Essay Sample on The Chicano Movement

Mexican Americans have used the word chicano to identify Mexican natives who have lived in the United States since the twentieth century. Originally, the phrase was given to lower-class Mexican Americans by wealthy Mexican Americans or also “used by hard-core barrio youth to characterize their ethnic identity”.(Garcia 2015)  Chicano history is defined by the Chicano movement, which saw half-Mexican Americans take pride in their heritage and fight to become self-sufficient by improving their social, political, and economic circumstances. The Chicano movement, like other historical civil rights movements in history, raised awareness of the inequality that Mexican Americans living in the United States faced. “El movimiento” was another name for the movement.”To be a Chicano in the movement was no longer just to be a vato loco, or street dude, but instead an activist in the movement. This was the new Chicano generation—La Raza Nueva”.(Garcia 2015) It was not simply a political movement, but also a cultural one that educated people about Mexican history. The movement's most significant advances may be divided into three categories, which are fighting for Mexican-American farm workers' rights, demanding equal access to political and educational opportunities, and getting back land grants. A group of Mexican Americans attempted to recapture federal territory within the United States' boundaries in the 1960s. The group's claims were based on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, a treaty that created by Mexico and the United States in order to conclude the Mexican War. Unfortunately, conflict developed when the United States failed to execute a portion of the agreement because it was unaware of the Mexicans' initial land grants given under Mexican and Spanish law. For this reason, a large number of Mexicans lost their lands. The Chicano movement, which believed that Mexican natives rightfully controlled parts of the land granted to the United States and that being a Mexican American did not necessarily indicate one was an outsider, greatly assisted them. 

Although the movement was unable to regain all of the land lost by Mexican Americans, it was able to prevent a similar scenario from occurring in the future. Throughout the Chicano movement, there was a protest against the mistreatment of Mexican American migrant farm laborers. These laborers moved throughout the country following agricultural seasons for incomes that kept their families well below the poverty line. Due to the constant relocation from one location to another, these laborers could only have a few children, as well as the children they had were only given a year or three years of school before beginning to work. These laborers were also exposed to dangerous chemicals since they were not provided with safety gear when working on crops. The Chicano movement established the National Farm Workers Association to put a stop to all of this agony. This organization equipped tactics such as a strike and a boycott to ensure that agricultural workers' rights were respected. With the movement in place, Mexican Americans were free to express their objectives and fight up to the injustices they had faced previously. Despite the fact that the union was unable to achieve its goals, the US government's cancellation of the Bracero program in 1964 reinforced its cause. The Bracero program authorized the entry of temporary employees from Mexico, when it was ended, the workforce was significantly reduced. As companies were hungry for human labor, the Union took full advantage of this chance to impact change. The collapse of Bracero was one of the better things that happened during the 1960s, this could have been used by the United Farm Workers to make a positive difference with how workers were treated, given the country's large number of desperate employees. Chicanos were driven into low-wage employment such as their parents as a result of uneven access to learning facilities and poor educational performance. Chicano teenagers were also drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, and despite the fact that the majority of them died, their contributions to their country were not recognized. The movement raised consciousness of this discrimination, therefore motivating the students in terms of race pride and participation. This motivated many to protest for educational change and walk out of schools. They also requested to include Mexican American history in the curriculum for others to learn and employ Mexican American instructors.

The Chicanos were unable to get regular, well-paying occupations due to the absence of education. The movement's awareness, however, was shortly to change this. As a result, Mexican Americans began to absorb knowledge and alter their mindset that the education was biased. Many options and opportunities to enter politics opened up for Chicanos as they became more informed.