What Was The Chicano Movement

The Mexican American community endured a lot of hardship in the United States. They had to face equality amongst communities and racism. The communities that surrounded the different backgrounds and ethnicities were segregated and the funds would depend on the background of the community. Many of these communities were not enforced to live in segregated communities, but the opportunities that were offered did not give enough choose for then to choose otherwise. The resources available in the community were made accessible depending on who lived in them. Mexican American typically lived in poorer neighborhoods and the education system was not the best. Many of these neighborhoods were shared with other groups such as African Americans, but segregation
The Chicano movement was influenced by the African America communities because they were similarly segregated and discriminated against when it came to politics. However, Chicanos took a huge stand on education reforms. By the 1960s, Chicanos would make up 80 % of the population in this area. These communities however were not given what they needed to go to school. Many of the schools in their neighborhoods were overcrowds and lacked teachers that could relate to them. Many of these challenges would create a large amount of high school drop outs and that would lead to high juvenile rate. Meanwhile in neighborhoods like the San Fernando Valley, the students had access to funds that would build bigger buildings and provide resources for their
In the text, Occupied America A History of Chicanos, the author writes “In 1968, 91 percent of the students enrolled in institutions of higher learning in the United States were white, 6 percent were African American, and just less than 2 percent were Latinos; probably less than half that number were Mexican origin” (309). During this time Chicano students became more actively involved and they started to become more organized. They even managed to create the Brown Berets in where they would come together and talk about issues that pertain to the ‘Raza’. These issues include, but are not limited to education, social, political, spiritual, and economical. Different, and more centralized groups began to emerge and the newspaper, La Raza became a place to share issues that pertained to the community. Many of these communities began to use their voices and many of the youth began to realize that they needed to create change, specially with their education systems. By 1968 Latino students would make more than 80 percent of the student in five high schools, in East Los Angeles. The Brown Berets began to form and they created their sole purpose, which was dedicate solely to their community. Their main purpose was to fight discrimination and injustice toward Chicano students (Acuna). The Brown Berets led demonstrations against police brutality in 1968. Later that same year they