Chicano Movement

Chicano Civil Rights Movement

The Chicano Movement was a Mexican American social movement that peaked alongside the African American Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. The term Chicano (Chicana for female Mexican American Activists) was once used as a slur against Mexican Americans, but was embraced by the participants of the Chicano Movement. To the protestors, the term Chicano/ Chicana came to represent pride in Mexican heritage and religion. Not everyone adopted the term, but for those who did, the term Mexican American already assumed a level of assimilation into Anglo-American culture and society.

The "Flag of Aztlan" commonly used by Chicano activists. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The Chicano Movement was not a singular movement or activist organization. It refers to the many Mexican American activist groups that rallied under the same nationalistic ideas of Chicanismo. Increasing in popularity in the late 1960s, thanks to the poetry of the Chicano poet Alurista (Alberto Baltazar Urista Heredia), many Chicano Movement activists began embracing the idea of Aztlan as a unifying symbol of American heritage. Aztlan was the mythical northern homeland of the Aztec people; Chicanos and Chicanas rallied around the concept of the land of the United States being Aztlan.

The Chicano Movement and the "Plan Espiritual de Aztlán"

During the 1969 Chicano Youth Liberation Conference, organized by Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales, the Chicano Movement adopted a political manifesto titled "Plan Espiritual de Aztlán." The title was inspired by Alurista's speech at the conference (an excerpt can be found below). The manifesto called for strength and solidarity, revolution, and reform. Much of the plights of Mexican American communities were blamed on the United States for their forceful takeover of North America and the Mexican-American War.

The "Plan Espiritual de Aztlán" was written at the close of the 1960s, after activist movements had already achieved great success in political and social reform. But the document still stands as a testament to the spirituality of Mesoamerican culture, from which the Chicano movement drew inspiration.

Chicano Mural Movement

Chicano youth took to the streets, eager to paint the world with their activism. Mural painting became a form of active expression, as painters covered walls with massive paintings that loomed over streets, walkways, and parks. The iconography of Chicano murals often focused on Aztlan roots, depicting Aztec gods such as Quetzalcoatl and Coatlicue. Real figures, like the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata (pictured below), were also depicted, as well as post-Columbian Chicano figureheads, e.g., La Virgen de Guadalupe.

Mural of Emiliano Zapata painted in an underpass in Chicano Park within San Diego, California. Source: Rpotance, CC-BY-SA-4.0, Wikimedia Commons.

Other images include themes of displacement and repossession of territory. Renowned Chicano artist Salvador Torres was a major proponent of the Chicano Mural Movement, a mission to repaint the bridge that passed over a park in Logan Heights, San Diego. Activists flocked to the park, peacefully redecorating it with the images and icons of their cause. Renamed Chicano Park, the area became a cultural home for the Chicano Movement. Until now, Chicano Park contains the most outdoor murals in the USA.

Chicano Movement Leaders

Like other activist groups of the 1960s and 1970s, the Chicano Movement had its own leaders. Each leader organized their subset of the Chicano movement across the nations, directly contributing to the greater social movement or achieving tangible progress within their communities. The chart below details some of these key figures and their efforts in the Chicano Movement.

Photograph of Cesar Chavez. Source: Movimiento, CC-BY-SA-3.0, Wikimedia Commons.

Chicano Movement Impact

The Chicano Movement achieved great success in changing Mexican American life's social and political inequalities during the 1960s and 1970s. Two court cases that preceded the 1960s set a precedent for future success in the Chicano Movement. In 1947, the Mendez vs. Westminster case's decision held that the segregation of Mexican American children was firmly unconstitutional and harmful to the assimilation of Mexican Americans into Anglo-American culture. The 1954 Hernandez vs. Texas case, decided by the Supreme Court, asserted that all nationalities and ethnicities in the United States have equal citizenship rights under the 14th amendment.

Photograph of four Chicano "Brown Berets" leaders. Source: UCLA Library Special Collections, CC-BY-2.0, Wikimedia Commons.

Beyond the works of the Chicano leaders mentioned above and the hosts of protests, student walkouts, strikes, and marches held across the country, the Chicano Movement also had an impact beyond their mission for Mexican American rights. Many Chicanos supported and were influenced by the African American Civil Rights and Black Power movements. The "Brown Berets" Chicano group was influenced by the Black Panthers, African American activist group.

Additionally, Chicanos fought against the Vietnam War through the Chicano Moratorium. In 1970, over 30,000 Mexican-American protestors gathered in Los Angeles in protest of the war. The impact of the Chicano movement on Mexican American equality and other social and political issues in the United States is undeniable.