Editing Chicano (section)

== Identity ==
[[File:Chicano Time Trip, panorama.jpg|thumb|270x270px|"Chicano Time Trip," mural by [[East Los Streetscapers]] (1977)]]
Chicano and Chicana identity reflects elements of ethnic, political, cultural and Indigenous [[hybridity]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hebebrand|first=Christina M.|title=Native American and Chicano/a Literature of the American Southwest: Intersections of Indigenous Literatures|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2004|isbn=9781135933470|page=96}}</ref> These qualities of what constitutes Chicano identity may be expressed by Chicanos differently. Armando Rendón wrote in the ''Chicano Manifesto'' (1971), "I am Chicano. What it means to me may be different than what it means to you." [[Benjamin Alire Sáenz]] wrote "There is no such thing as the Chicano voice: there are only Chicano and Chicana ''voices''."<ref name="Montoya-2016-1" /> The identity can be somewhat ambiguous (e.g. in the 1991 [[Culture Clash (performance troupe)|Culture Clash]] play ''A Bowl of Beings'', in response to [[Che Guevara]]'s demand for a definition of "Chicano", an "armchair activist" cries out, "I still don't know!").<ref name="auto">{{Cite book|last=Mariscal|first=George|title=Brown-eyed Children of the Sun: Lessons from the Chicano Movement, 1965-1975|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|year=2005|isbn=9780826338051|page=296}}</ref>

Many Chicanos understand themselves as being "neither from here, nor from there", as neither from the United States or Mexico.<ref name="Bruce-Novoa 19902">{{cite book|title=Retro/Space: Collected Essays on Chicano Literature: Theory and History|last=Bruce-Novoa|first=Juan|date=1990|publisher=Arte Público Press|location=Houston, Texas}}</ref> Juan Bruce-Novoa wrote in 1990: "A Chicano lives in the space between the hyphen in [[Mexican-American]]."<ref name="Bruce-Novoa 19902" /> Being Chicano/a may represent the struggle of being institutionally [[acculturated]] to assimilate into the Anglo-dominated society of the United States, yet maintaining the cultural sense developed as a Latin-American cultured U.S.-born Mexican child.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199666317.001.0001/acref-9780199666317-e-4513&gt;.|title=Chicano – Oxford Reference|last1=Butterfield|first1=Jeremy|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acref/9780199666317.001.0001|access-date=2016-04-15|year=2016|isbn=9780199666317|editor1-last=Butterfield|editor1-first=Jeremy}}</ref> Rafael Pérez-Torres wrote, "one can no longer assert the wholeness of a Chicano subject ... It is illusory to deny the nomadic quality of the Chicano community, a community in flux that yet survives and, through survival, affirms itself."<ref name="Pérez-Torres 1995 61–62">{{Cite book|last=Pérez-Torres|first=Rafael|title=Movements in Chicano Poetry: Against Myths, Against Margins|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1995|isbn=9780521478038|pages=61–68}}</ref>

=== Ethnic identity ===
[[File:ChicanoManTattoo.jpg|alt=|thumb|212x212px|A man in [[San Antonio, Texas]], with an arm tattoo of the word ''Chicano''. Photo by Jesse Acosta.]]
''Chicano'' is a way for Mexican Americans to assert ethnic solidarity and ''Brown Pride.'' Boxer [[Rodolfo Gonzales]] was one of the first to reclaim the term in this way. This ''Brown Pride'' movement established itself alongside the [[Black is beautiful|''Black is Beautiful'']] movement.<ref name="Stephen-2007">{{Cite book|title=Transborder Lives: Indigenous Oaxacans in Mexico, California, and Oregon|last=Stephen|first=Lynn|publisher=Duke University Press Books|year=2007|isbn=9780822339908|pages=223–225}}</ref><ref>Moore, J. W.; Cuéllar, A. B. (1970). ''Mexican Americans''. Ethnic Groups in American Life series. Englewood, Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. p. 149. {{ISBN|9780135794906}}.</ref> Chicano identity emerged as a symbol of pride in having a non-white and non-European image of oneself.<ref name="Salazar-1970" /> It challenged the [[U.S. census]] designation "Whites with Spanish Surnames" that was used in the 1950s.<ref name="Stephen-2007" /> Chicanos asserted ethnic pride at a time when Mexican assimilation into American culture was being promoted by the U.S. government. [[Ian Haney López]] argues that this was to "serve Anglo self-interest", who claimed Mexicans were white to try to deny [[racism]] against them.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice|url=https://archive.org/details/racismontrialchi00hane|url-access=limited|last=Haney López|first=Ian F.|publisher=Belknap Press|year=2004|isbn=9780674016293|page=[https://archive.org/details/racismontrialchi00hane/page/n94 82]}}</ref>
[[File:Map of the languages of Mexico.png|left|thumb|175x175px|Chicanos may be of [[Indigenous peoples of Mexico#Population genetics|Indigenous descent from different Indigenous peoples of Mexico]].<ref name="Arteaga-1997" /> 2014 map showing languages with over 100,000 speakers.]]
[[Alfred Arteaga]] argues that Chicano as an ethnic identity is born out of the [[European colonization of the Americas]]. He states that Chicano arose as hybrid ethnicity or race amidst colonial violence.<ref name="Arteaga-1997" /> This hybridity extends beyond a previously generalized "Aztec" ancestry, since the [[Indigenous peoples of Mexico]] are a diverse group of nations and peoples.<ref name="Arteaga-1997" /> A 2011 study found that 85 to 90% of maternal [[mtDNA]] lineages in Mexican Americans are Indigenous.<ref name="Merriwether-1997">{{Cite journal |last1=Merriwether |first1=D. A. |last2=Huston |first2=S. |last3=Iyengar |first3=S. |last4=Hamman |first4=R. |last5=Norris |first5=J. M. |last6=Shetterly |first6=S. M. |last7=Kamboh |first7=M. I. |last8=Ferrell |first8=R. E. |date=February 1997 |title=Mitochondrial versus nuclear admixture estimates demonstrate a past history of directional mating |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9066897/ |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=102 |issue=2 |pages=153–159 |doi=10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199702)102:2<153::AID-AJPA1>3.0.CO;2-# |issn=0002-9483 |pmid=9066897|hdl=2027.42/37680 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Chicano ethnic identity may involve more than just Indigenous and Spanish ancestry. It may also include African ancestry (as a result of Spanish slavery or runaway slaves from Anglo-Americans).<ref name="Arteaga-1997" /> Arteaga concluded that "the physical manifestation of the Chicano, is itself a product of hybridity."<ref name="Arteaga-1997">{{Cite book|title=Chicano Poetics: Heterotexts and Hybridities|last=Arteaga|first=Alfred|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1997|isbn=9780521574921|page=11}}</ref>[[File:Mi Gente.jpg|thumb|"Mi Gente" at [[Coronado Bridge]]|233x233px]]Robert Quintana Hopkins argues that [[Afro-Chicano]]s are sometimes erased from the ethnic identity "because so many people uncritically apply the '[[One-drop rule|one drop rule]]' in the U.S. [which] ignores the complexity of racial hybridity."<ref>{{Cite web|title=AfroChicano Press|url=http://www.afrochicanopress.com/interview|last=Quintana Hopkins|first=Robert|date=2009|website=AfroChicano Press|access-date=2020-06-01|archive-date=2020-07-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726014949/http://www.afrochicanopress.com/interview|url-status=live}}</ref> Black and Chicano communities have engaged in close political movements and struggles for liberation, yet there have also been tensions between Black and Chicano communities.<ref name="Johnson-2002" /> This has been attributed to [[racial capitalism]] and [[Anti-Blackness in the U.S.|anti-Blackness]] in Chicano communities.<ref name="Johnson-2002">{{Cite book|last=Johnson|first=Gaye T. M.|title=Decolonial Voices: Chicana and Chicano Cultural Studies in the 21st Century|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2002|isbn=9780253108814|pages=316–317|chapter=A Sifting of Centuries: Afro-Chicano Interaction and Popular Musical Culture in California, 1960-2000}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gosin |first=Monika |title=The Racial Politics of Division: Interethnic Struggles for Legitimacy in Multicultural Miami |publisher=Cornell University Press |date=15 June 2019 |isbn=9781501738265 |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> Afro-Chicano rapper Choosey stated "there's a stigma that Black and Mexican cultures don't get along, but I wanted to show the beauty in being a product of both."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Premiere: Choosey And Exile ft. Aloe Blacc Yearn For A California Style Ride On "Low Low"|url=https://www.vibe.com/2019/02/premiere-choosey-and-exile-ft-aloe-blacc-4-low-low|last=Rosario|first=Richy|date=14 February 2019|website=Vibe|access-date=1 June 2020|archive-date=30 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200630023836/https://www.vibe.com/2019/02/premiere-choosey-and-exile-ft-aloe-blacc-4-low-low|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Political identity ===
{{See also|Chicano nationalism|Chicana feminism}}
[[File:Youth from the Florencia barrio of South Central Los Angeles arrive at Belvedere Park for La Marcha Por La Justicia, on January 31, 1971.jpg|thumb|Youth from the Florencia ''[[Barrioization|barrio]]'' of [[South-central Los Angeles|South Central Los Angeles]] arrive at Belvedere Park for La Marcha Por La Justicia (1971)|left|222x222px]]
Chicano political identity developed from a reverence of [[Pachuco]] resistance in the 1940s. [[Luis Valdez]] wrote that "Pachuco determination and pride grew through the 1950s and gave impetus to the Chicano Movement of the 1960s ... By then the political consciousness stirred by the 1943 [[Zoot Suit Riots]] had developed into a movement that would soon issue the Chicano Manifesto—a detailed platform of political activism."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Zoot-Suit Riots: The Psychology of Symbolic Annihilation|last=Mazón|first=Mauricio|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=1989|isbn=9780292798038|page=[https://archive.org/details/zootsuitriotspsy0000mazo/page/118 118]|url=https://archive.org/details/zootsuitriotspsy0000mazo/page/118}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Chicano Timespace: The Poetry and Politics of Ricardo Sánchez|last=López|first=Miguel R.|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|year=2000|isbn=9780890969625|page=[https://archive.org/details/chicanotimespace00lope/page/113 113]|url=https://archive.org/details/chicanotimespace00lope/page/113}}</ref> By the 1960s, the Pachuco figure "emerged as an icon of resistance in Chicano cultural production."<ref name="Ramírez-2009" /> The [[Pachucas|Pachuca]] was not regarded with the same status.<ref name="Ramírez-2009" /> Catherine Ramírez credits this to the Pachuca being interpreted as a symbol of "dissident femininity, female masculinity, and, in some instances, lesbian sexuality".<ref name="Ramírez-2009">{{Cite book|title=The Woman in the Zoot Suit: Gender, Nationalism, and the Cultural Politics of Memory|last=Ramírez|first=Catherine S.|publisher=Duke University Press Books|year=2009|isbn=9780822343035|pages=109–111}}</ref>
[[File:Four Brown Berets leaders, Fred Lopez, David Sanchez , Carlos Montes and Ralph Ramirez in Los Angeles, Calif., 1968 (cropped).jpg|thumb|212x212px|[[Brown Berets]] leaders in 1968.]]
The political identity was founded on the principle that the U.S. nation-state had impoverished and exploited the Chicano people and communities. Alberto Varon argued that this brand of Chicano nationalism focused on the [[machismo]] subject in its calls for political resistance.<ref name="Varon-2018" /> Chicano [[machismo]] was both a unifying and fracturing force. [[Cherríe Moraga]] argued that it fostered [[homophobia]] and [[sexism]], which became obstacles to the Movement.<ref name="Saldívar-Hull-2000" /> As the Chicano political consciousness developed, Chicanas, including Chicana [[lesbian]]s of color brought attention to "[[reproductive rights]], especially sterilization abuse [<nowiki/>[[sterilization of Latinas]]], [[battered women]]'s shelters, [[rape crisis center]]s, [and] [[welfare spending|welfare]] advocacy."<ref name="Saldívar-Hull-2000" /> Chicana texts like ''Essays on La Mujer'' (1977), ''Mexican Women in the United States'' (1980), and ''[[This Bridge Called My Back]]'' (1981) have been relatively ignored even in [[Chicana/o studies|Chicano Studies]].<ref name="Saldívar-Hull-2000" /> Sonia Saldívar-Hull argued that even when Chicanas have challenged [[sexism]], their identities have been invalidated.<ref name="Saldívar-Hull-2000">{{Cite book|last=Saldívar-Hull|first=Sonia|title=Feminism on the Border: Chicana Gender Politics and Literature|publisher=University of California Press|year=2000|isbn=9780520207332|pages=29–34}}</ref>[[File:1994 No On 187 March Kings Canyon Rd Fresno.jpg|thumb|258x258px|[[Brown Berets|Brown Beret]] in [[Fresno, California|Fresno]] for No on [[1994 California Proposition 187|Prop 187]] (1994)]]
Chicano political activist groups like the [[Brown Berets]] (1967–1972; 1992–Present) gained support in their protests of educational inequalities and demanding an end to [[police brutality]].<ref name="Meier-2003" /> They collaborated with the [[Black Panther Party|Black Panthers]] and [[Young Lords]], which were founded in 1966 and 1968 respectively. Membership in the Brown Berets was estimated to have reached five thousand in over 80 chapters (mostly centered in California and Texas).<ref name="Meier-2003" /> The Brown Berets helped organize the [[Chicano Blowouts]] of 1968 and the national [[Chicano Moratorium]], which protested the high rate of Chicano casualties in the [[Vietnam War]].<ref name="Meier-2003" /> Police harassment, infiltration by federal [[Agent provocateur|agents provacateur]] via [[COINTELPRO]], and internal disputes led to the decline and disbandment of the Berets in 1972.<ref name="Meier-2003" /> Sánchez, then a professor at [[East Los Angeles College]], revived the Brown Berets in 1992 prompted by the high number of Chicano homicides in [[Los Angeles County, California|Los Angeles County]], hoping to replace the gang life with the Brown Berets.<ref name="Meier-2003">{{Cite book|title=The Mexican American Experience: An Encyclopedia|last1=Meier|first1=Matt S.|last2=Gutiérrez|first2=Margo|publisher=Greenwood|year=2003|isbn=9780313316432|pages=[https://archive.org/details/mexicanamericane0000meie/page/55 55–56]|url=https://archive.org/details/mexicanamericane0000meie/page/55}}</ref>

[[Reies Tijerina]], who was a vocal claimant to the rights of Latin Americans and Mexican Americans and a major figure of the early [[Chicano Movement]], wrote: "The Anglo press degradized the word 'Chicano.' They use it to divide us. We use it to unify ourselves with our people and with Latin America."<ref>{{cite book|title=They Called Me King Tiger: My Struggle for the Land and Our Rights|last1=Tijerina|first1=Reies|last2=Gutiérrez|first2=José Ángel|date=2000|publisher=Art Público Press|isbn=9781558853027|location=Houston, TX|author-link=Reies Tijerina|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/theycalledmeking0000tije}}</ref>

=== Cultural identity ===
[[File:Fiestas Patrias Parade, South Park, Seattle, 2015 - 367 - lowriders (21565007376).jpg|left|thumb|222x222px|[[Lowrider|Lowriding]] is a part of Chicano culture. The 1964 [[Chevrolet Impala]] has been described as "the automobile of choice among Chicano lowriders."<ref name="auto"/>]]
''Chicano'' represents a cultural identity that is neither fully "American" or "Mexican." Chicano culture embodies the "in-between" nature of [[cultural hybridity]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Chicano Professionals: Culture, Conflict, and Identity|last=Renteria|first=Tamis Hoover|publisher=Routledge|year=1998|isbn=9780815330936|pages=67–68}}</ref> Central aspects of Chicano culture include [[Lowrider|lowriding]], [[Chicano rap|hip hop]], [[Chicano rock|rock]], [[graffiti art]], theater, [[Chicano murals|muralism]], visual art, literature, poetry, and more. Mexican American celebrities, artists, and actors/actresses help bring Chicano culture to light and contribute to the growing influence it has on American pop culture. In modern-day America you can now find Chicanos in all types of professions and trades.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Shaping a New Century {{!}} Mexican {{!}} Immigration and Relocation in U.S. History {{!}} Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress {{!}} Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/mexican/shaping-a-new-century/ |access-date=2023-12-12 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA |archive-date=2023-12-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231212055943/https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/mexican/shaping-a-new-century/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Notable subcultures include the [[Cholo (subculture)|Cholo]], [[Pachucas|Pachuca]], [[Pachuco]], and [[Pinto (subculture)|Pinto]] subcultures. Chicano culture has had international influence in the form of lowrider car clubs in [[Brazil]] and [[England]], music and youth culture in [[Japan]], [[Māori people|Māori]] youth enhancing [[lowrider bicycle]]s and taking on cholo style, and intellectuals in [[France]] "embracing the deterritorializing qualities of Chicano [[subjectivity]]."<ref name="Perez-Torres-2018">{{Cite book |last=Perez-Torres |first=Rafael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LElnDwAAQBAJ |title=Routledge Handbook of Chicana/o Studies |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2018 |isbn=9781317536697 |chapter=The embodied epistemology of Chicana/o mestizaje |format=E-book}}</ref>

As early as the 1930s, the precursors to Chicano cultural identity were developing in [[Los Angeles|Los Angeles, California]] and the [[Southwestern United States]]. Former [[zoot suit]]er Salvador "El Chava" reflects on how racism and poverty forged a hostile social environment for Chicanos which led to the development of gangs: "we had to protect ourselves".<ref name="Bojórquez-2019">{{Cite book|title=Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology|last=Bojórquez|first=Charles "Chaz"|publisher=Duke University Press Books|year=2019|isbn=9781478003007|chapter=Graffiti is Art: Any Drawn Line That Speaks About Identity, Dignity, and Unity... That Line Is Art}}</ref> ''[[Barrioization|Barrios]]'' and ''[[Colonia (United States)|colonias]]'' (rural ''barrios'') emerged throughout [[southern California]] and elsewhere in neglected districts of cities and outlying areas with little infrastructure.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Barrio Gangs: Street Life and Identity in Southern California|last=Diego Vigil|first=James|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=1988|isbn=9780292711198|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780292711198/page/16 16–17]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780292711198/page/16}}</ref> Alienation from public institutions made some Chicano youth susceptible to [[gang]] channels, who became drawn to their rigid hierarchical structure and assigned social roles in a world of government-sanctioned disorder.<ref name="DiegoVigil-1988">{{Cite book|title=Barrio Gangs: Street Life and Identity in Southern California|last=Diego Vigil|first=James|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=1988|isbn=9780292711198|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780292711198/page/150 150]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780292711198/page/150}}</ref>
[[File:Zoot Suit, Mexican "drape style".png|thumb|290x290px|Mexican American man in a drape style zoot suit.]]
[[Pachuco]] culture, which probably originated in the El Paso-Juarez area,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Cordova |first=Ruben C. |date=November 13, 2021 |title=Adan Hernandez Paints the Black of Night, Part I: The Birth of Chicano Noir |url=https://glasstire.com/2021/11/13/adan-hernandez-paints-the-black-of-night-part-i-the-birth-of-chicano-noir/ |access-date=March 18, 2023 |website=Glasstire |archive-date=March 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230318185404/https://glasstire.com/2021/11/13/adan-hernandez-paints-the-black-of-night-part-i-the-birth-of-chicano-noir/ |url-status=live }}</ref> spread to the borderland areas of [[California]] and [[Texas]] as ''Pachuquismo'', which would eventually evolve into ''[[Chicanismo]]''. Chicano zoot suiters on the west coast were influenced by Black zoot suiters in the jazz and swing music scene on the [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]].<ref name="FranciscoJackson-2009" /> Chicano zoot suiters developed a unique cultural identity, as noted by [[Charles "Chaz" Bojórquez]], "with their hair done in big [[Pompadour (hairstyle)|pompadours]], and "draped" in tailor-made suits, they were swinging to their own styles. They spoke ''[[Caló (Chicano)|Cálo]]'', their own language, a cool jive of half-English, half-Spanish rhythms. [...] Out of the zootsuiter experience came [[lowrider]] cars and culture, clothes, music, tag names, and, again, its own [[graffiti]] language."<ref name="Bojórquez-2019" /> San Antonio–based Chicano artist Adan Hernandez regarded pachucos as "the coolest thing to behold in fashion, manner, and speech."<ref name=":0" /> As described by artist Carlos Jackson, "Pachuco culture remains a prominent theme in Chicano art because the contemporary urban ''[[Cholo#United States|cholo]]'' culture" is seen as its heir.<ref name="FranciscoJackson-2009">{{Cite book|last=Francisco Jackson|first=Carlos|title=Chicana and Chicano Art: ProtestArte|publisher=University of Arizona Press|year=2009|isbn=9780816526475|page=135}}</ref>
[[File:Lowrider Chicago SuperShow 2010 - 4908052982.jpg|left|thumb|222x222px|Family photo with [[lowrider bicycle]]s at the Chicago SuperShow (2010)]]
Many aspects of Chicano culture like [[Lowrider|lowriding]] cars and [[Lowrider bicycle|bicycles]] have been stigmatized and policed by Anglo Americans who perceive Chicanos as "juvenile delinquents or gang members" for their embrace of nonwhite style and cultures, much as they did Pachucos.<ref name="Kun-2013" /> These negative societal perceptions of Chicanos were amplified by media outlets such as the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''.<ref name="Kun-2013" /> Luis Alvarez remarks how negative portrayals in the media served as a tool to advocate for increased policing of Black and Brown male bodies in particular: "Popular discourse characterizing nonwhite youth as animal-like, hypersexual, and criminal marked their bodies as "other" and, when coming from city officials and the press, served to help construct for the public a social meaning of African Americans and Mexican American youth [as, in their minds, justifiably [[criminalize]]d]."<ref name="Kun-2013">{{Cite book|title=Black and Brown in Los Angeles: Beyond Conflict and Coalition|last1=Kun|first1=Josh|last2=Pulido|first2=Laura|publisher=University of California Press|year=2013|isbn=9780520275607|pages=180–181}}</ref>[[File:Industrial Fest at Encore.jpg|thumb|212x212px|Performer at Industrial Fest in [[Austin, Texas]] (2010)]]
Chicano [[rave culture]] in [[southern California]] provided a space for Chicanos to partially escape [[criminalization]] in the 1990s. Artist and archivist [[Guadalupe Rosales]] states that "a lot of teenagers were being criminalized or profiled as criminals or gangsters, so the party scene gave access for people to escape that".<ref name="Manatakis-2018">{{Cite news|last=Manatakis|first=Lexi|date=19 September 2018|title=California's 1990s Chicano rave revolution as told through archived photos|work=DAZED|url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/41422/1/californias-90s-chicano-rave-revolution-archive-guadalupe-rosales-aperture|access-date=26 June 2020|archive-date=27 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627080444/https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/41422/1/californias-90s-chicano-rave-revolution-archive-guadalupe-rosales-aperture|url-status=live}}</ref> Numerous party crews, such as Aztek Nation, organized events and parties would frequently take place in neighborhood backyards, particularly in [[East Los Angeles, California|East]] and [[South Los Angeles]], the surrounding valleys, and [[Orange County, California|Orange County]].<ref name="Bahloul-2019">{{Cite news|last=Bahloul|first=Maria|date=17 January 2019|title=These Photos Tell the Forgotten Story of LA's Latinx Rave Scene in the 90s|work=Vice|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/map-pointz-guadalupe-rosales-la-latin-rave-scene-90s-interview-2019/|access-date=26 June 2020|archive-date=6 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806014954/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xwjejz/map-pointz-guadalupe-rosales-la-latin-rave-scene-90s-interview-2019|url-status=live}}</ref> By 1995, it was estimated that over 500 party crews were in existence. They laid the foundations for "an influential but oft-overlooked Latin dance subculture that offered community for Chicano ravers, [[queer]] folk, and other marginalized youth."<ref name="Bahloul-2019" /> Ravers used map points techniques to derail [[police raid]]s. Rosales states that a shift occurred around the late 1990s and increasing violence affected the Chicano party scene.<ref name="Manatakis-2018" />

=== Indigenous identity ===
[[File:Dia de los Muertos is a celebration of life DVIDS782602.jpg|thumb|212x212px|[[Day of the Dead|Día de los Muertos]] in [[El Paso, Texas|Lincoln Park, El Paso]] (2012). A 2011 study found that 85 to 90% of [[maternal]] [[mtDNA]] lineages in Mexican Americans are Indigenous.<ref name="Merriwether-1997" />]]
Chicano identity functions as a way to reclaim one's [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous American]], and often [[Indigenous Mexican]], ancestry—to form an identity distinct from European identity, despite some Chicanos being of partial European descent—as a way to resist and subvert colonial domination.<ref name="Pérez-Torres 1995 61–62"/> Rather than part of [[European Americans|European American]] culture, [[Alicia Gaspar de Alba|Alicia Gasper de Alba]] referred to ''Chicanismo'' as an "''alter-Native'' culture, an Other American culture Indigenous to the land base now known as the West and Southwest of the United States."<ref name="GasperDeAlba-2002">{{Cite book|last=Gasper De Alba|first=Alicia|title=Velvet Barrios: Popular Culture and Chicana/o Sexualities|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2002|isbn=9781403960979|page=xxi}}</ref> While influenced by [[Settler|settler-imposed systems]] and structures, Alba refers to Chicano culture as "not immigrant but native, not foreign but colonized, not alien but different from the overarching hegemony of [[White Americans|white America]]."<ref name="GasperDeAlba-2002" />

The [[Plan Espiritual de Aztlán]] (1969) drew from [[Frantz Fanon]]'s ''[[The Wretched of the Earth]]'' (1961). In ''Wretched'', Fanon stated: "the past existence of an [[Aztec Civilization|Aztec civilization]] does not change anything very much in the diet of the Mexican peasant today", elaborating that "this passionate search for a national culture which existed before the colonial era finds its legitimate reason in the anxiety shared by native intellectuals to shrink away from that of [[Western culture]] in which they all risk being swamped ... the native intellectuals, since they could not stand wonderstruck before the history of today's barbarity, decided to go back further and to delve deeper down; and, let us make no mistake, it was with the greatest delight that they discovered that there was nothing to be ashamed of in the past, but rather dignity, glory, and solemnity."<ref name="Pérez-Torres 1995 61–62" />
[[File:Aztlan codex boturini.jpg|left|thumb|197x197px|The first page of the likely [[Pre-Columbian era|pre-Columbian]] [[Codex Boturini]], depicting the [[Mexica]]'s migration from [[Aztlán]].]]
The [[Chicano Movement]] adopted this perspective through the notion of [[Aztlán]]—a mythic Aztec homeland which Chicanos used as a way to connect themselves to a precolonial past, before the time of the {{" '}}gringo' invasion of our lands."<ref name="Pérez-Torres 1995 61–62" /> Chicano scholars have described how this functioned as a way for Chicanos to reclaim a diverse or imprecise Indigenous past; while recognizing how Aztlán promoted divisive forms of [[Chicano nationalism]] that "did little to shake the walls and bring down the structures of power as its rhetoric so firmly proclaimed".<ref name="Pérez-Torres 1995 61–62" /> As stated by Chicano historian [[Juan Gómez-Quiñones]], the Plan Espiritual de Aztlán was "stripped of what radical element it possessed by stressing its alleged romantic idealism, reducing the concept of Aztlán to a psychological ploy ... all of which became possible because of the Plan's incomplete analysis which, in turn, allowed it ... to degenerate into [[reformism]]."<ref name="Pérez-Torres 1995 61–62" />

While acknowledging its romanticized and exclusionary foundations, Chicano scholars like Rafael Pérez-Torres state that Aztlán opened a [[subjectivity]] which stressed a connection to Indigenous peoples and cultures at a critical historical moment in which ''Mexican-Americans'' and Mexicans were "under pressure to [[Cultural assimilation|assimilate]] particular standards—of beauty, of identity, of aspiration. In a Mexican context, the pressure was to urbanize and Europeanize ... "Mexican-Americans" were expected to accept anti-indigenous discourses as their own."<ref name="Pérez-Torres 1995 61–62" /> As Pérez-Torres concludes, Aztlán allowed "for another way of aligning one's interests and concerns with community and with history ... though hazy as to the precise means in which agency would emerge, Aztlán valorized a [[Chicanismo]] that rewove into the present previously devalued lines of descent."<ref name="Pérez-Torres 1995 61–62" /> Romanticized notions of ''Aztlán'' have declined among some Chicanos, who argue for a need to reconstruct the place of Indigeneity in relation to Chicano identity.<ref>{{Cite web|date=9 June 2019|title='Chicano' and the fight for identity|url=https://www.sfexaminer.com/national-news/chicano-and-the-fight-for-identity/|access-date=1 August 2019|website=San Francisco Examiner|archive-date=1 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190801100809/https://www.sfexaminer.com/national-news/chicano-and-the-fight-for-identity/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=3 April 2019|title=At L.A. Meeting, Mexican American Student Group MEChA Considers Name Change Amid Generational Divisions|url=https://ktla.com/2019/04/03/at-l-a-meeting-mexican-american-student-group-mecha-considers-name-change-amid-generational-divisions/|access-date=1 August 2019|website=KTLA 5|archive-date=1 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190801100806/https://ktla.com/2019/04/03/at-l-a-meeting-mexican-american-student-group-mecha-considers-name-change-amid-generational-divisions/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[File:2019 San Francisco Carnaval Grand Parade 131 (49490820491).jpg|thumb|197x197px|Xiuhcoatl Danza Azteca at the [[San Francisco]] Carnaval Grand Parade in [[Mission District, San Francisco|Mission District]]]]
[[Danza Azteca]] grew popular in the U.S. with the rise of the Chicano Movement, which inspired some "Latinos to embrace their ethnic heritage and question the Eurocentric norms forced upon them."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Nittle|first=Nadra|date=25 August 2020|title=For Danza Azteca Groups, Dancing is Prayer and Protest in Motion|url=https://www.kcet.org/shows/southland-sessions/for-danza-azteca-groups-dancing-is-prayer-and-protest-in-motion|website=KCET|access-date=10 November 2020|archive-date=10 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201110141521/https://www.kcet.org/shows/southland-sessions/for-danza-azteca-groups-dancing-is-prayer-and-protest-in-motion|url-status=live}}</ref> The use of pre-contact Aztec cultural elements has been critiqued by some Chicanos who stress a need to represent the diversity of Indigenous ancestry among Chicanos.<ref name="Arteaga-1997" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Beltran|first=Cristina|title=The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2010|isbn=9780195375916|pages=26–27}}</ref> [[Patrisia Gonzales]] portrays Chicanos as descendants of the [[Indigenous peoples of Mexico]] who have been displaced by colonial violence, positioning them as "[[Detribalization|detribalized]] Indigenous peoples and communities."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Red Medicine: Traditional Indigenous Rites of Birthing and Healing|last=Gonzales|first=Patrisia|publisher=University of Arizona Press|year=2012|isbn=9780816529568|page=xxv}}</ref> [[Roberto Cintli Rodríguez]] describes Chicanos as "[[De-Indigenization|de-Indigenized]]," which he remarks occurred "in part due to religious indoctrination and a violent uprooting from the land", detaching millions of people from [[Maize|maíz]]-based cultures throughout the greater [[Mesoamerica]]n region.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Our Sacred Maíz Is Our Mother : Indigeneity and Belonging in the Americas|last=Rodríguez|first=Roberto Cintli|publisher=University of Arizona Press|year=2014|isbn=9780816530618|page=202}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Our Sacred Maíz Is Our Mother: Indigeneity and Belonging in the Americas|last=Rodríguez|first=Roberto Cintli|publisher=University of Arizona Press|year=2014|isbn=9780816530618|pages=8–9}}</ref> Rodríguez asks how and why "peoples who are clearly red or brown and undeniably Indigenous to this continent have allowed ourselves, historically, to be framed by bureaucrats and the courts, by politicians, scholars, and the media as alien, illegal, and less than human."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Our Sacred Maíz Is Our Mother: Indigeneity and Belonging in the Americas|last=Rodríguez|first=Roberto Cintli|publisher=University of Arizona Press|year=2014|isbn=9780816530618|pages=xx-xxi}}</ref>
[[File:NVTV - Roberto Tinoco Duran -The Jaguar Poet- (Purépecha-Chícaño).webm|thumb|212x212px|Roberto Tinoco Durán, a [[Purépecha]]-Chícaño poet, interviewed on Native Voice TV (2017).]]
[[Gloria E. Anzaldúa]] has addressed Chicano's [[detribalization]]: "In the case of Chicanos, being 'Mexican' is not a tribe. So in a sense Chicanos and Mexicans are 'detribalized'. We don't have tribal affiliations but neither do we have to carry ID cards establishing tribal affiliation."<ref name="Anzaldúa-2009" /> Anzaldúa recognized that "Chicanos, [[Person of color|people of color]], and 'whites{{'"}} have often chosen "to ignore the struggles of Native people even when it's right in our ''caras'' (faces)," expressing disdain for this "willful ignorance".<ref name="Anzaldúa-2009" /> She concluded that "though both "detribalized urban mixed bloods" and Chicanos are recovering and reclaiming, this society is killing off urban mixed bloods through [[cultural genocide]], by not allowing them equal opportunities for better jobs, schooling, and health care."<ref name="Anzaldúa-2009">{{Cite book|title=The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader|url=https://archive.org/details/gloriaanzaldarea00glor|url-access=limited|last=Anzaldúa|first=Gloria|publisher=Duke University Press Books|year=2009|isbn=9780822345640|pages=[https://archive.org/details/gloriaanzaldarea00glor/page/n300 289]–290}}</ref> Inés Hernández-Ávila argued that Chicanos should recognize and reconnect with their roots "respectfully and humbly" while also validating "those peoples who still maintain their identity as original peoples of this continent" in order to create radical change capable of "transforming our world, our universe, and our lives".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Velvet Barrios: Popular Culture and Chicana/o Sexualities|last=Estrada|first=Gabriel E.|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2002|isbn=9781403960979|page=55|chapter=The "Macho" Body as Social Malinche}}</ref>