Chicano/a/x: Native of or descends from Mexico and who lives in the United States. Chicano, Chicana, or Chicanx is a chosen political identity of some Mexican Americans in the United States rooted in the Chicano Movement. The term Chicano/a/x is a political ideology, used as an assertion of self and identity, to define an experience separate from the American or Mexican. Identifying as Chicano/a/x is a declaration of cultural awareness, pride, and an oppositional identity.
Chicanismo emerged as the cultural consciousness behind the Chicano Movement. The central aspect of Chicanismo is the identification of Chicanos with their Indigenous American roots to create an affinity with the notion that they are native to the land rather than immigrants. Chicanismo brought a new sense of nationalism for Chicanos that extended the notion of family to all Chicano people. Barrios, or working-class neighborhoods, became the cultural hubs for the people. It created a symbolic connection to the ancestral ties of Mesoamerica and the Nahuatl language through the situating of Aztlán, the ancestral home of the Aztecs, in the southwestern United States. Chicanismo also rejected Americanization and assimilation as a form of cultural destruction of the Chicano people, fostering notions of Brown Pride. Xicanisma has been referred to as an extension of Chicanismo.
Beginning in the 1960’s, as a new generation of Mexican Americans, many now calling themselves Chicanas and Chicanos, entered institutions of higher education and creative professions in record numbers. This generation largely turned away from assimilation and embraced an identity based on cultural nationalism. Many were simultaneously influenced by anti-imperialist critiques of social class inequality, capitalism, and neocolonialism.
For Chicanos, the search for social equality and identity led to a greater civil rights struggle while simultaneously producing a cultural movement. Much of this movement was documented through art. The art produced during this time is one of protest, evolution, and the actualization of Chicanismo. Artists participated in the Chicano movement by producing images that countered institutions of White supremacy. Chicano artists emphasize the pride, rich cultural heritage, hard work, and resistance of Mexican and Chicanx communities.
The evolving civil rights movement of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s revolutionized the consciousness of young people across the United States. As in African American communities, a new sense of mobilization spread among Mexican Americans. Many adopted a more political identity—Chicano and Chicana—and explored their history, which was omitted from school textbooks. The Chicano movement sought to remedy the injustices experienced by many Mexican Americans, from substandard education and housing to working conditions. Many symbols and ideas of the Chicano movement were taken from the pre-Hispanic past, especially Mexica history. Aztlán, the original homeland in the Aztec migration stories, has an important place in Chicano mythology. As a symbolic reclamation of their place in American history, Chicanos locate Aztlán in the Southwest United States, in the area conquered during the Mexican-American War.