Editing Chicano (section)

== Political aspects ==

=== Anti-imperialism and international solidarity ===
{{See also|Anti-imperialism|Third World Liberation Front|Chicano Moratorium}}
[[File:Cuban rebel soldiers in the Habana Hilton foyer, January, 1959.jpg|alt=|thumb|268x268px|The [[Cuban Revolution]] was an inspirational event to many Chicanos as a challenge to [[American imperialism]].<ref name="Garcia-2014" />]]
During [[World War II]], Chicano youth were targeted by white [[Military personnel|servicemen]], who despised their "cool, measured indifference to the war, as well as an increasingly defiant posture toward whites in general".<ref name="McWilliams-1990" /> Historian [[Robin Kelley]] states that this "annoyed white servicemen to no end".<ref name="Kelley-1996" /> During the [[Zoot Suit Riots]] (1943), white rage erupted in [[Los Angeles]], which "became the site of racist attacks on [[Black people|Black]] and Chicano youth, during which white soldiers engaged in what amounted to a ritualized stripping of the zoot."<ref name="Kelley-1996">{{Cite book|last=Kelley|first=Robin|title=Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, And The Black Working Class|publisher=Free Press|year=1996|isbn=9781439105047|page=172}}</ref><ref name="McWilliams-1990">{{cite book|last1=McWilliams|first1=Carey|title=North from Mexico: The Spanish-speaking People of the United States|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=1990|isbn=9780313266317|series=Contributions in American History|author-link=Carey McWilliams (journalist)}}{{page needed|date=September 2012}}</ref> Zoot suits were a symbol of collective resistance among Chicano and Black youth against city [[Racial segregation|segregation]] and fighting in the war. Many Chicano and Black zoot-suiters engaged in [[draft evasion]] because they felt it was hypocritical for them to be expected to "fight for democracy" abroad yet face racism and oppression daily in the U.S.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Roberts|first=Michael James|title=Tell Tchaikovsky the News: Rock "n" Roll, the Labor Question, and the Musicians' Union, 1942–1968|publisher=Duke University Press|year=2014|isbn=9780822378839|page=60}}</ref>

This galvanized Chicano youth to focus on [[anti-war activism]], "especially influenced by the [[Third World]] movements of liberation in [[Asia]], [[Africa]], and [[Latin America]]." Historian Mario T. García reflects that "these anti-colonial and anti-Western movements for [[Wars of national liberation|national liberation]] and self-awareness touched a historical nerve among Chicanos as they began to learn that they shared some similarities with these [[Third World]] struggles."<ref name="Garcia-2014" /> Chicano poet [[Alurista]] argued that "Chicanos cannot be truly free until they recognize that the struggle in the United States is intricately bound with the anti-imperialist struggle in other countries."<ref>{{Cite book|last=López|first=Marissa K.|title=Chicano Nations: The Hemispheric Origins of Mexican American Literature|url=https://archive.org/details/chicanonationshe00lope|url-access=limited|publisher=NYU Press|year=2011|isbn=9780814752623|page=[https://archive.org/details/chicanonationshe00lope/page/n213 203]}}</ref> The [[Cuban Revolution]] (1953–1959) led by [[Fidel Castro]] and [[Che Guevara]] was particularly influential to Chicanos, as noted by García, who notes that Chicanos viewed the revolution as "a nationalist revolt against '[[American imperialism|Yankee imperialism]]' and [[Neocolonialism|neo-colonialism]]."<ref name="Garcia-2014">{{Cite book|last=Garcia|first=Mario T.|title=The Chicano Movement: Perspectives from the Twenty-First Century|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2014|isbn=9781135053666|page=8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Chomsky|first=Aviva|title=A History of the Cuban Revolution|publisher=Wiley|year=2010|isbn=9781444329568|page=94}}</ref>
[[File:General Emiliano Zapata.jpg|thumb|247x247px|[[Emiliano Zapata]] was a historical icon to some Chicanos.]]
In the 1960s, the [[Chicano Movement]] brought "attention and commitment to local struggles with an analysis and understanding of international struggles".<ref name="Mariscal-2014">{{Cite book|last=Mariscal|first=Jorge|title=Foreword: The Chicano Movement|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2014|isbn=9781135053666|pages=xiv–xv}}</ref> Chicano youth organized with Black, [[Latin Americans|Latin American]], and [[Filipinos|Filipino]] activists to form the [[Third World Liberation Front]] (TWLF), which fought for the creation of a [[Third world college|Third World college]].<ref name="Romo-2019" /> During the [[Third World Liberation Front strikes of 1968]], Chicano artists created posters to express solidarity.<ref name="Romo-2019" /> Chicano poster artist Rupert García referred to the place of artists in the movement: "I was critical of the police, of capitalist exploitation. I did posters of Che, of [[Emiliano Zapata|Zapata]], of other Third World leaders. As artists, we climbed down from the [[ivory tower]]."<ref name="Jackson-2009">{{Cite book|last=Jackson|first=Carlos Francisco|title=Chicana and Chicano Art: ProtestArte|publisher=University of Arizona Press|year=2009|isbn=9780816526475|pages=65–66}}</ref> Learning from [[Cuba]]n poster makers of the [[Cuban Revolution|post-revolutionary]] period, Chicano artists "incorporated international struggles for freedom and self-determination, such as those of [[Angola]], [[Chile]], and [[South Africa]]", while also promoting the struggles of [[Indigenous peoples|Indigenous people]] and other civil rights movements through [[Black-brown unity]].<ref name="Romo-2019">{{Cite book|last=Romo|first=Tere|title=Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology|publisher=Duke University Press|year=2019|isbn=9781478003403|chapter=To Seize the Moment: The Chicano Poster, Politics, and Protest 1965-1972}}</ref> Chicanas organized with [[women of color]] activists to create the [[Third World Women's Alliance]] (1968–1980), representing "visions of liberation in third world solidarity that inspired political projects among racially and economically marginalized communities" against U.S. capitalism and imperialism.<ref name="Blackwell-2016" />
[[File:El Gallo Chicano-Moratorium Article.jpg|left|thumb|296x296px|Local coverage of the [[Chicano Moratorium]]]]
The [[Chicano Moratorium]] (1969–1971) against the [[Vietnam War]] was one of the largest demonstrations of Mexican-Americans in history,<ref name="Oropeza-2005">{{Cite book|last=Oropeza|first=Lorena|title=Raza Si, Guerra No: Chicano Protest and Patriotism During the Viet Nam War Era|publisher=University of California Press|year=2005|isbn=9780520937994|pages=145–160}}</ref> drawing over 30,000 supporters in [[East Los Angeles, California|East L.A]]. [[Draft evasion in the Vietnam War|Draft evasion]] was a form of resistance for Chicano anti-war activists such as [[Rosalio Muñoz]], Ernesto Vigil, and Salomon Baldengro. They faced a [[felony]] charge—a minimum of five years prison time, $10,000, or both.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Series 1: Publications, 1962–2001 {{!}} Special Collections & Archives|url=https://archives.colorado.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/197899|access-date=2019-12-11|website=archives.colorado.edu|archive-date=2019-12-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191211214243/https://archives.colorado.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/197899|url-status=live}}</ref> In response, Munoz wrote "I declare my independence of the [[Selective Service System]]. I accuse the government of the United States of America of genocide against the Mexican people. Specifically, I accuse the draft, the entire social, political, and economic system of the United States of America, of creating a funnel which shoots Mexican youth into Vietnam to be killed and to kill innocent men, women, and children...."<ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Oropeza|first=Lorena|url=https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/3312228|title=La batalla está aquí! : Chicanos oppose the war in Vietnam /|date=1996|archive-date=2019-12-11|access-date=2020-05-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191211214238/https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/3312228|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Rodolfo Gonzales|Rodolfo Corky Gonzales]] expressed a similar stance: "My feelings and emotions are aroused by the complete disregard of our present society for the rights, dignity, and lives of not only people of other nations but of our own unfortunate young men who die for an abstract cause in a war that cannot be honestly justified by any of our present leaders."<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-07-20|title="Peace is Dignity": How Denver Activist Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales Viewed the Vietnam War|url=https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/peace-dignity-how-denver-activist-rodolpho-corky-gonzales-viewed-vietnam-war|access-date=2019-12-11|website=Denver Public Library History|language=en|archive-date=2019-12-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191211214249/https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/peace-dignity-how-denver-activist-rodolpho-corky-gonzales-viewed-vietnam-war|url-status=live}}</ref>

Anthologies such as [[This Bridge Called My Back|''This Bridge Called My Back'': ''Writings by Radical Women of Color'']] (1981) were produced in the late 1970s and early 80s by writers who identified as lesbians of color, including [[Cherríe Moraga]], [[Pat Parker]], [[Toni Cade Bambara]], [[Chrystos]] (self-identified claim of Menominee ancestry), [[Audre Lorde]], [[Gloria E. Anzaldúa]], [[Cheryl Clarke]], [[Jewelle Gomez]], [[Kitty Tsui]], and [[Hattie Gossett]], who developed a poetics of liberation. [[Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press]] and [[Third Woman Press]], founded in 1979 by Chicana feminist [[Norma Alarcón]], provided sites for the production of women of color and Chicana literatures and critical essays. While [[First World|first world]] feminists focused "on the [[Liberalism|liberal]] agenda of political rights", Third World feminists "linked their agenda for women's rights with economic and cultural rights" and unified together "under the banner of Third World solidarity".<ref name="Blackwell-2016" /> Maylei Blackwell identifies that this internationalist critique of capitalism and imperialism forged by women of color has yet to be fully historicized and is "usually dropped out of the false historical narrative".<ref name="Blackwell-2016">{{Cite book|last=Blackwell|first=Maylei|title=¡Chicana Power! Contested Histories of Feminism in the Chicano Movement|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=2016|isbn=9781477312667|pages=23, 156–159, 193}}</ref>

In the 1980s and 90s, [[Central America]]n activists influenced Chicano leaders. The [[Mexican American Legislative Caucus]] (MALC) supported the [[Esquipulas Peace Agreement]] in 1987, standing in opposition to [[Contras|Contra]] aid. Al Luna criticized [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] and American involvement while defending [[Nicaragua]]'s [[Sandinista National Liberation Front|Sandinista]]-led government: "President Reagan cannot credibly make public speeches for peace in Central America while at the same time advocating for a three-fold increase in funding to the Contras."<ref name="González-2010">{{Cite book|last=González|first=Antonio|title=Chicano Politics and Society in the Late Twentieth Century|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=2010|isbn=9780292778634|pages=160–69}}</ref> The Southwest Voter Research Initiative (SVRI), launched by Chicano leader [[Willie Velasquez|Willie Velásquez]], intended to educate Chicano youth about Central and Latin American political issues. In 1988, "there was no significant urban center in the Southwest where Chicano leaders and activists had not become involved in lobbying or organizing to change U.S. policy in Nicaragua."<ref name="González-2010" /> In the early 1990s, [[Cherríe Moraga]] urged Chicano activists to recognize that "the Anglo invasion of Latin America [had] extended well beyond the Mexican/American border" while [[Gloria E. Anzaldúa]] positioned Central America as the primary target of a [[US intervention in Latin America|U.S. interventionism]] that had murdered and displaced thousands. However, Chicano solidarity narratives of Central Americans in the 1990s tended to center themselves, stereotype Central Americans, and filter their struggles "through Chicana/o struggles, histories, and imaginaries."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rodríguez|first=Ana Patricia|title=Dividing the Isthmus: Central American Transnational Histories, Literatures, and Cultures|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=2009|isbn=9780292774582|pages=151–154}}</ref>
[[File:March Against Prop 187 in Fresno California 1994 (35357476831).jpg|thumb|222x222px|March against [[1994 California Proposition 187|Proposition 187]] in [[Fresno, California]] (1994)]]
Chicano activists organized against the [[Gulf War]] (1990–91). [[Raul Ruiz (journalist)|Raul Ruiz]] of the Chicano Mexican Committee against the Gulf War stated that U.S. intervention was "to support U.S. oil interests in the region."<ref name="Ruiz-2015">{{Cite book|last=Ruiz|first=Raul|title=The Chicano Generation: Testimonios of the Movement|publisher=University of California Press|year=2015|isbn=9780520961364|page=109}}</ref> Ruiz expressed, "we were the only Chicano group against the war. We did a lot of protesting in L.A. even though it was difficult because of the strong support for the war and the anti-Arab reaction that followed ... we experienced [[Racism|racist]] attacks [but] we held our ground."<ref name="Ruiz-2015" /> The end of the Gulf War, along with the [[Rodney King Riots]], were crucial in inspiring a new wave of Chicano political activism.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mora-Ninci|first=Carlos|title=The Chicano/a Student Movement in Southern California in the 1990s|publisher=University of California, Los Angeles|year=1999|page=360}}</ref> In 1994, one of the largest demonstrations of Mexican Americans in the history of the United States occurred when 70,000 people, largely Chicanos and [[Latinos]], marched in Los Angeles and other cities to protest [[1994 California Proposition 187|Proposition 187]], which aimed to cut educational and [[Welfare spending|welfare benefits]] for undocumented immigrants.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Oropeza|first=Lorena|title=Raza Si, Guerra No: Chicano Protest and Patriotism during the Viet Nam War Era|publisher=University of California Press|year=2005|isbn=9780520937994|pages=183–184}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Sanchez|first=Leonel|date=3 January 1995|title=Proposition 187 Led Young Chicanos to Action|work=San Diego Union-Tribune}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Denkmann|first=Libby|date=11 November 2019|title=After Prop 187 Came The Fall Of California's Once-Mighty GOP, And The Rise Of Latino Political Power|url=https://laist.com/2019/11/11/prop-187-political-impact-california-latino-participation-power-surges-republican-party-fading.php|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191218054635/https://laist.com/2019/11/11/prop-187-political-impact-california-latino-participation-power-surges-republican-party-fading.php|archive-date=18 December 2019|website=LAist}}</ref>

In 2004, Mujeres against Militarism and the Raza Unida Coalition sponsored a [[Day of the Dead]] vigil against militarism within the Latino community, addressing the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)|War in Afghanistan]] (2001–) and the [[Iraq War]] (2003–2011) They held photos of the dead and chanted "[[no blood for oil]]." The procession ended with a five-hour vigil at [[Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural]]. They condemned "the [[Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps|Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps]] (JROTC) and other military recruitment programs that concentrate heavily in Latino and African American communities, noting that JROTC is rarely found in upper-income Anglo communities."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Marchi|first=Regina M|title=Day of the Dead in the USA: The Migration and Transformation of a Cultural Phenomenon|publisher=Rutgers University Press|year=2009|isbn=9780813548579|page=80}}</ref> Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara organized a [[benefit concert]] for Latin@s Against the War in Iraq and ''Mexamérica por la Paz'' at [[Self Help Graphics & Art|Self-Help Graphics]] against the Iraq War. Although the events were well-attended, Guevara stated that "the Feds know how to manipulate fear to reach their ends: world military dominance and maintaining a foothold in an oil-rich region were their real goals."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Guevara|first=Rubén Funkahuatl|title=Confessions of a Radical Chicano Doo-Wop Singer|publisher=University of California Press|year=2018|isbn=9780520969667|pages=236–237}}</ref>

=== Labor organizing against capitalist exploitation ===
{{See also|United Farm Workers}}
[[File:BraceroProgram.jpg|thumb|230x230px|left|The U.S.-government-funded [[Bracero program]] (1942–1964) was lobbied for by grower associations in an effort to destroy local organizing efforts and depress the wages of domestic Mexican and Chicano farmworkers.<ref name="Menchaca-1995-1">{{Cite book|last=Menchaca|first=Martha|title=The Mexican Outsiders: A Community History of Marginalization and Discrimination in California|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=1995|isbn=9780292751743|pages=89–92}}</ref>]]

Chicano and Mexican labor organizers played an active role in notable [[labor strike]]s since the early 20th century including the [[Oxnard strike of 1903]], [[Pacific Electric Railway strike of 1903]], [[1919 Streetcar Strike of Los Angeles]], [[Cantaloupe strike of 1928]], [[California agricultural strikes of 1933|California agricultural strikes]] (1931–1941), and the [[Ventura County, California|Ventura County]] agricultural strike of 1941,<ref name="Menchaca-1995">{{Cite book|last=Menchaca|first=Martha|title=The Mexican Outsiders: A Community History of Marginalization and Discrimination in California|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=1995|isbn=9780292751743|pages=83–104}}</ref> endured [[mass deportation]]s as a form of [[strikebreaking]] in the [[Bisbee Deportation]] of 1917 and [[Mexican Repatriation]] (1929–1936), and experienced tensions with one another during the [[Bracero program]] (1942–1964).<ref name="Menchaca-1995-1" /> Although organizing laborers were harassed, sabotaged, and repressed, sometimes through warlike tactics from [[Capitalist class|capitalist]] owners<ref name="Mize-2010">{{Cite book|last1=Mize|first1=Ronald|title=Consuming Mexican Labor: From the Bracero Program to NAFTA|last2=Swords|first2=Alicia|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2010|isbn=9781442604094|pages=51–52}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=González|first=Gilbert G.|title=Mexican Consuls and Labor Organizing: Imperial Politics in the American Southwest|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=1999|isbn=9780292728233|page=131}}</ref> who engaged in coervice labor relations and collaborated with and received support from local police and community organizations, Chicano and Mexican workers, particularly in agriculture, have been engaged in widespread [[unionization]] activities since the 1930s.<ref name="Rosales-1997">{{Cite book|last=Rosales|first=F. Arturo|title=Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement|publisher=Arte Público Press|year=1997|isbn=9781558852013|pages=117–120}}</ref><ref name="Acuña-2007">{{Cite book|last=Acuña|first=Rodolfo|title=Corridors of Migration: The Odyssey of Mexican Laborers, 1600-1933|publisher=University of Arizona Press|year=2007|isbn=9780816526369|pages=239–242}}</ref>

Prior to unionization, agricultural workers, many of whom were [[undocumented alien]]s, worked in dismal conditions. Historian F. Arturo Rosales recorded a Federal Project Writer of the period, who stated: "It is sad, yet true, commentary that to the average landowner and grower in California the Mexican was to be placed in much the same category with ranch cattle, with this exception–the cattle were for the most part provided with comparatively better food and water and immeasurably better living accommodations."<ref name="Rosales-1997" /> Growers used cheap Mexican labor to reap bigger profits and, until the 1930s, perceived Mexicans as docile and compliant with their subjugated status because they "did not organize troublesome labor unions, and it was held that he was not educated to the level of unionism".<ref name="Rosales-1997" /> As one grower described, "We want the Mexican because we can treat them as we cannot treat any other living man ... We can control them by keeping them at night behind bolted gates, within a [[stockade]] eight feet high, surrounded by barbed wire ... We can make them work under armed guards in the fields."<ref name="Rosales-1997" />
[[File:Corcoran,_San_Joaquin_Valley_California._Company_housing_for_Mexican_cotton_pickers_on_large_ranch._-_NARA_-_521720.jpg|thumb|228x228px|Company housing for Mexican cotton pickers on a large ranch in [[Corcoran, California]] (1940)]]
Unionization efforts were initiated by the Confederación de Uniones Obreras (Federation of Labor Unions) in [[Los Angeles]], with twenty-one chapters quickly extending throughout [[southern California]], and La Unión de Trabajadores del Valle Imperial ([[Imperial Valley]] Workers' Union). The latter organized the [[Cantaloupe strike of 1928]], in which workers demanded better working conditions and higher wages, but "the growers refused to budge and, as became a pattern, local authorities sided with the farmers and through harassment broke the strike".<ref name="Rosales-1997" /> [[Communism|Communist]]-led organizations such as the [[Cannery and Agricultural Workers' Industrial Union]] (CAWIU) supported Mexican workers, renting spaces for cotton pickers during the [[California agricultural strikes of 1933|cotton strikes of 1933]] after they were thrown out of [[Company town|company housing]] by growers.<ref name="Acuña-2007" /> Capitalist owners used "[[red-baiting]]" techniques to discredit the strikes through associating them with communists. Chicana and Mexican working women showed the greatest tendency to organize, particularly in the Los Angeles garment industry with the [[International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union]], led by [[Anarchism|anarchist]] [[Rose Pesotta]].<ref name="Rosales-1997" />

During [[World War II]], the government-funded [[Bracero program]] (1942–1964) hindered unionization efforts.<ref name="Rosales-1997" /> In response to the California agricultural strikes and the 1941 Ventura County strike of Chicano and Mexican, as well as [[Filipinos|Filipino]], lemon pickers/packers, growers organized the Ventura County Citrus Growers Committee (VCCGC) and launched a [[Lobbying|lobbying campaign]] to pressure the U.S. government to pass laws to prohibit labor organizing. VCCGC joined with other grower associations, forming a powerful lobbying bloc in [[United States Congress|Congress]], and worked to legislate for (1) a Mexican guest workers program, which would become the Bracero program, (2) laws prohibiting strike activity, and (3) [[military deferment]]s for pickers. Their lobbying efforts were successful: unionization among farmworkers was made illegal, farmworkers were excluded from [[minimum wage]] laws, and the usage of [[Child labour|child labor]] by growers was ignored. In formerly active areas, such as [[Santa Paula, California|Santa Paula]], union activity stopped for over thirty years as a result.<ref name="Menchaca-1995" />
[[File:San Jose Chicano Rights Marches California003.jpg|alt=|thumb|227x227px|Chicano demonstrators marching for farmworkers with [[United Farm Workers Union]] signs|left]]
When [[World War II]] ended, the Bracero program continued. Legal anthropologist [[Martha Menchaca]] states that this was "regardless of the fact that massive quantities of crops were no longer needed for the war effort ... after the war, the braceros were used for the benefit of the large-scale growers and not for the nation's interest." The program was extended for an indefinite period in 1951.<ref name="Menchaca-1995" /> In the mid-1940s, labor organizer [[Ernesto Galarza]] founded the National Farm Workers Union (NFWU) in opposition to the Bracero Program, organizing a large-scale 1947 strike against the [[DiGiorgio Corporation|Di Giorgio Fruit Company]] in [[Arvin, California]]. Hundreds of Mexican, Filipino, and white workers walked out and demanded higher wages. The strike was broken by the usual tactics, with law enforcement on the side of the owners, evicting strikers and bringing in undocumented workers as strikebreakers. The NFWU folded, but served as a precursor to the [[United Farm Workers Union]] led by [[César Chávez]].<ref name="Rosales-1997" /> By the 1950s, opposition to the Bracero program had grown considerably, as unions, churches, and Mexican-American political activists raised awareness about the effects it had on American labor standards. On December 31, 1964, the U.S. government conceded and terminated the program.<ref name="Menchaca-1995" />

Following the closure of the Bracero program, domestic farmworkers began to organize again because "growers could not longer maintain the [[peon]]age system" with the end of imported laborers from Mexico.<ref name="Menchaca-1995" /> Labor organizing formed part of the [[Chicano Movement]] via the struggle of farmworkers against depressed wages and working conditions. César Chávez began organizing Chicano farmworkers in the early 1960s, first through the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) and then merging the association with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), an organization of mainly Filipino workers, to form the [[United Farm Workers]]. The labor organizing of Chávez was central to the expansion of unionization throughout the United States and inspired the [[Farm Labor Organizing Committee]] (FLOC), under the leadership of [[Baldemar Velasquez|Baldemar Velásquez]], which continues today.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gutiérrez|first=José Angel|title=Cesar Chavez|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2010|isbn=9780313364884|page=59|chapter=The First and Last of the Chicano Leaders}}</ref> Farmworkers collaborated with local Chicano organizations, such as in [[Santa Paula, California]], where farmworkers attended [[Brown Berets]] meetings in the 1970s and Chicano youth organized to improve working conditions and initiate an urban renewal project on the eastside of the city.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Menchaca|first=Martha|title=The Mexican Outsiders: A Community History of Marginalization and Discrimination in California|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=1995|isbn=9780292751743|pages=154–155}}</ref>
[[File:Administrator Gina McCarthy and United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez (21737756924).jpg|thumb|[[United Farm Workers]] president Arturo Rodriguez (2015)]]
Although Mexican and Chicano workers, organizers, and activists organized for decades to improve working conditions and increase wages, some scholars characterize these gains as minimal. As described by Ronald Mize and Alicia Swords, "piecemeal gains in the interests of workers have had very little impact on the capitalist agricultural labor process, so picking grapes, strawberries, and oranges in 1948 is not so different from picking those same crops in 2008."<ref name="Mize-2010" /> U.S. agriculture today remains totally reliant on Mexican labor, with Mexican-born individuals now constituting about 90% of the labor force.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wells|first=Barbara|title=Daughters and Granddaughters of Farmworkers: Emerging from the Long Shadow of Farm Labor|publisher=Rutgers University Press|year=2013|isbn=9780813570341|chapter=The Structure of Agriculture and the Organization of Farm Labor}}</ref>

=== Struggles in the education system ===
{{See also|Chicano studies|Chicano Blowouts}}
[[File:Sylvia Mendez.jpg|left|thumb|222x222px|[[Mendez v. Westminster]] (1947) overturned ''[[de jure]]'' segregation. Prior, most Mexican students were only allowed to attend designated "Mexican schools" that taught manual labor skills rather than academic education.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gonzales |first=Leticia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fNKXEAAAQBAJ |title=The untold story of Sylvia Mendez: school desegregation pioneer |date=2023 |isbn=9781669005049 |publisher=[[Capstone Publishers]] |location=North Mankato, Minnesota |page=4 |oclc=1336005572|via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>]]
Chicanos often endure struggles in the U.S. education system, such as being erased in [[curriculum]]s and devalued as students.<ref name="López-2009-1" /><ref name="Coffey-2016" /> Some Chicanos identify schools as colonial institutions that exercise control over colonized students by teaching Chicanos to idolize the American culture and develop a negative [[self-image]] of themselves and their [[worldview]]s.<ref name="López-2009-1" /><ref name="Coffey-2016" /> [[School segregation in the United States|School segregation]] between Mexican and white students was not legally ended until the late 1940s.<ref name="Gonzalez-2013">{{Cite book |last=Gonzalez |first=Gilbert G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KjA6Ngt3TQYC |via=[[Google Books]] |title=Chicano education in the era of segregation |date=2013 |isbn=9781574415162 |location=Denton, Texas |publisher=[[University of North Texas Press]] |pages=177–179, 200–202 |oclc=843881943}}</ref> In [[Orange County, California]], 80% of Mexican students could only attend schools that taught Mexican children manual education, or [[gardening]], [[bootmaking]], [[blacksmithing]], and [[carpentry]] for Mexican boys and sewing and homemaking for Mexican girls.<ref name="Gonzalez-2013" /> White schools taught academic preparation.<ref name="Gonzalez-2013" /> When [[Sylvia Mendez]] was told to attend a Mexican school, her parents brought suit against the court in [[Mendez v. Westminster|Mendez vs. Westminster]] (1947) and won.<ref name="Gonzalez-2013" />

Although legal segregation had been successfully challenged, ''[[de facto]]'' or segregation-in-practice continued in many areas.<ref name="Gonzalez-2013" /> Schools with primarily Mexican American enrollment were still treated as "Mexican schools" much as before the legal overturning of segregation.<ref name="Gonzalez-2013" /> Mexican American students were still treated poorly in schools.<ref name="Gonzalez-2013" /> Continued bias in the education system motivated Chicanos to protest and use [[direct action]], such as [[walkout]]s, in the 1960s.<ref name="López-2009-1">{{Cite book|last=López|first=Antonio Reyes|title=Breaching the Colonial Contract: Anti-Colonialism in the US and Canada|publisher=Springer Netherlands|year=2009|isbn=9781402099441|pages=91–104|chapter=Walking Out of Colonialism One Classroom at a Time: Student Walkouts and Colonial/Modern Disciplinary in El Paso, Texas}}</ref><ref name="Coffey-2016">{{Cite book|last1=Coffey|first1=Jerica|title="White" Washing American Education: The New Culture Wars in Ethnic Studies|last2=Espiritu|first2=Ron|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2016|isbn=9781440832567|page=232|chapter=Common Struggle: High School Ethnic Studies Approaches to Building Solidarity between Black and Brown Youth}}</ref> On March 5, 1968, the [[Chicano Blowouts]] at [[East Los Angeles, California|East Los Angeles]] High School occurred as a response to the racist treatment of Chicano students, an unresponsive school board, and a high dropout rate. It became known as "the first major mass protest against racism undertaken by Mexican-Americans in the history of the United States."<ref name="Suderburg-2000" /> [[File:Sal-Castro.png|255x255px|thumb|[[Sal Castro]] (1933–2013) inspired the [[East L.A. walkouts]].]]

[[Sal Castro]], a Chicano social science teacher at the school was arrested and fired for inspiring the walkouts. It was led by [[Harry Gamboa Jr.]] who was named "one of the hundred most dangerous and violent subversives in the United States" for organizing the student walkouts. The day prior, FBI director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] sent out a memo to law enforcement to place top priority on "political intelligence work to prevent the development of nationalist movements in minority communities".<ref name="Suderburg-2000" /> Chicana activist [[Alicia Escalante]] protested Castro's dismissal: "We in the Movement will at least be able to hold our heads up and say that we haven't submitted to the gringo or to the pressures of the system. We are brown and we are proud. I am at least raising my children to be proud of their heritage, to demand their rights, and as they become parents they too will pass this on until justice is done."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bermudez|first=Rosie C.|title=The Chicano Movement: Perspectives from the Twenty-First Century|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2014|isbn=9781135053666|pages=100–101|chapter=Alicia Escalante, The Chicana Welfare Rights Organization, and the Chicano Movement}}</ref>

In 1969, [[Plan de Santa Bárbara]] was drafted as a 155-page document that outlined the foundation of [[Chicana/o studies|Chicano Studies]] programs in higher education. It called for students, faculty, employees and the community to come together as "central and decisive designers and administrators of these programs".<ref name="plan">[https://livinghistory.as.ucsb.edu/2012/04/04/el-plan-de-santa-barbara/ El Plan de Santa Barbara; a Chicano Plan for Higher Education]'', 1 February 2013, La Causa Publications. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209063527/https://livinghistory.as.ucsb.edu/2012/04/04/el-plan-de-santa-barbara/|date=9 February 2018}}''</ref> Chicano students and activists asserted that universities should exist to serve the community.<ref name="Jackson-2009" /> However, by the mid-1970s, much of the radicalism of earlier Chicano studies became deflated by the education system, aimed to alter Chicano Studies programs from within.<ref name="Soldatenko-2012" /> Mario García argued that one "encountered a deradicalization of the radicals".<ref name="Soldatenko-2012" /> Some opportunistic faculty avoided their political responsibilities to the community. University administrators co-opted oppositional forces within Chicano Studies programs and encouraged tendencies that led "to the loss of autonomy of Chicano Studies programs."<ref name="Soldatenko-2012" /> At the same time, "a domesticated Chicano Studies provided the university with the facade of being tolerant, liberal, and progressive."<ref name="Soldatenko-2012">{{Cite book|last=Soldatenko|first=Michael|title=Chicano Studies: The Genesis of a Discipline|publisher=University of Arizona Press|year=2012|isbn=9780816599530|pages=94–130}}</ref>
[[File:L.A. teachers strike ‘Stand and Deliver'.png|thumb|200x200px|Los Angeles Teacher's Strike (1989)|left]]
Some Chicanos argued that the solution was to create "publishing outlets that would challenge Anglo control of academic print culture with its rules on [[peer review]] and thereby publish alternative research," arguing that a Chicano space in the colonial academy could "avoid colonization in higher education".<ref name="Soldatenko-2012" /> In an attempt to establish educational autonomy, they worked with institutions like the [[Ford Foundation]], but found that "these organizations presented a paradox".<ref name="Soldatenko-2012" /> [[Rodolfo Acuña]] argued that such institutions "quickly became content to only acquire funding for research and thereby determine the success or failure of faculty".<ref name="Soldatenko-2012" /> Chicano Studies became "much closer [to] the mainstream than its practitioners wanted to acknowledge."<ref name="Soldatenko-2012" /> Others argued that Chicano Studies at [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]] shifted from its earlier interests in serving the Chicano community to gaining status within the colonial institution through a focus on academic publishing, which alienated it from the community.<ref name="Soldatenko-2012" />[[File:In_Lak'ech.jpg|thumb|Readings of ''[[In Lak'ech]]'' ("you are the other me") were banned in [[Tucson Unified School District|Tucson schools]] along with the [[Mexican American Studies Department Programs, Tucson Unified School District|Mexican American Studies Programs]] in 2012.|181x181px]]In 2012, the [[Mexican American Studies Department Programs, Tucson Unified School District|Mexican American Studies Department Programs]] (MAS) in [[Tucson Unified School District]] were banned after a campaign led by Anglo-American politician [[Tom Horne]] accused it of working to "promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment toward a race or class of people, are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals."<ref name="Planas-2015" /> Classes on Latino literature, American history/Mexican-American perspectives, Chicano art, and an American government/social justice education project course were banned. Readings of [[In Lak'ech]] from [[Luis Valdez]]'s poem ''[[Pensamiento Serpentino]]'' were also banned.<ref name="Planas-2015">{{Cite web|last=Planas|first=Roque|date=13 January 2015|title=Arizona Education Officials Say It's Illegal To Recite This Poem In School|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/in-laketch_n_6464604|website=Huffington Post|access-date=10 November 2020|archive-date=19 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019162110/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/in-laketch_n_6464604|url-status=live}}</ref>

Seven books, including [[Paulo Freire|Paulo Friere]]'s ''[[Pedagogy of the Oppressed]]'' and works covering [[Chicano history]] and [[critical race theory]], were banned, taken from students, and stored away.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The dismantling of Mexican-American studies in Tucson schools|url=https://www.cnn.com/2012/01/22/us/how-tucson-schools-changed-after-mexican-american-studies-ban/index.html|last=Siek|first=Stephanie|date=22 January 2012|website=CNN|access-date=21 May 2020|archive-date=4 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204003845/https://www.cnn.com/2012/01/22/us/how-tucson-schools-changed-after-mexican-american-studies-ban/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The ban was overturned in 2017 by Judge [[A. Wallace Tashima]], who ruled that it was unconstitutional and motivated by racism by depriving Chicano students of knowledge, thereby violating their [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]] right.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Astor|first1=Maggie|date=2017-08-23|title=Tucson's Mexican Studies Program Was a Victim of "Racial Animus," Judge Says|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/23/us/arizona-mexican-american-ruling.html?module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=U.S.&action=keypress&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=article|access-date=3 October 2017|archive-date=2017-10-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003225107/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/23/us/arizona-mexican-american-ruling.html?module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=U.S.&action=keypress&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=article|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Xicanx#Organizations|Xicanx Institute for Teaching & Organizing]] (XITO) emerged to carry on the legacy of the MAS programs.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fernández|first=Anita E.|date=2019|title=Decolonizing Professional Development: A Re-Humanizing Approach|url=https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1237646|journal=Equity & Excellence in Education|volume=52|issue=2–3|pages=185–196|doi=10.1080/10665684.2019.1649610|s2cid=203059084}}</ref> Chicanos continue to support the institution of Chicano studies programs. In 2021, students at [[Southwestern College (California)|Southwestern College]], the closest college to the [[Mexico–United States border|Mexico-United States Border]] urged for the creation of a Chicanx Studies Program to service the predominately Latino student body.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Villareal-Gerardo|first1=Xiomara|last2=Ortega|first2=Bianca Huntley|date=24 February 2021|title=Students decry lack of Chicano Studies Program at America's border college|url=https://www.theswcsun.com/students-decry-lack-of-chicano-studies-program-at-americas-border-college/|website=The Sun|access-date=24 March 2021|archive-date=5 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305140528/http://www.theswcsun.com/students-decry-lack-of-chicano-studies-program-at-americas-border-college/|url-status=usurped}}</ref>

=== Rejection of borders ===
[[File:El Paso Disinfection station and Mexicans Waiting to be de-loused at the international bridge.jpg|thumb|Mexican laborers to be stripped and doused in chemicals at the border in [[El Paso, Texas]]. This treatment led to the [[1917 Bath Riots]].<ref name="Urbina-2014" />]]
The Chicano concept of ''sin fronteras'' rejects the idea of borders.<ref>{{Cite book |last=García |first=Mario T. |title=Memories of Chicano History: The Life and Narrative of Bert Corona |publisher=University of California Press |year=1994 |isbn=9780520201521 |page=313}}</ref> Some argued that the 1848 [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]] transformed the [[Rio Grande]] region from a rich cultural center to a rigid border poorly enforced by the United States government.<ref name="Castro" /> At the end of the [[Mexican–American War|Mexican-American War]], 80,000 Spanish-Mexican-Indian people were forced into sudden U.S. habitation.<ref name="Castro">{{Cite book |last=Castro, Rafaela G. |title=Chicano Folklore |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2001 |isbn=9780195146394 |location=New York}}</ref> Some Chicanos identified with the idea of [[Aztlán]] as a result, which celebrated a time preceding land division and rejected the "immigrant/foreigner" categorization by Anglo society.<ref name="Hurtado">{{Cite book |last1=Hurtado, Aida |title=Chicana/o Identity in a Changing U.S. Society |last2=Gurin, Patricia |publisher=[[University of Arizona Press]] |year=2003 |isbn=9780816522057 |location=Tucson |pages=10–91 |oclc=54074051}}</ref> Chicano activists have called for unionism between both Mexicans and Chicanos on both sides of the border.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cinco de Mayo: An open challenge to Chicano Nationalists |url=http://www.nacionalistas.org/2012/02/cinco-de-mayo-open-challenge-to-chicano.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203105243/http://www.nacionalistas.org/2012/02/cinco-de-mayo-open-challenge-to-chicano.html |archive-date=December 3, 2013}}</ref>

In the early 20th century, the border crossing had become a site of [[dehumanization]] for Mexicans.<ref name="Urbina-2014" /> Protests in 1910 arose along the Santa Fe Bridge from abuses committed against Mexican workers while crossing the border.<ref name="Urbina-2014" /> The [[1917 Bath riots]] erupted after Mexicans crossing the border were required to strip naked and be disinfected with chemical agents like [[gasoline]], [[kerosene]], [[sulfuric acid]], and [[Zyklon B]], the latter of which was the fumigation of choice and would later notoriously be used in the gas chambers of [[Nazi Germany]].<ref name="Urbina-2014">{{Cite book |last=Urbina |first=Martin Guevara |title=Twenty-First Century Dynamics of Multiculturalism: Beyond Post-Racial America |publisher=Charles C Thomas Publisher |year=2014 |isbn=9780398080990 |page=64}}</ref> Chemical dousing continued into the 1950s.<ref name="Urbina-2014" /> During the early 20th century, Chicanos used ''[[corrido]]s'' "to counter Anglocentric hegemony."<ref name="Saldívar-1997" /> [[Ramón Saldívar|Ramón Saldivar]] stated that "''corridos'' served the symbolic function of empirical events and for creating counterfactual worlds of lived experience (functioning as a substitute for fiction writing)."<ref name="Saldívar-1997">{{Cite book |last=Saldívar |first=José David |title=Border Matters: Remapping American Cultural Studies |publisher=University of California Press |year=1997 |isbn=9780520206823 |pages=39–40}}</ref>[[File:US-Mexico border deaths monument.jpg|thumb|260x260px|A monument at the [[San Diego–Tijuana|Tijuana–San Diego]] border for people who have died attempting to cross the [[US-Mexican border|U.S.-Mexican border]]. Each coffin shows a year and the number who died.<ref name="García 2010 16–17">{{Cite book |last=García |first=Mario T. |title=Border Culture |publisher=Greenwood |year=2010 |isbn=9780313358203 |pages=16–17 |chapter=La Frontera: The Border as Symbol and Reality in Mexican-American Thought}}</ref>]]Newspaper ''Sin Fronteras'' (1976–1979) openly rejected the [[Mexico–United States border|Mexico-United States border]]. The newspaper considered it "to be only an artificial creation that in time would be destroyed by the struggles of Mexicans on both sides of the border" and recognized that "Yankee political, economic, and cultural colonialism victimized all Mexicans, whether in the U.S. or in Mexico." Similarly, the General Brotherhood of Workers (CASA), important to the development of young Chicano intellectuals and activists, identified that, as "victims of oppression, ''Mexicanos'' could achieve liberation and self-determination only by engaging in a borderless struggle to defeat American international capitalism."<ref name="García 2010 16–17" />

Chicana theorist [[Gloria E. Anzaldúa]] notably emphasized the border as a "1,950 mile-long wound that does not heal". In referring to the border as a wound, writer Catherine Leen suggests that Anzaldúa recognizes "the trauma and indeed physical violence very often associated with crossing the border from Mexico to the US, but also underlies the fact that the cyclical nature of this immigration means that this process will continue and find little resolution."<ref name="Leen-2006">{{Cite book |last=Leen |first=Catherine |title=Borders and Borderlands in Contemporary Culture |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Press |year=2006 |isbn=9781443802680 |pages=56–57 |chapter='Una herida que no cicatriza': The Border as Interethnic Space in Mexican, American, and Chicano Cinema}}</ref><ref name="Heide-2002">{{Cite book |last=Heide |first=Markus |title=Learning from Fossils: Transcultural Space in Luis Alberto Urrea's In Search of Snow |publisher=Rodopi |year=2002 |isbn=9789042014992 |page=115}}</ref> Anzaldúa writes that ''la frontera'' signals "the coming together of two self-consistent but habitually incompatible frames of reference [which] cause ''un choque'', a cultural collision" because "the U.S.-Mexican border ''es una herida abierta'' where the [[Third World]] grates against the first and bleeds."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Muthyala |first=John |title=Reworlding America: Myth, History, and Narrative |publisher=Ohio University Press |year=2004 |isbn=9780821416754 |page=99}}</ref> Chicano and Mexican artists and filmmakers continue to address "the contentious issues of exploitation, exclusion, and conflict at the border and attempt to overturn border stereotypes" through their work.<ref name="Leen-2006" /> [[Luis Alberto Urrea]] writes "the border runs down the middle of me. I have a barbed wire fence neatly bisecting my heart."<ref name="Heide-2002" />