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Essay on Chicano Movement
The Chicano movement (or movements) was born during the disorderly era of 1950-1970. Its initial driving force was from the charismatic preacher Reies Lopez Tijerina. In Northern Mexico, he fought to regain control of ancestral lands. He became involved in civil rights causes within six years and also became a cosponsor of the Poor People's March on Washington in 1967 (Carlos, 2003).The Chicano movement consisted of hundreds of organizations focusing on a variety of issues. Broadly speaking, these groups were found in barrios, schools, and prisons. In terms of their approaches, they could be divided into those associations that sought to work through the system and those that called for a major restructuring of the system, the moderate and radical wings of the movement respectively. As the Chicano movement began, in the mid-sixties, the moderates predominated. The key organization representing their perspective was undoubtedly the United Farm Workers.
The key to understanding the Chicano experience today is to know that the heritage of people of Mexican ancestry in the United States stretches back thousands of years and includes European, Indian and African influences. For many, their ancestral roots on American soil predate the arrival of the Mayflower. The Chicano Civil Rights Movement of the 1970s not only sought social justice and equality for Mexican-Americans, but also sought to reclaim and educate people of their rich heritage. No single story or definition neatly depicts the Chicano experience, just as no one story can capture the heart and soul of any group in the United States. The Chicano experience is diverse, complex and dynamic (Carlos, 2003).
It can be said that the Chicano Movement has been fomenting since the end of the U.S. Mexican War in 1848, when the current U.S-Mexican border took form and hundreds of thousands of Mexicans became U.S. citizens overnight. Since that time.......
