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I Am Joaquin Analysis

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In the Chicano movement art was used through murals and poems to combat racism. The poem “I am Joaquin” was used to “exemplify the Chicano faith and strength of their community” (Quest for a Home Land). This was a tool to combat racism through the use of creative writing, thus showing the peaceful manner of the Chicano movement. The murals created by Chicano community exemplified their struggle in an Anglo American society and peaceful beauty of their culture that was once thought to be “savage and violent” (Mann, 15). In history our ancestor’s artistic expression was similar to the Chicano art to show our strength and pride of who we are, but early historians showed it as something “violent and uncultured” (Jackson, 10/20/15). A great example of the murals created was the development of Chicano park in San Diego, California. The Chicano turned the negatives of the area into something with hope, similar to how they took the term Chicano and turned it …show more content…

In “Quest for a Homeland” Rodolfo Gonzalez showed the Chicano’s ancestry roots through the connection of Atzlan. “I am Aztec princes and Christian Christ” (Quest for a Homeland), this statement refers to the cultural background of the Chicano community, which defeated the idea of racism in the sense of the Chicano community’s individualistic identity. Aztlan became the symbol for racial and cultural pride in the Chicano community, giving Chicano’s a sense of a home at a place that’s been denied to them. “Aztlan has become a symbolic trope used to promote racial and cultural pride” (Menchaca, 24). Aztlan is within every Chicano and gives them pride and will power to fight the oppression that’s been given to them for so long to fight off the negativity given to them by society. With this willpower now in place the Chicano community can go and seek out the history of their own culture and gain a historical

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