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.
The House on Mango Street is a 1984 novel by Mexican-American author Sandra Cisneros. Structured as a series of vignettes, it tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, a 12-year-old Chicana girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago. Based in part on Cisneros's own experience, the novel follows Esperanza over the span of one year in her life, as she enters adolescence and begins to face the realities of life as a young woman in a poor and patriarchal community. Elements of the Mexican-American culture and themes of social class, race, sexuality, identity, and gender are interwoven throughout the novel.
Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales was a Mexican-American boxer, poet, political organizer, and activist. He was one of many leaders for the Crusade for Justice in Denver, Colorado. The Crusade for Justice was an urban rights and Chicano cultural urban movement during the 1960s focusing on social, political, and economic justice for Chicanos. Gonzales convened the first-ever Chicano Youth Liberation Conference in 1968, which was poorly attended due to timing and weather conditions. He tried again in March 1969, and established what is commonly known as the First Chicano Youth Liberation Conference. This conference was attended by many future Chicano activists and artists. It also birthed the Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, a pro-indigenist manifesto advocating revolutionary Chicano nationalism and self-determination for all Chicanos. Through the Crusade for Justice, Gonzales organized the Mexican American people of Denver to fight for their cultural, political, and economic rights, leaving his mark on history. He was honored with a Google Doodle in continued celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States on 30 September 2021.
Richard Thomas Castro, an educational and civil rights activist, was director of Denver's Agency for Human Rights and Community Relations at the time of his death from an aneurysm. In the 1970s, Castro had been the chairperson of the West Side Coalition, a Denver neighborhood organization. During that time, he was the subject of an attempted dynamite attack on his house, allegedly by Chicano radicals associated with Crusade for Justice members. He was beaten by Denver police and was shot.
Soy tu dueña is a Mexican telenovela produced by Nicandro Díaz González for Televisa. It is a remake of the telenovela La Dueña, produced in 1995.
Diane Francis Christine Felix, also known as Chili D, is an American disc jockey and LGBT activist. She is a third-generation Chicana from Stockton, California.
Vergüenza directly translates to shame in English, refers to the cultural and social phenomena that shapes, and often constricts Chicana/o and Latina/o lives to a more conservative, traditional mold. The role of vergüenza not only helps mold lives to a traditional mold, but serves primarily to maintain traditional gender roles, and reinforcing familial relations and expectations. Chicana/o scholars were important to theorizing and documenting verguenza, which has contributed to the fields of mental health and sociology.
Carlota D.d.R EspinoZa is an American painter, muralist, and activist in her Art. She is one of the early Latina / Chicana muralists in Denver with works in Cuba, San Francisco, Texas, Arizona, and Colorado.
Mexican-American folklore refers to the tales and history of Chicano people who live in the United States.
Maria Guajardo Lucero is an American educator and advocate for children and the Latino community. Born to illiterate Mexican migrant workers in California, she earned her undergraduate degree in psychology and social relations at Harvard University and her master's degree and doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Denver. From 1988 to 2013, she worked in several state and national government-level positions to increase opportunities for low-income children and Latinos, and served as executive director of the Latin American Research and Service Agency. In 2013 she moved to Tokyo, Japan, to develop a new degree program in international liberal arts at Sōka University. She served as dean of the program from 2013 to 2016, when she was promoted to vice president of the university (2016-2020). She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, and was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2010.
Alicia Cardenas was an Indigenous Mexican American painter, muralist, educator, activist and community organizer. She became a tattoo artist with her own business at a young age and was noted for being a Chicana feminist artist in Denver's male-dominated tattoo scene. She owned the Sol Tribe tattoo shop, which had been a longstanding feature of Denver. She was featured in a documentary on Chicano muralism by the Chicano Murals of Colorado Project, referred to as These Storied Walls. In her community, she was known as "Mama Matriarch." At the age of 44, she was murdered in a mass shooting, along with four other people.
Mary Romero is an American sociologist. She is Professor of Justice Studies and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University, with affiliations in African and African American Studies, Women and Gender Studies, and Asian Pacific American Studies. Before her arrival at ASU in 1995, she taught at University of Oregon, San Francisco State University, and University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Professor Romero holds a bachelor's degree in sociology with a minor in Spanish from Regis College in Denver, Colorado. She holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Colorado. In 2019, she served as the 110th President of the American Sociological Association.
Kali Fajardo-Anstine is an American novelist and short story writer from Denver, Colorado. She won was the 2020 American Book Award for Sabrina & Corina: Stories and was a 2019 finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction. Her first novel, Woman of Light: A Novel (2022), is a national bestseller and won the 2023 WILLA Literary Award in Historical Fiction. She is the 2022 - 2024 Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at Texas State University and a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow.
Carolína Acuña Díaz González was a businesswoman and activist in the Denver Latinx community. In the 1950's, she opened "Casa Mayan," a prominent restaurant and community gathering space.
Shirley Romero Otero is a Chicana activist who co-founded the Land Rights Council in 1977 to regain the rights for heirs of the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant. She is an educator and leader in the San Luis Valley region. She is the director of the Move Mountains Youth Project and sits on the board of directors of the Acequia Institute.
Deborah Martinez-Martinez is CEO of the publisher Vanishing Horizons and is an author who explores the history of the Southwestern United States. She worked in higher education admissions and recruitment for 20 years and advocates for more Chicanas in education.
Nicki Gonzales is an educator and historian. She is an associate professor of history at Regis University, and was the Colorado State Historian in 2021-2022. She was the first Latino person in this role.
Arlette Lucero is a visual artist, educator, and illustrator.
Renee Fajardo is an author, educator, and activist in Denver, Colorado. She is currently a faculty in Chicano Studies at Metropolitan State University Denver. She is the mother of author Kali Fajardo-Anstine.
The Corn Mothers and Return of the Corn Mothers: Inspiring Women of the Southwest exhibits are traveling exhibits honoring women in the southwestern U.S.
