Though its roots stretched back to the 1940s, the Chicano movement came to flourish during the 1960s under the leadership of activists like Cesar Chavez, founder of the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 (later known as the United Farm Workers). The very name given to the movement signified an affirmation of Mexican American heritage, the term "Chicano" (masculine) or "Chicana" (feminine) deriving from the ending of Mexicano as pronounced by the ancient Aztecs ("Mech-i-ca-no"). With this name, asserts author Rudolfo Anaya, the Chicanos "took on a new awareness of their place in society" (Anaya in Lopez, p. 6). No longer willing to accept roles as outsiders in an Anglo-dominated nation, Chicanos took pride in their heritage and promoted public awareness of their history and contemporary concerns.
Prior to the Chicano rights movement, U.S. history was taught almost exclusively from a European male perspective. This perspective excludes the long history of the native Indians in the Southwest, Mexico, and Central America, the population that, along with Spanish settlers, eventually gave rise to a mixed Spanish American civilization. This mixed civilization, which Chicanos claim as their heritage in the Americas, predates the first Anglo settlements of the late 1500s and early 1600s.
This is a free page. This page contains 191 words. This
article contains 3,957 words (approx. 13 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our The House on Mango Street Access Pass.
