Chicano Community Analysis

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After America took land from Mexico in the Mexican American war of 1848 it decided to economically dominate the rest of Mexico's land. With the threat of further military invasion, the U.S. offered Mexico's leaders a piece of the pie in return for allowing the US takeover of the Mexican economy (Gonzales, 2000). Under US influence, the Mexican government took land away from its peasants and sold it to US investors who in turn built railroads to transport the natural resources of Mexico to the U.S. (Gonzales, 2000). Soon the US controlled not only the politics of Mexico but the economy as well. With the thousands of landless peasants, and new job openings due to the railroads being built northward, a northern migration soon developed within…show more content…
Because this method of dealing with confrontations seemed to work and in a way demand respect, the Barrios began to develop a “Code of the Street" attitude in which they valued their toughness as a means to get respect over the economic progress that they saw as impossible. (Elijah Anderson, 1999). By standing up physically to their oppressors, the Mexican community gained a sense of control and self worth in their lives. As this subculture grew within the Chicano community, toughness became the way of proving your manhood and gaining respect instead of economic success. The Chicano community did not have many “successful” role models, except their parents who were exploited in their jobs for long hours and little pay. And, because the Barrios brought a sense of respect to the marginalized Chicanos, some youth became attracted to the barrios. If people feel they are achieving this toughness it helps their self-esteem because they feel as though they have no chance to make it in other areas of life such as school and work. Therefore, for many youths, this seemed more realistic than economic or scholastic success. Often parents needed to work excessive hours for little pay forcing a certain amount of neglect of their…show more content…
However, as more marginalized youth began to value this Code, more people started to join the barrios and concentrate on being chingon (tough, bad ass). Therefore, the norms it produced became more deviant. Being tough is considered a masculine expression and as this became a norm in the barrios fighting became the measurement of proving ones self, gaining respect and establishing pecking orders between barrios and within the barrio itself. As more and more of these gang members’ egos became entrenched in the Code of the Street and its activities, many began to over conform to the values of the Code (Elijah Anderson, 1999). These values are deviant to the majority of society, but because this value system exists in this community over conformity is not always seen as deviant to them (Coakley, ch. 6). In summary, as a result of Chicanos lack of opportunities, due to their economic situation, some develop an ideology that values toughness and this produces activities of violent expressions such as fighting. In using this theory, I am making the assumption that as economic restructuring worsened Chicanos’ position in society it also socially
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