Chicanos

By James Diego Vigil and John Beierle

CHICANOS is used for Mexican Americans born in the United States but also a generic ethnic name for Mexicans in general. Other regional labels include Californios (California), Hispanos (New Mexico), Tejanos (Texas), and Tucsoneses (Arizona).

Chicanos (and Chicanas, the feminine gender form in Spanish) are a diverse group of Mexicans born in the United States. Many Mexican immigrants, especially children educated in the United States, also identify with the term. However, many from both populations refuse to identify with the label Chicano. The term Chicano derives from Mexica (with the x pronounced like sh in English). Over the centuries the term became associated with the downtrodden impoverished people in Mexican cities. After large-scale immigration into California, beginning in the 1920s, the Chicano label became common among the newcomers. During the 1960s and 1970s, Chicano became the rallying cry for countless protests and demonstrations. To activists, it signified a turn away from a hyphenated label that was selected by non-Mexicans, and laid out a non-assimilationist path to becoming American and a bilingual-bicultural ethnic identity. Most Chicanos are concentrated in the Southwest United States (in what was once, of course, Northern Mexico). Early settlements from Mexico began in the sixteenth century in places like present day New Mexico, and most of the settlers had Spanish backgrounds; thus, to the early twenty-first century many in that region prefer the label Hispanos even though a great amount of intermarriage with Indians has taken place. Throughout the colonial period other settlements were established in Texas, Arizona, and California, and in these areas settlers were mostly Mestizos with their own regional labels. With large-scale immigration in the twentieth century continuing almost unabated to the early twenty-first century, the Chicano population has spread into other regions of the United States, especially to the Midwest and New York.

The Chicano population has increased from approximately three million in 1940 to more than 20 million in 2000 (30 million when all Latinos are counted), with the sharpest rise coming since the 1970s when the Chicano Movement peaked. While many Chicanos are descendants of settlers from the early colonial period, the great majority of the people, especially in urban areas, are more recent immigrants or their offspring. In addition to population increases, the primarily rural make-up of Chicanos in the early twentieth century has shifted to that of towns and cities. Many longtime residents have joined in the great flight to suburbia in all major Southwestern cities. Nevertheless, there are still many small towns and rancherias, especially in New Mexico and Texas, where people have stayed put for centuries.

Spanish is the main language that Chicanos trace as their mother tongue, and except for recent immigrants, most-not all-also speak English. There are many variations in Spanish dialects among Chicanos. In particular, the Spanish spoken in colonial times differs from that of immigrants to the United States in contemporary times, with regional differences in Mexico adding to the changes over time. In addition, cultural contact and conflict with English-speaking American society has affected Chicanos' speech patterns. With the passage of generations and time in the U.S., a mastery of the English language transpired. In the twenty-first century, a large portion of the Chicano population speaks primarily in English, with many adhering to a bilingual style when necessary. However, large numbers of immigrants have decidedly pushed the needle in a Spanish-speaking direction. With the introduction of bilingual education programs in the 1970s the transition to English has been made slower, albeit much smoother for children newcomers, and thus it is much more commonly and publicly accepted to speak Spanish as well as English. This linguistic model is a style emerging among Spanish-speakers in the U.S.

Chicanos claim indigenous roots in Aztlan, the present-day Southwestern United States, as descendants of tribal peoples that resided there hundreds of years before Europeans set foot in the western hemisphere. According to legend, migration of many Chichimeca tribes from Aztlan found their way to the central valley of Mexico. The Toltecs and Aztecs were part of that migratory stream. With the arrival of the Spanish in 1519 a new way of life was introduced by conquest and colonization, a process that was in some respects repeated in 1846 with the Anglo-American incorporation of northern Mexican territory into the United States. Chicanos have been strongly shaped by the 1846 War and United States-Mexico relations and interactions. The two nations, after all, share a two thousand mile long border, one first world and the other developing world. U.S. intervention in the 1910 Mexican Revolution, continuing immigration from Mexico to the United States sparked initially by the 1910 experience, and numerous border issues revolving around people, resources, law, trade, and, of course, the difficulties associated with undocumented immigration, all have affected Chicano culture.

To understand Chicanos, one must comprehend their Mexican roots. The Spanish interrupted the evolution of indigenous lifeways and fashioned a colonial empire that remade the land, people, and culture. Land, labor, and wealth came under Spanish dominance and debt peonage insured that the Indian laborers and their offspring would remain in bondage in perpetuity. Significant cultural and scientific achievements of the Indians were destroyed, but the cultural and racial mixing that were to define the future Mexican people and nation also were initiated. Spanish architecture, religion, language, and other institutions and practices were glorified as Indian culture was denigrated, but there were many amalgamations that led to a new Mexican culture. New foods, religious beliefs and practices, social customs and cultural traditions, and other syncretic developments arose and evolved. Similarly, at the outset and thereafter, the victors imposed a sexual conquest on the vanquished, which led to, of course, a new hybrid people of all shades and appearances. It also left a sociopsychological heritage where color of skin and physiognomic traits became associated with feelings of inferiority and superiority, with whiter skin hues associated with the latter. In 2001, whether you appear European or Indian, white or dark, makes a difference among Mexicans as well as Chicanos.

In the Southwest (Aztlan) for close to 500 years there have been additional cultural changes and innovations that mark the Chicano people. These changes started in 1598 with the first permanent settlement in New Mexico, well before the first English settlements in New England. Over the subsequent centuries, up to Mexico's Independence from Spain in 1821, a series of excursions into other adjacent areas expanded the Spanish/Mexican presence into Texas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, and parts of Utah. The northern Mexican province also experienced rich cultural exchanges and creations and racial miscegenation that make the Southwest a distinct region within the United States. To this day, certain towns, like Santa Fe, New Mexico, and San Antonio, Texas, have preserved some of that flavor.

With the Mexican-American War of 1846-48 and the arrival of waves of American settlers to the newly acquired territory, a new order was established. In the overall culture conflict and intercultural hostility that followed, control of land resources, the labor structure, and the distribution of the wealth favored the Anglo Americans. After the 1910 Revolution, large-scale immigration from Mexico began. With ebbs and flows, this immigration has continued to the present. It has met with periodic anti-immigrant backlashes, such as the Repatriation of the 1930s, Operation Wetback in the 1950s, and the still prevalent anti-Mexican hysteria in the United States since the 1980s characterized by legislation to dismantle affirmative action and bilingual education. Recent events show some improvements in cultural relations, but the historical experiences of tension and hostility have deep roots.

Initially, the Santa Fe settlement in 1598 was established as a base to seek mineral resources in the area, but eventually it became permanent, except for a short period after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Throughout the Southwest, missions and small rancherias (hamlets) dotted the region. In California, an establishment of pueblo, presidio, and mission leaders ordered civil, military, and religious life among the native California Indians as well as the settlers. Towns and regions, as well as rivers, mountain ranges, and other geographic phenomena still are known by labels imposed in that era: San Antonio, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, Sacramento, El Paso, San Diego, Colorado, and so on. In the twentieth-century, older settlements have grown and developed and new communities have been founded. Among the new locales a common pattern emerged, known as the barrio (neighborhood) settlement, because newcomers moved to empty spaces, almost squatter-like, next to work sites where mines, ranches, railroads, cash crop fields, and light industries needed their cheap labor. The railroad network helped create a migrant stream through the Midwest to Chicago and other industrial cities. These barrios of often makeshift residences usually were spatially separate and visually distinct from Anglo American neighborhoods, commonly on "the other side of the tracks," in both rural and urban regions. They also created a sense of community that aided Chicanos in softening culture shock and easing their adaptation to American life and institutions. After World War II, the Chicano population grew and became increasingly urban and many joined the suburban stream in the last half of the twentieth-century. Starting in the 1970s, Chicago and New York have become home to hundreds of thousands of Chicanos. In the 1990s many southern states sprouted Mexican immigrant enclaves. Traditional settlements still exist, though, in places like New Mexico and south Texas.

Self-sufficient ranches and farmlands are still owned and operated by small numbers of Chicanos who trace their heritage to the early centuries. However, the vast majority participate in the industrial and service economy for wages.

Chicanos toil as farm workers, construction laborers, light industry assemblers, and increasingly, in the service sector. In the last half of the twentieth-century there has been a steady if slow growth into skilled and professional positions, and various business enterprises and professions have also flourished. Overall, Chicanos lag behind Anglos in these higher status positions. Chicanos (including many immigrants) comprise the largest segment of America's agricultural labor force. As such, they were a major factor in the unionization efforts that helped change conditions for farm workers nationwide late in the twentieth century.

Many Chicano entrepreneurs are concentrated in the commercial food sector, running restaurants, taco stands, and CANTINAS (bars). Chicano foods reflect a syncretic Spanish/Indian mixture, but corn, beans, and squash still comprise the American Trinity that supported tens of millions of Indians for centuries (supplemented with chiles and, today, most notably, rice, pork, beef, and seafood). The impact of Chicanos' success in these enterprises is reflected in the spread of Mexican food throughout the country.

Excellent woodcarving, weaving, jewelry, and other artistic traditions are represented from the original settlements in New Mexico. Urban Chicano workers in auto paint-and-body work, upholstery, and furniture industries have made a craft out of these occupations.

Chicanos, like other urban and suburban residents, rely on modern malls, but there still remain barrio shopping centers and stores that cater to the tastes of the local population. Many of these centers have become social, cultural, and political meeting places. Moreover, some of the old, dying Anglo city centers have been appropriated by the largely immigrant population and remade into a new retail enterprises; the Mexican outdoor market concept, TIANGUIS, has moved products out into the streets. Small family-operated stores, TIENDITAS, are still necessary for immediate needs. With the establishment of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) in 1994, trade between Mexico and the United States has burgeoned and many Chicano entrepreneurs have benefited as a result.

Status distinctions formerly based on the traditional "patron-peon" relations have all but disappeared among Chicanos born in the United States, but persist for many newcomers. Living in the United States has made Chicanas more independent and educated. Two wage-earner households are now more common, as females break away from the traditional gender roles defined by Mexican culture which defined women's work as household work; but also because low-paying service sector employment often requires both husband and wife to work. Increasingly the younger cohort of males has grown to accept and champion these changes. Although Middle- and upper-class status comprises a growing segment of the group, many first- and second-generation Mexicans are filling jobs as dishwashers, gardeners, domestics, janitors, and other service occupations at low pay and with little status.

The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War, sought to protect Chicano land ownership and property rights, but nevertheless Anglo Americans were able to dispossess them of their property, from small farms to large ranchos. As late as 1966, attempts to bring public attention to the corrupt and illegal way in which these lands were taken met with failure. The only remaining pockets of original real estate are in New Mexico. Nevertheless, members of the Chicano middle-class have followed the exodus to suburbia to purchase a home and take pride in the real estate they own.

Descent largely followed the Western European bilateral models, but with a strong emphasis on patriarchy in family standards of status, respect, and authority. Kinship practices emphasize family and extended family networks. Even with the influence of generational change in America, these beliefs and customs have persisted. Individualism, although growing, is still typically subservient to family concerns. Compadrazgo (co-parenthood), for example, stems from the Catholic influence and is practiced in baptisms, where godmothers and godfathers become comadres (co-mothers) and compadres (co-fathers) of the baptized child's parents. Male dominance sometimes results in a machismo complex that negatively affects male-female relations, but more often emphasizes providing care and protection for one's home and family. The eldest male and female, especially grandparents, usually heads a gender and age hierarchy of authority. The latter sometimes take over primary care of grandchildren when parents need help.

Romantic love is more the case now with American-born Chicanos, but with newcomers the mate choices they make still bear careful scrutiny from elders. Similarly, socially mobile Chicanos born in the United States tend to intermarry more with Anglos, and exogamous marriages are slightly more common among Chicanas of a higher status. The average age for marriage is low as compared to American figures. Weddings and celebrations associated with the marriage are often grand, festive, well-attended affairs typically catered by the bride's family. Postmarital residence is almost always neolocal. Occasionally financial necessity allows for temporary living arrangements with either the bride's or groom's parents.

Nuclear family units are somewhat more common among acculturated Chicanos, but the extended family is typical in most households. Patriarchy traditionally has been the foundation of the household, tempered by Marian Catholic ideology, which places females in an exalted position, but these customs are being transformed through modernization and Americanization. The sense of obligation and responsibility that one owes to family elders and parents remains.

Most traditional practices have been replaced by American customs. Although senior females also have rights, the general routine is to transfer land and property to the eldest son.

The bulk of the population follows American working-class habits in child rearing with older siblings and parents providing the example and guidance, while immigrants continue native ways as uncles, aunts, and grandparents also play a role. Class differences, as noted, account for considerable variation. Still stressed, however, are personal honor, respect for the aged, and proper courtship protocol. In addition to home influences, children are formally socialized in public or private (mostly Catholic) schools. Because of the need for basic survival, especially among newcomers, long work hours have often weakened parental influences. Juvenile and adolescent street peers have stepped in to take over the tasks of socialization on such occasions.

Massive immigration has made for a large unskilled and semi-skilled stratum along with the working and middle class constituents. The lifestyle contrasts between them are considerable. A small well-off segment is composed of a mix of Americanized Chicanos and immigrant entrepreneurs. Deeply ingrained class, cultural, and racial beliefs and practices from the colonial and contemporary Mexican periods strongly shape attitudes and behavior among Chicanos. Historically, such patterns have generated intragroup difficulties, strains, and conflict. Although made more complex in the American context, racism still affects interpersonal relations. Feelings of inferiority and superiority persist from the past and have been strengthened by American racism in the present. This feeling has also taken on a cultural and linguistic dimension with earlier generations looking down on recent arrivals and judging them ignorant and backward, a behavior that exacerbates the class contrast.

Since the Roosevelt New Deal era, Chicanos have generally voted for the Democratic Party, but some dissatisfaction has surfaced in recent decades. During the Chicano Movement a failed third party effort, La Raza Unida, was launched from south Texas. With Chicano social mobility has come more support for more conservative causes. A small minority has been won over by the Republican Party because of its focus on family values and abortion. Undocumented and documented aliens-who are unable to vote-are limited to publicizing their concerns. Fearing deportation, many avoid even these activities. Political developments, especially with recent changes in Mexico, have made some watch events more closely in the homeland than in the United States. Although still sharply underrepresented in local, state, and federal government offices, many new Chicano legislators and other leaders were elected in the late twentieth century. Some organizations like MAPA (Mexican American Political Association) in California, NALEO (National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials) nationally, and SVREP (Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project) have helped with registration and campaigning. Affirmative action, bilingual education, educational programs, and job training are key issues in their political agenda.

Respect for authority is a family belief, but poverty and discrimination have taken their toll in many households, leaving the legal system to carry much of the burden of social order. A sense of instability and uncertainty remains from the past colonial period, with racism, cultural marginalization, and other social problems still persisting.

Difficulties with educational and policing institutions are common. Police-community relations remain troublesome, as a serious street gang and crime problem dots inner-city neighborhoods in most Southwestern cities. Similarly, immigration officials and border patrol agents, ("La Migra") are recognized as a regular source of hostility and mistreatment for both immigrants and their families. The 1960s Chicano Movement was a watershed event in the tradition of resistance to and efforts to eliminate educational and occupational discrimination against Chicanos. These struggles have assisted in improvements in such areas as bilingual education, increases in public jobs, and a heightening of public awareness on Chicano issues and affairs.

A Mexican Catholic ideology is pervasive in the population, a syncretic development that integrates Indian patterns into that of the European. For example, the Virgin of Guadalupe, a brown-skinned icon associated with the Indian-Mestizo segment of the population in Mexico, has become a patron saint and is also widely recognized throughout the Americas. Special days of obligation and observance, saint worship, and rituals of baptism, marriage, and death are followed as a matter of habit, even among those who are non-religious. Evangelical Protestantism has made inroad in both Mexico and among Chicanos in the United States.

Woodworking, sculpturing, pottery, mural and other painting genres characterize the past and present. Graffiti mural art has become common in cities today. Oral lore, music, and poetry have been reinterpreted for modern tastes. Plays, cinema, and theatre have most recently affected the people in ways that sharpen social and political sensibilities, much like early works such as the Teatro Campesino, reflected the United Farm Worker movement in California.

Modern medical practices dominate, but traditional folk beliefs appear from time to time. CURANDEROS (folk healers) and YERBEROS (herbalists) are sought by some for virtually any ailment.

Wakes, funerals, and burials follow a Mexican Catholic ideology that stresses social as well as religious practices and beliefs, a special time to reaffirm ties with family and friends and celebrate passage to the afterlife. Christian fundamentalism has recently made inroads among the population, both among Americanized Chicanos and recent immigrants to make religion more literal through the teachings of the bible. However, it is still common for others to integrate indigenous customs into the worldview. For example, the afterlife is symbolized in the Mexican American celebration of El Dia de Los Muertos (literally "Day of the Dead,"). This event features masks, dolls, and sugar figures and cakes adorned as skulls and skeletons. Often heavily ritualized, large gatherings of family and friends join in funerary rites.

Documents referred to in this section are included in the eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The Chicano file consists of 57 English language documents covering a wide variety of ethnographic topics. The time span for the file ranges from the early to late twentieth century, with a particular geographical focus on Texas, California, and the general southwestern area of the United States. Although there is no single work in the file that covers in depth all of the Chicano in the U.S., the combination of works by Moore (1990, no. 1), Grebler (1970, no. 8), Alvarez (1971, no. 17), , Teller (1977, no. 23, and Vigil (1998, no. 45), do provide a general ethnographic overview of Chicano culture and society. Feminism and the role and status of Chicano women is a major topic discussed in a number of documents in this file, such as in: Miranda (1979, no. 10), Melville (1980, nos. 47, 53, 58, and 59), Whiteford (1980, no. 56), Wagner and Schaffer (1980, no. 61), Garcia Manzanedo (1980, no. 62), Cotera (1980, no. 64), and Velez-I (1980, no. 65). Other topics include data on: reproduction and child care, in: Keyes (1986, no. 28), Melville (1980, no. 48), Andrade (1980, no. 49), Urdaneta (1980, no.50), Kay (1980, no. 51, and Acosta-Johnson (1980, no. 52); labor and the Chicano labor force in: (Briggs, 1977, no. 5), Briody (1985, no. 26), Landolt (1966, no. 30), Jones (1965, no. 31), and Zavella (1987, no. 46); folk healers and folk medicine in: Kiev (1968, no. 9), Romano V (1960, 1965, nos. 18 and 19), and Macklin (1980, no. 57); the fine arts in: Graham (1981, no. 20), Limín (1980, 1983, 1989, nos. 54, 67, and 68), Flores (1995, no. 38), Peña (1981, no. 40), and Mason (1980, no. 55); and finally problems of the aged in Markides (1983, no. 60) and Stephens (1980, no. 66).

For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in this file, see the abstracts in the citation preceding each document.

This culture summary is from the article "Chicano" by James Diego Vigil in the Encyclopedia of World Cultures Supplement, edited by Carol R. Ember and Melvin Ember with the assistance of Ian Skoggard. Macmillan Reference/Gale 2002.The Human Relations Area Files would also like to thank James Diego Vigil for his bibliographical suggestions in the preparation of this file. The synopsis and indexing notes were written by John Beierle in January 2002.

• Affirmative Action Program -- category 466

• AGRINGADOS -- acculturated Mexican-Americans -- categories 156, 177

• Associated Employers, Inc. -- open shop association of San Antonio -- category 466

• border patrols -- categories 693 (sometimes with 648)

• CASAA -- Citizens Association Serving All Americans -- categories 664, 575, 177

• Chicano political movement -- category 668

• COLONIAS -- immigrant settlements, which evolved into contemporary Chicano barrios --categories 621, 361

• COPLA -- Comite de Padres Latinos, a Spanish-speaking parent organization in Portillo, California, established to engage in dialogue about their children's needs in the educational system -- category 871

• COPS -- Communities Organized for Public Service; a neighborhood-based political organization - - category 665

• CUMPLEAÑOS -- birthdays -- category 527

• CURANDERO -- shaman -- category 756

• judicial commissions (civil rights, immigration, etc.) -- category 698

• LA RAZA UNIDA -- category 668

• labor camps -- categories 361, 362, sometimes with 466

• law suits against the U.S. government -- category 691

• LULAC -- League of Latin American Citizens -- categories 664, 575, 177

• MANDA -- a religious vow or promise -- category 782

• MAPA --Mexican-American Political Association -- categories 664, 575, 177

• MEXICANIDAD, concept of -- category 186

• ORDEN HIJOS DE AMERICA -- order of sons of America (OSA) -- categories 664, 575, 177

• PALOMILLAS -- cliques of teen-age boys or young men -- category 573

• PASSO -- Political Association of Spanish-Speaking Organizations -- categories 664, 575, 177

• poverty and anti-poverty programs, general information on --category 735

• poverty and anti-poverty programs, specific information on -- categories 746, 747

• pressure groups, political -- category 664

• proposition 187 -- category 167

• prosecution of illegal immigrants -- category 687

• QUINCEAÑERA -- a coming of age ritual and festival for fifteen-year-old girls -- category 527

• racial discrimination against Chicanos -- categories 177, 563

• reform movements -- categories 185, 668

• Texas Rangers -- category 693

• undocumented workers -- categories 167, 464, 563

• welfare programs -- category 657

Acuna, Rodolfo. Occupied America: The Chicano's Struggle Toward Liberation, 3rd Ed. New York: Harper and Row, 1988.

Alvarez, Robert R. Familia: immigration and adaptation in Baja and Alta California, 1800-1975. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.

Chavez, Leo R. Shadowed Lives: undocumented immigrants in American society, 2nd edition. Ft. Worth Texas: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998.

De Anda, R.M. Chicanas and Chicanos in Contemporary Society. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1996.

Gomez-Quinones, Juan. Chicano Politics: Reality and Promise, 1940-1990. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990.

McWilliams, Carey. North From Mexico: The Spanish-Speaking People of the United States. New York: Praeger, 1975.

Menchaca, Martha. The Mexican Outsiders: a community history of marginalization and discrimination in California, 1st edition. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.

Velez-I, Carlos. Border Visions: Mexican Cultures of the Southwest United States. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1996.

Vigil, James Diego. From Indians to Chicanos: The Dynamics of Mexican American Culture, 2nd ed. Prospect Heights, ILL: Waveland Press, 1998.

Vigil, James Diego. Barrio Gangs: street life and identity in Southern California; foreword by Robert Edgerton. 1st ed. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.