Chicano names

Last updated
Nahuatl symbol for xochitl, a flower. Xochitl is one of the most common names adopted by Chicanos after the Chicano Movement. Xochitl-Flor-Flower.png
Nahuatl symbol for xōchitl, a flower. Xochitl is one of the most common names adopted by Chicanos after the Chicano Movement.

Chicano naming practices formed out of the cultural pride that was established in the Chicano Movement. [1] [3] This motivated some Chicanos to adopt Indigenous Mexican names, often Aztec (or Nahuatl) in origin, for themselves and their children, rather than Spaniard names, [1] which were first imposed onto Indigenous Mexico in the 16th century through the Spanish colonization of the Americas. [4] The other significant development in naming that emerged from the Chicano Movement was to inspire Chicanos not to anglicize their names, maintaining Spanish spellings and pronunciations. [1] [3]

Contents

Background

Prior to the Spanish colonization of Mexico, Indigenous peoples had their own naming conventions and names. [5] This was significantly altered in the 16th century, with the arrival of Spaniards and the shift in balance to Spanish power in the region. [5]

Catholic baptisms and conversion ceremonies often accompanied the practice of Christian missionaries changing Indigenous people's names to Hispanic, and especially Christian names, such as Jose, Maria, Gonzalo, Francisco, Antonio, Jesus, Ana, and Magdalena. [5] [6] According to Julian Segura Camacho, this was an attempt to destroy their culture and identity. [5]

Despite this public performance, many Indigenous people's often resisted Hispanicization and maintained their traditions, even if only in their own cuallis (or homes). [5] This led to the survival of Indigenous names over hundreds of years. [5]

Adopting Nahuatl names

As a result of the Chicano Movement, Chicanos who had pride in their Indigenous Mexican roots sometimes adopted or named their children Nahuatl names. [1] Although Chicanos may have roots from many different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, adoption of Nahuatl names is most common to create pride in one's heritage. [2] [7] [8]

Name adoption often accompanies at least a beginner's knowledge of the Nahuatl language. [8] [9] The name may reflect one's birth relationship to the Aztec calendar, being granted a name from an elder, or carefully selecting a name that reflects one's personality. [8] [9] Some common names include:

Resisting anglicization

Prior to the Chicano Movement, the anglicization of Spaniard names among Mexican Americans was the norm. [3] This was both imposed onto Mexican American children from Anglo institutions, most often schools, or from their parents who often believed anglicization of their names would bring their child less prejudice or anti-Mexican sentiment. [3] [12] The Chicano Movement inspired Chicanos to keep Spanish spellings and pronunciations, [1] even as anglicization still continued among others. [12]

Examples of anglicization

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuitláhuac</span> Tenth Tlatoani of Tenochtitlan

Cuitláhuac or Cuitláhuac was the 10th Huey Tlatoani (emperor) of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan for 80 days during the year Two Flint (1520). He is credited with leading the resistance to the Spanish and Tlaxcalteca conquest of the Mexica Empire, following the death of his kinsman Moctezuma II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuauhtémoc</span> Eleventh and final Tlatoani of Tenochtitlan

Cuauhtémoc, also known as Cuauhtemotzín, Guatimozín, or Guatémoc, was the Aztec ruler (tlatoani) of Tenochtitlan from 1520 to 1521, making him the last Aztec Emperor. The name Cuauhtemōc means "one who has descended like an eagle", and is commonly rendered in English as "Descending Eagle", as in the moment when an eagle folds its wings and plummets down to strike its prey. This is a name that implies aggressiveness and determination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aztecs</span> Ethnic group of central Mexico and its civilization

The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico - particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to the 16th centuries. Aztec culture was organized into city-states (altepetl), some of which joined to form alliances, political confederations, or empires. The Aztec Empire was a confederation of three city-states established in 1427: Tenochtitlan, city-state of the Mexica or Tenochca, Texcoco, and Tlacopan, previously part of the Tepanec empire, whose dominant power was Azcapotzalco. Although, the term Aztecs is often narrowly restricted to the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, it is also broadly used to refer to Nahua polities or peoples of central Mexico in the prehispanic era, as well as the Spanish colonial era (1521–1821). The definitions of Aztec and Aztecs have long been the topic of scholarly discussion ever since German scientist Alexander von Humboldt established its common usage in the early 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aztlán</span> Legendary ancestral home of the Aztec

“Aztlán” is the ancestral home of the Aztec peoples. Astekah is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan". Aztlan is mentioned in several ethnohistorical sources dating from the colonial period, and while they each cite varying lists of the different tribal groups who participated in the migration from Aztlan to central Mexico, the Mexica who went on to found Mexico-Tenochtitlan are mentioned in all of the accounts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nahuas</span> Indigenous ethnic group in Central America

The Nahuas are a group of the indigenous people of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. They comprise the largest indigenous group in Mexico and second largest in El Salvador. The Mexica (Aztecs) were of Nahua ethnicity, and the Toltecs are often thought to have been as well, though in the pre-Columbian period Nahuas were subdivided into many groups that did not necessarily share a common identity.

Tlatoani is the Classical Nahuatl term for the ruler of an āltepētl, a pre-Hispanic state. It is the noun form of the verb "tlahtoa" meaning "speak, command, rule". As a result, it has been variously translated in English as "king", "ruler", or "speaker" in the political sense. Above a tlahtoani is the Huey Tlahtoani, sometimes translated as "Great Speaker", though more usually as "Emperor". A cihuatlatoani is a female ruler, or queen regnant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tlacopan</span> Former city-state in the Valley of Mexico

Tlacopan, also called Tacuba, was a Tepanec / Mexica altepetl on the western shore of Lake Texcoco. The site is today the neighborhood of Tacuba, in Mexico City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aztec Empire</span> Imperial alliance of city states located in central Mexico during the 15th and 16th centuries

The Aztec Empire or the Triple Alliance was an alliance of three Nahua city-states: Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan. These three city-states ruled that area in and around the Valley of Mexico from 1428 until the combined forces of the Spanish conquistadores and their native allies who ruled under Hernán Cortés defeated them in 1521.

The Tlaxcalans, or Tlaxcaltecs, are a Nahua people who live in the Mexican state of Tlaxcala.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Aztecs</span>

The Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. They called themselves Mēxihcah.

<span title="Classical Nahuatl-language text"><i lang="nci">Altepetl</i></span> 14th century city-state in central America

The altepetl was the local, ethnically-based political entity, usually translated into English as "city-state," of pre-Columbian Nahuatl-speaking societies in the Americas. The altepetl was constituted of smaller units known as calpolli and was typically led by a single dynastic ruler known as a tlatoani, although examples of shared rule between up to five rulers are known. Each altepetl had its own jurisdiction, origin story, and served as the center of Indigenous identity. Residents referred to themselves by the name of their altepetl rather than, for instance, as "Mexicas." "Altepetl" was a polyvalent term rooting the social and political order in the creative powers of a sacred mountain that contained the ancestors, seeds and life-giving forces of the community. The word is a combination of the Nahuatl words ātl and tepētl. A characteristic Nahua mode was to imagine the totality of the people of a region or of the world as a collection of altepetl units and to speak of them on those terms. The concept is comparable to Maya cah and Mixtec ñuu. Altepeme formed a vast complex network which predated and outlasted larger empires, such as the Aztec and Tarascan state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire</span> 16th-century Spanish invasion of Mesoamerica

The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, also known as the Conquest of Mexico, the Spanish-Aztec War (1519–1521), or the Conquest of Tenochtitlan was one of the primary events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. There are multiple 16th-century narratives of the events by Spanish conquistadors, their indigenous allies, and the defeated Aztecs. It was not solely a small contingent of Spaniards defeating the Aztec Empire but a coalition of Spanish invaders with tributaries to the Aztecs, and most especially the Aztecs' indigenous enemies and rivals. They combined forces to defeat the Mexica of Tenochtitlan over a two-year period. For the Spanish, Mexico was part of a project of Spanish colonization of the New World after 25 years of permanent Spanish settlement and further exploration in the Caribbean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Codex Azcatitlan</span> 16th or 17th century Aztec pictorial manuscript

The Codex Azcatitlan is an Aztec codex detailing the history of the Mexica and their migration journey from Aztlán to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. The exact date when the codex was produced is unknown, but scholars speculate it was crafted some time between the mid-16th and 17th centuries. The name of this important Mexica pictorial manuscript was suggested by its first editor, Robert H. Barlow, who erroneously interpreted the anthill on page 2 as the glyph for “Aztlán.” In the Bibliothèque nationale de France, where it is housed, it is known as Histoire mexicaine, [Manuscrit] Mexicain 59–64.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexica</span> Nahuatl-speaking indigenous people of the Valley of Mexico

The Mexica were a Nahuatl-speaking people of the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of the Mexica Empire. The Mexica established Tenochtitlan, a settlement on an island in Lake Texcoco, in 1325. A dissident group in Tenochtitlan separated and founded the settlement of Tlatelolco with its own dynastic lineage. In 1521, they were conquered by an alliance of Spanish conquistadors and indigenous people including the Tlaxcaltecs led by Hernán Cortés.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonio Valeriano</span> Nahua writer, Mexican governor

Antonio Valeriano was a colonial Mexican, Nahua scholar and politician. He was a collaborator with fray Bernardino de Sahagún in the creation of the twelve-volume General History of the Things of New Spain, the Florentine Codex, He served as judge-governor of both his home, Azcapotzalco, and of Tenochtitlan, in Spanish colonial New Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian auxiliaries</span> Indigenous peoples of the Americas who aligned with the Spanish conquest

Indian auxiliaries were those indigenous peoples of the Americas who allied with Spain and fought alongside the conquistadors during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. These auxiliaries acted as guides, translators and porters, and in these roles were also referred to as yanakuna, particularly during the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. The term was also used for formations composed of indigenous warriors which were used by the Spanish for reconnaissance and combat duties. Indian auxiliaries continued to be used by the Spanish to maintain control over their colonies in the Americas; frequently stationed on the frontier, they were often used to suppress anti-colonial revolts such as Arauco War.

Julián Segura Camacho is an author of Mexican American literature. His works have been adopted by many national university libraries, including the University of California system, and the University of Texas.

Xicanx is an English-language gender-neutral neologism and identity referring to people of Mexican descent in the United States. The ⟨-x⟩ suffix replaces the ⟨-o/-a⟩ ending of Chicano and Chicana that are typical of grammatical gender in Spanish. The term references a connection to Indigeneity, decolonial consciousness, inclusion of genders outside the Western gender binary imposed through colonialism, and transnationality. In contrast, most Latinos tend to define themselves in nationalist terms, such as by a Latin American country of origin.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Peña, Manuel (2010-07-22). "The 'Chicano Renaissance'" (eBook). The Mexican American Orquesta: Music, Culture, and the Dialectic of Conflict. University of Texas Press. ISBN   978-0-292-78610-3.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Castillo, Ana (2014-12-01). Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma. 20th Anniversary Updated Edition. UNM Press. p. 99. ISBN   978-0-8263-5359-7.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Reich, Alice B.; Reich, Alice Higman (1989). The Cultural Construction of Ethnicity: Chicanos in the University. AMS Press. pp. 80–84. ISBN   978-0-404-19471-0.
  4. ↑ Camacho, Julián Segura (2005). The Chicano Treatise. University Press of America. p. 13. ISBN   978-0-7618-2923-2.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Camacho, Julián Segura (2005). The Chicano Treatise. University Press of America. ISBN   978-0-7618-2923-2.
  6. ↑ Heusinkveld, Paula (1994-12-17). Inside Mexico: Living, Traveling, and Doing Business in a Changing Society. Wiley. p. 24. ISBN   978-0-471-08979-7.
  7. 1 2 Delgadillo, Theresa Ann (1999). Exiles, Migrants, Settlers, and Natives: Literary Representations of Chicano/as and Mexicans in the Midwest. Julian Samora Research Institute, Michigan State University. p. 3.
  8. 1 2 3 Quimich (2014-01-15). "Nahuatl Names | Aztec Names" . Retrieved 2023-01-21.
  9. 1 2 Luna, Jennie (2012). Danza Mexica : indigenous identity, spirituality, activism, and performance. University of California, Davis. p. 272. ISBN   978-1-267-40051-2. OCLC   809689497.
  10. ↑ Hurtado, Aída; Gurin, Patricia (2023-01-10). Chicana/o Identity in a Changing U.S. Society: ¿Quién Soy? ¿Quiénes Somos?. University of Arizona Press. p. 11. ISBN   978-0-8165-5238-2.
  11. ↑ Rodriguez, Krystal (2018-03-08). "Santiago Salazar: Views from the Varrio". 5 Magazine. Retrieved 2023-01-21.
  12. 1 2 Valencia, Richard R. (2011). Chicano School Failure and Success: Past, Present, and Future. Routledge. p. 155. ISBN   978-1-136-86036-2.
  13. ↑ Murguía, Edward (1982). Chicano Intermarriage: A Theoretical and Empirical Study. Trinity University Press. p. 75. ISBN   978-0-911536-93-5.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.