Chicano

A Chicano is a person of Mexican descent born in the United States. Chicana is the female form of the word; it often also has feminist connotations. The term Chicano is believed to be offensive by some assimilated Mexican-Americans, who prefer other terms such as Hispanic, or Latino or simply Mexican. The plural form of the word is Chicanos. In an effort to be politically correct Chicano/a, or Chican@.

Related Topics:
Mexican - United States - Feminist - Mexican-American - Hispanic - Latino - Chicano/a - Chican@

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In Mexico, the term can connote a person of low class and poor morals, while in the U.S. it carries multiple meanings. Sabine Ulibarri, an author from Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, notes that Chicano is a politically loaded term, though it is considered a positive term of honor by some. For Chicanos, the term can imply being from the United States and not from Mexico. As a mixture of cultures from both countries, being Chicano represents the struggle of fitting into the world of Americans while still maintaining the cultural sense that you learned as a child of Mexicans. Bruce Novoa, another Chicano author, once wrote that Chicanos exist in the space created by the hyphen in Mexican-American. Also Rudy "Corky" Gonzalez's "Yo Soy Joaquin" is considered a seminal text.

Related Topics:
Class - Morals - Sabine Ulibarri - Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico - Politically - Culture - Bruce Novoa

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Many Chicanos refer to themselves as la raza (literally, the race). Some use the phrase la raza de bronce ("the Bronze Race") seeing themselves as "brown" or "bronze" because of their Native American ancestry (as opposed to white and black people). Using another term common in early 20th-century americanista/indigenist thought, some also refer to themselves as la raza cósmica, which means the cosmic race.

Related Topics:
La raza - Race - Raza de bronce - Native American - White - Black

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While the word Chicano/a may be a contraction of Mexicano/a, there is no clear etymology of the term or its origin. It seem to be originated in the first decades of the 19th century in the south of US, and it was a derogatory term used by US landowners to refer to their Mexican workers. The term spread to Mexico to refer to people of low origins. The literary and political movements of the 1960s and 1970s among Latinos established Chicano as a term of ethnic pride; Mexican-Americans became aware of their status as a community and began to use the term with pride to refer to themselves. In Mexico the Mexico-American culture has begun to permeate and Chicano has lost much of its meaning.

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Many individuals of Mexican descent view the use of the words Chicana or Chicano as a reclamation and regeneration of a culture destroyed through colonialism, although these are only opinions and may not reflect the view of all Chicanos. Some younger Mexican-Americans refer to themselves as Xicanos with an "X" to appear even more radical in terms of political ideology.

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The term Chicano is also used in the context of Chicano/Chicana writers. This term is used as a term of pride. Chicanos are the biggest group in the U.S. among the Latino population.

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