Total population | |
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~42,000 (Los Angeles County) | |
Regions with significant populations | |
California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Georgia, Nevada | |
Languages | |
American English, African-American Vernacular English, Mexican Spanish | |
Related ethnic groups | |
African Americans, Mexican Americans, Afro-Mexicans |
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African Americans |
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Chicanos and Mexican Americans |
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Blaxicans are Americans who are both Black and Mexican American descent. [1] Some may prefer to identify as Afro-Chicano or Black Chicana/o and embrace Chicano identity, culture, and political consciousness. [2] [3] Most Blaxicans have origins in working class community interactions between African Americans and Mexican Americans. Los Angeles has been cited as the hub for Blaxican culture. In 2010, it was recorded that 42,000 people in Los Angeles County identified as both Black and Latino, most of whom are believed to be both Black and Mexican American. [1] [4]
Many Blaxicans experience erasure due to racial constructs in the United States, such as the "one-drop rule," high levels of anti-Blackness in Mexican American communities, as well as prejudices and rejection within Black American communities. [1] In both communities, their authenticity is frequently policed. [5] Scholars describe Blaxicans as "dual minorities" because of their origins from two communities which have historically been socially, politically, and economically disadvantaged and targeted under white supremacy. [5]
While Blaxican experiences have only recently gained visibility, scholars trace the origins of Black Mexican Americans in the United States to the founding of Pueblo de Los Ángeles in 1781, where it was recorded that 26 of the 44 Mexicans who founded the pueblo were Afro-Mexicans or Mexicans of African descent. [1]
In the 1960s and 1970s, Black and Chicano communities engaged in close political interactions "around civil rights struggles, union activism, and demographic changes," especially during the Black Power and Chicano Movement struggles for liberation. Tensions between Blacks and Chicanos also "increased [because of] competition for scarce resources," which has been described as "too often positioning workers of different races in opposition to each other." [4]
Scholars have noted that there have been historical tensions between Mexican American and African American communities that have caused challenges for people of both experiences. Blaxican scholar Walter Thompson-Hernandez states that "Blacks and Mexicans are two of the most aggrieved groups in our nation's history" and notes that anti-black racism among Mexican Americans is a major cause of tension and division between both communities. [1]
In the 1980s and 1990s there was an influx of Mexican immigrants moving into Black neighborhoods in South Los Angeles, which caused an increase in the Blaxican population. [1]
Scholar Rebecca Romo states that "Blaxican identities encompass tolerance for contradictions, ambiguity, and the juggling of two cultures" and compares this experience to Gloria E. Anzaldúa's idea of mestiza consciousness. Blaxicans on the East Coast of the United States are often mistaken for being Puerto Rican, Cuban, or Dominican because of the comparatively lower amount of Mexican Americans in that region. [5]
Blaxicans are often judged as not authentically Mexican if they appear to be mixed and Black or only appear to be Black and if they do not speak Spanish. The promotion of mestizaje in Mexico, or the idea that all Mexican people are mestizos, has been cited as a reason for this assumption. Another contributor to this idea was the assertion during the Chicano Movement of a distinctly Brown race. This has led to Blaxicans being assumed to know nothing of Mexican American culture because there is an assumption that if they look Black they also cannot be Mexican American. [5]
Similarly, Blaxicans are often judged as not authentically Black. Scholar Rebecca Romo states that "for African Americans, the stakes are higher when determining racial/ethnic authenticity" because of the ways in which "Black people are relegated to the lowest position on the racial structure and authenticity is equated to loyalty to Black liberation." Some markers of authenticity cited by Blaxicans include "dress, talk, hip-hop culture, knowledge of African American history, dancing, 'kinky,' 'afro,' or 'crinkly' hair, darker skin, and working-class status." [5]
Blaxican women reported experiencing more prejudice than Blaxican men in regard to policing their identity. In a study on Blaxican identity, Rebecca Romo found that "Blaxican women reported being exoticized by men in general, and by Mexican and African American men specifically." For Mexican heterosexual men, an awareness of Blaxican women being "more than Black made Blaxican women acceptable to pursue." Romo compares this to the idea of the mulata in Mexico, who "is an icon of sexual desire and a symbol for the danger of racial contamination through miscegenation." [5]
Blaxican men reported feeling they had "to conform to masculine expectations of Mexican men in the form of machismo ." [5]
Blaxican culture is a hybrid culture that combines elements from African American or Black and Mexican American or Chicano cultures. Photographer Walter Thompson-Hernandez covers the Blaxican experience in his Blaxicans of L.A. project. [6] Poets include Ariana Brown and Natasha Carrizosa. Musician and painter Ras Levy has also been noted. [7]
Recording artists include Miguel, [8] Kemo The Blaxican of Delinquent Habits, and Afro-Chicano rapper Choosey. Kemo The Blaxican states that Black and Latino hip hop artists have been coexisting since the days of early hip-hop. [9] Choosey states "there’s a stigma that Black and Mexican cultures don’t get along, but I wanted to show the beauty in being a product of both.” [3]
The Blaxican is a food truck owned by Will Turner in Atlanta, Georgia that serves "Mexican Soul Food" and has been operating for over ten years. A brick and mortar location opened up in 2016, but closed under economic pressure from the coronavirus outbreak in 2020. The food truck was saved after a campaign from Alexis Akarolo and Ze Clark, who started a fund to help Black businesses during the pandemic. [10]
Chicano or Chicana is an ethnic identity for Mexican Americans who have a non-Anglo self-image, embracing their Mexican Native ancestry. Chicano was originally a classist and racist slur used toward low-income Mexicans that was reclaimed in the 1940s among youth who belonged to the Pachuco and Pachuca subculture. In the 1960s, Chicano was widely reclaimed in the building of a movement toward political empowerment, ethnic solidarity, and pride in being of indigenous descent. Chicano developed its own meaning separate from Mexican American identity. Youth in barrios rejected cultural assimilation into whiteness and embraced their own identity and worldview as a form of empowerment and resistance. The community forged an independent political and cultural movement, sometimes working alongside the Black power movement.
Chicano rock, also called chicano fusion, is rock music performed by Mexican American (Chicano) groups or music with themes derived from Chicano culture. Chicano Rock, to a great extent, does not refer to any single style or approach. Some of these groups do not sing in Spanish at all, or use many specific Latin instruments or sounds. The subgenre is defined by the ethnicity of its performers, and as a result covers a wide range of approaches.
Chicano rap is a subgenre of hip hop that embodies aspects of the Mexican American or Chicano culture.
The Chicano Movement, also referred to as El Movimiento, was a social and political movement in the United States that worked to embrace a Chicano/a identity and worldview that combated structural racism, encouraged cultural revitalization, and achieved community empowerment by rejecting assimilation. Chicanos also expressed solidarity and defined their culture through the development of Chicano art during El Movimiento, and stood firm in preserving their religion.
Chicana feminism is a sociopolitical movement, theory, and praxis that scrutinizes the historical, cultural, spiritual, educational, and economic intersections impacting Chicanas and the Chicana/o community in the United States. Chicana feminism empowers women to challenge institutionalized social norms and regards anyone a feminist who fights for the end of women's oppression in the community.
The Spanish expression la Raza has historically been used to refer to the mixed-race populations, considered as an ethnic or racial unit historically deriving from the Spanish Empire, and the process of racial intermixing during the Spanish colonization of the Americas with the indigenous populations of the Americas.
Chicano poetry is a subgenre of Chicano literature that stems from the cultural consciousness developed in the Chicano Movement. Chicano poetry has its roots in the reclamation of Chicana/o as an identity of empowerment rather than denigration. As a literary field, Chicano poetry emerged in the 1960s and formed its own independent literary current and voice.
Chicano/a studies, also known as Chican@ studies, originates from the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, and is the study of the Chicana/o and Latina/o experience. Chican@ studies draws upon a variety of fields, including history, sociology, the arts, and Chican@ literature. The area of studies additionally emphasizes the importance of Chican@ educational materials taught by Chican@ educators for Chican@ students.
Rodolfo "Rudy" Francisco Acuña is an American historian, professor emeritus at California State University, Northridge, and a scholar of Chicano studies. He authored the 1972 book Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, approaching history of the Southwestern United States with a heavy emphasis on Mexican Americans. An eighth edition was published in 2014. Acuña has also written for the Los Angeles Times,The Los Angeles Herald-Express, La Opinión, and numerous other newspapers. His work emphasizes the struggles of Mexican American people. Acuña is an activist and he has supported numerous causes of the Chicano Movement. He currently teaches an on-line history course at California State University, Northridge.
Black Hispanic and Latino Americans, also called Afro-Hispanics, Afro-Latinos or Black Hispanics, or Black Latinos are classified by the United States Census Bureau, Office of Management and Budget, and other U.S. government agencies as Black people living in the United States with ancestry in Spain, Portugal or Latin America and/or who speak Spanish, and/or Portuguese as their first language.
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza is a 1987 semi-autobiographical work by Gloria E. Anzaldúa that examines the Chicano and Latino experience through the lens of issues such as gender, identity, race, and colonialism. Borderlands is considered to be Anzaldúa’s most well-known work and a pioneering piece of Chicana literature.
Black–brown unity, variations include black-brown-unity[4][5] and black-brown-red unity,[6] is a racial-political ideology which initially developed among black scholars, writers, and activists who pushed for global activist associations between black people and brown people ,and Indigenous peoples of the Americas to unify against white supremacy, colonialism, capitalism, and, in some cases, European conceptualizations of masculinity, which were recognized as interrelated in maintaining white racial privilege and power over people of color globally.[7][8]
Chicana literature is a form of literature that has emerged from the Chicana Feminist movement. It aims to redefine Chicana archetypes in an effort to provide positive models for Chicanas. Chicana writers redefine their relationships with what Gloria Anzaldúa has called "Las Tres Madres" of Mexican culture by depicting them as feminist sources of strength and compassion.
The Chicano Art Movement represents groundbreaking movements by Mexican-American artists to establish a unique artistic identity in the United States. Much of the art and the artists creating Chicano Art were heavily influenced by Chicano Movement which began in the 1960s.
Laura Aguilar was an American photographer. She was born with auditory dyslexia and attributed her start in photography to her brother, who showed her how to develop in dark rooms. She was mostly self-taught, although she took some photography courses at East Los Angeles College, where her second solo exhibition, Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell, was held. Aguilar used visual art to bring forth marginalized identities, especially within the LA Queer scene and Latinx communities. Before the term Intersectionality was used commonly, Aguilar captured the largely invisible identities of large bodied, queer, working-class, brown people in the form of portraits. Often using her naked body as a subject, she used photography to empower herself and her inner struggles to reclaim her own identity as “Laura”- a lesbian, fat, disabled, and brown person. Although work on Chicana/os is limited, Aguilar has become an essential figure in Chicano art history and is often regarded as an early "pioneer of intersectional feminism” for her outright and uncensored work. Some of her most well-known works are Three Eagles Flying, The Plush Pony Series, and Nature Self Portraits. Aguilar has been noted for her collaboration with cultural scholars such as Yvonne Yarbo-Berjano and receiving inspiration from other artists like Judy Dater. She was well known for her portraits, mostly of herself, and also focused upon people in marginalized communities, including LGBT and Latino subjects, self-love, and social stigma of obesity.
This is a Mexican American bibliography. This list consists of books, and journal articles, about Mexican Americans, Chicanos, and their history and culture. The list includes works of literature whose subject matter is significantly about Mexican Americans and the Chicano/a experience. This list does not include works by Mexican American writers which do not address the topic, such as science texts by Mexican American writers.
Tara J. Yosso is a professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside. Yosso's research and teaching apply the frameworks of critical race theory and critical media literacy to examine educational access and opportunity. Specifically, Yosso is interested in understanding how communities of color have historically utilized an array of cultural knowledge, skills, abilities, and networks to overcome structural discrimination and pursue educational equality. She has authored numerous collaborative and interdisciplinary chapters and articles, publishing in venues such as the Harvard Educational Review,International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education,Journal of Popular Film and Television, and The Blackwell Companion to Social Inequalities. She has been awarded a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship for Diversity and Excellence in University Teaching, and honored with a Derrick Bell Legacy Award from the Critical Race Studies in Education Association. She is extensively cited within and beyond the field of education.
Chicana art emerged as part of the Chicano Movement in the 1960s. It used art to express political and social resistance through different art mediums. Chicana artists explore and interrogate traditional Mexican-American values and embody feminist themes through different mediums such as murals, painting, and photography. The momentum created from the Chicano Movement spurred a Chicano Renaissance among Chicanas and Chicanos. Artists voiced their concerns about opression and empowerment in all areas of race, gender, class, and sexuality. Chicana feminist artists and Anglo-feminist took a different approach in the way they collaborated and made their work during the 1970's. Chicana feminist artists utilized artistic collaborations and collectives that included men, while Anglo-feminist artists generally utilized women-only participants.Art has been used as a cultural reclamation process for Chicana and Chicano artists allowing them to be proud of their roots by combining art styles to illustrate their multi-cultured lives.
The term Chicanafuturism was originated by scholar Catherine S. Ramírez which she introduced in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies in 2004. The term is a portmanteau of 'chicana' and 'futurism', inspired by the developing movement of Afrofuturism. The word 'chicana' refers to a woman or girl of Mexican origin or descent. However, 'Chicana' itself serves as a chosen identity for many female Mexican Americans in the United States, to express self-determination and solidarity in a shared cultural, ethnic, and communal identity while openly rejecting assimilation. Ramírez created the concept of Chicanafuturism as a response to white androcentrism that she felt permeated science-fiction and American society. Chicanafuturism can be understood as part of a larger genre of Latino futurisms.
Chicano cinema is an aspect of Mexican American cinema that refers to the filmmaking practices that emerged out of the cultural consciousness developed through the Chicano Movement. Luis Valdez is generally regarded as the first Chicano filmmaker and El Teatro Campesino as the first theater company.