans.
The Birth of Chicano Music
Chicanos had extensive and diverse musical traditions to draw from. Various types of Latino music were becoming popular within the U.S and American pop music was gaining an audience in the Mexican American communities. The music was a fusion of native people 's music; Mexican regional music, instruments and music brought over form Spain and other European countries; Afro-Caribbean music; and US jazz, R&B, country western, rock. Many groups began imitating and combining these styles that became very popular among the young members of the Chicano Generation. Mexican American communities desired a mix of popular American music and popular Latino and Mexican music.
References: 1. Pena, Manuel. The Mexican American Orchestra. 1st ed. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999. 203-274. 2. Loza, Steven. Barrio Rhythm: Mexican American Music in Los Angeles. 1st ed. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993. 54-128. 3. Tatum, Charles M. Chicano Popular Culture. 1st ed. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2001. 14-48. 4. Reyes, Davis, and Tom Waldman. Land of a Thousand Dances: Chicano Rock 'N ' Roll From Souther California. 1st ed. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998.