Introduction.
Introduction.
The
purpose of this phenomenological, ethnographic case study is to reconstruct all
those dynamics which, even before the birth and spread of Chicanos in the
1960s, affected the Chicano cultural construction and represented an exact
photograph of its evolution up to today.
The
expression I used previously: the exact photograph, already provides an idea of
what prompted me to investigate this issue; the desire to highlight how this
story has been characterized by negative stereotypes, mystifications,
manipulations, and falsehoods. Moreover, how the construction of identity
presents itself to our eyes as a fundamental survival strategy that subjects
implement when society - within which individuals, groups, and institutions
move - threatens their "specificity" through the cancellation or
incorporation of the differences. Therefore, the Chicanos were forced to build
an identity within an often hostile environment that bears the particularity of
their condition.
Their
not being "ni de aquí y ni de allá" is perfectly expressed by the
Chicano term itself, which incorporates that cultural duplicity that
characterizes them and that does not allow them to be incorporated within the
general category of Latinos or Hispanics. Indeed, they cannot and do not want
to give up their complex identity as Mexican-Americans.
The
Chicano struggle for identity, labor and education rights, together with the
feminist battles regarding gender equality, found an outlet not only in the
creation of political parties but also in popular media such as art, press, and
music, who helped to shape an image of Chicano as individuals with their own
cultural and folkloristic particularities mixed, sometimes, with those of the
background.
My
analysis will initially start with a historical-geographical analysis in which
all those events and relationships that have marked the relationship between
Mexico and the United States of America will be taken into account.
A
key date in this sense was February 2, 1848, the year of the famous
Guadalupe-Hidalgo treaty. An incessant migratory flow began from this moment,
which established a close relationship of interdependence between these two
countries. This led, in turn, to a continuous reworking of the very concept of
Mexican and American identity. This process finally culminated in forming an
unprecedented cultural construction: the Chicano one.
In
the analysis of this process, two concepts now widely used within the so-called
Border Studies will be exalted: that of the frontier and that, even more
specific, of nepantla. The latter perfectly clarifies the condition in which
the Chicans live. Within this intermediate space, they can reinvent themselves,
giving rise to an unprecedented image of themselves that incorporates a
multiplicity of meanings.
In
the process of Chicano cultural construction, a fundamental role was played by
the movement of the Sixties/Seventies. This was never a monolithic movement nor
even homogeneous, but made up of many minorities who will contribute to
undermining its foundations, up to - in the 1980s - its progressive decline, at
least in the form in which it presented itself in the previous two decades. The
continuation of my research will start from this observation. In fact, I would
like to glance at the present through a simple question: Is the Chicano
movement really ended?
We will find out together. 😊
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