The Chicano Movement

Mexican Americans and PoliticsClass 6

January 26, 2006

From Last Time

Economic Change, 1945-1965

Sustained national economic growth Emergence of a new Mexican American middle

class Expansion of educational opportunities,

particularly higher education Labor shortages and new migration from Mexico

Bracero Program Undocumented migration

Particular growth in the Southwest and West Unions and division in Mexican American

communities over immigration policy

Social Change, 1945-1965

Heterogeneity among Mexican Americans Native and foreign born English and Spanish speaking Urban and rural Southwest and non-Southwest Class Degree of acculturation

The first “second generation” Sleepy Lagoon, the Zoot Suit riots and the

“pathologicization” of Mexican American youth

Today’s Discussion

The Chicano Movement

Culmination? After mid-1970s, rare to speak of a

distinct “Mexican American politics” Mexican Americans continue to have

distinct political interests and behaviors But, larger political system subsumes

Mexican American interests into Latino/Hispanic politics

Chicano Movement, however, is fitting culmination

The Era Chicano Movement part of a larger

movement for social change Civil Rights Movement Anti-War Movement Early phases of Women’s Rights and Gay

Rights Movements Movements not formally connected, but

shared some goals and strategies

Economic and Social Ethos of the Era

Economic Large middle class Economic growth Labor shortage New educational and employment opportunities Beginnings of large-scale immigration from

countries other than Mexico Social

New educated elite More social and residential integration Mexican American suburbanization

Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil

Rights Movement“Taking Back the Schools”

Questions to Consider:1. What resources did students and parents

have to challenge educational discrimination?

2. What barriers did they face?3. Would they have been able to mount these

challenges in 1945 or 1960? Why/why not?

For Next Time

1. How did the Chicano Movement organizations lay the foundation for the first “Latino” (or pan-ethnic) organizations?

2. What were the policy goals of the early Latino organizations?