The Chicano Movement

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June 26, 2010 Chicano by Arturo Rosales The Chicano Movement was a political movement that occurred at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. “El movimiento” (as it became known to its thousands of participants) did not follow a strategic plan and it did not have designated leaders. César Chávez, Reies López Tijerina, and Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales emerged as the leading symbols of the Chicano Movement. The Chicano Movement was not as central to American consciousness because the plight of Mexican Americans was not as recognized as the sin of slavery. For many Chicano activists, the Black civil rights struggle was crucial in persuading them to pursue the path that eventually led them to the movimiento. Mexican American youth excitedly discussed the plight of their people, whom they knew had been repressed. Three reasons accounted for activists to take the path to politicization: One, the media and white liberals were not as interested in Mexican American issues as they were in the abhorrent treatment of Blacks. Two, the extent of racism and oppression was either denied or masked over by an overly optimistic appraisal of access to the U.S. opportunity structure in the Mexican American era of civil rights. Three, a common notion was that the Mexican Americans did not suffer from the same racism to which Black Americans did. Students played a central role in the Chicano fight for justice. Notable student groups include, United Mexican American Students and Mexican American Youth Association. Members of such groups staged walkouts from schools in Denver and Los Angeles in 1968. In 1966, Reies López Tijerina led a three-day march from Albuquerque, N.M., to the state capital of Santa Fe, where he gave the governor a petition calling for the investigation of Mexican land grants. He argued the U.S.’s annexing of
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