The Chicano Movement Summary

The Chicano movement derives from early oppression of Mexicans. Robert Rodrigo, author of “The Origins and History of the Chicano Movement” acknowledges that, “At the end of the Mexican American war in 1848, Mexico lost half of its territory to the United States and its Mexican residents became ‘strangers in their own lands.’” In stating this fact, Rodrigo exemplifies the United States’ relations with Mexico, that, ultimately, led to their oppression. Moreover, these early relations led to social injustice for the Mexican community. Carlos Muñoz, author of The Chicano Movement: Mexican American History and the Struggle for Equality reports, “As a conquered people, beginning with the Texas-Mexico War of 1836 and the U.S. Mexico War of 1846-48, they have

“According to the U.S. Census,” Muñoz writes, “by 1930 the Mexican population had reached 1,225,207, or around 1% of the population.” As a result the discrimination became more widespread and an overall greater problem in the U.S. Soon, this racism became propaganda and was evident throughout the media, “Patriots and Eugenicists argued that ‘Mexicans would create the most insidious and general mixture of white, Indian, and Negro blood strains ever produced in America’ and that most of them were ‘hordes of hungry dogs, and filthy children with faces plastered with flies [...] human filth’ who were ‘promiscuous [...] apathetic peons and lazy squaws [who] prowl by night [...] stealing anything they can get their hands on,” Muñoz writes. This exhibits the vulgar racism that evolved into the Chicano movement. The Chicano movement started with injustice in education. “In Texas and California, Mexican Americans were involved in numerous desegregation court battles,” Muñoz reports, “the first was ‘Jesus Salvatierra v. Independent School District’ in Del Rio, Texas in 1930” This was a result of Mexican American students having less resources than their white counterparts.