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the chicano movement 1965–1975 8 the decade comprising the midsixties to the midseventies was a period of extraordinary ferment in the Mexicano communities of the United states. fateful social changes were in the air. immigration from Mexico, for example, increased markedly, a trend that tended to push many of the older residents of the southwest into other parts of the country. the most memorable changes, though, were political and psychological. following the lead of the African American community, which initiated a far-reaching movement for civil liberties in the fifties, many Mexicanos, now calling themselves chicanos and chicanas, embarked on their own campaign to improve socioeconomic conditions and win full recognition of their rights as U.s. citizens.1 While these concerns had been articulated before, notably by the Mexican American Generation of the post–World War ii period, after the midsixties a new aggressiveness developed in the barrios. socioeconomic gains made in past years seemed woefully inadequate. Many Mexicanos began to demand immediate reform. some called for revolution. convinced that changes of whatever kind could be instituted only through the acquisition of power, they emphasized political action as never before. Moreover, in contrast to their postwar predecessors, the leaders of the so-called chicano Generation stressed pride in their ethnic roots while deemphasizing assimilation into the American mainstream. “A chicano,” rubén salazar, a journalist on the periphery of the movement, once said, “is a Mexican-American with a non-Anglo image of himself.”2 tired of apologizing for their ethnic origins, chicanos looked to Mexico, especially indigenous Mexico, for inspiration. While there was much disagreement on specific methods—indeed, a substantial minority stood on the sidelines—most of the community was in general agreement with the goals formulated by barrio leaders: cultural regeneration and political power. since these twin objectives are the crux of the emerging chicano movement, also called uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu the Chicano Movement 195 chicano Power or Brown Power, the struggle for Mexican American civil rights, it seems reasonable to see this decade in terms of chicanismo. tHe MexicAno coMMUnity in tHe Midsixties A portrait of the Mexicano population on the eve of the chicano movement is helpful in explaining why chicanismo became so appealing to large segments of the population. the best source of information on Mexicanos in the early sixties , indeed the most comprehensive work on the subject up to this time, was The Mexican-American People: The Nation’s Second Largest Minority (1970) by Leo Grebler, Joan W. Moore, and ralph c. Guzmán, a product of research conducted by the Mexican American study Project at the University of california at Los Angeles in 1964–1968. the UcLA study was based on data taken from the 1960 U.s. census, so the information is very appropriate for our purposes. the use of government statistics was not without its pitfalls. since the census had no separate category for Mexicanos but identified them on the basis of “spanishsurname ,” a rubric that would include cubans, Puerto ricans, and others, it was difficult to interpret the findings. furthermore, this census, like most government statistical records, was criticized for heavily undercounting Mexicanos, mainly because of the difficulty in keeping track of migrant workers and illegal aliens. still, the 1960 census and the Grebler study based on it are invaluable demographic sources useful in tracing emerging trends. if allowances are made for the deficiencies alluded to, they present a fairly clear and complete portrait of the community. the total Mexicano population in 1960, according to Grebler and his colleagues , who interpreted and adjusted the official census figures, was 3,842,000, of which 87 percent (3,344,292) resided in the southwest and the remaining 13 percent (497,800) in other parts of the country. texas and california, with about equal numbers, accounted for over 80 percent of the southwestern total. Urbanization was advancing at a brisk pace. By 1960, about two-thirds of the population was urban. somewhat surprisingly, urbanization was more pronounced in the southwest, where the proportion approached 80 percent. roughly one-third of all Mexicanos lived in four cities in this region: Los Angeles, san Antonio, san francisco , and el Paso. Whether living in cities or the countryside, however, Mexicanos displayed a striking tendency to reside in segregated ethnic communities. some of these barrios were in the middle of large cities, as was the case in Los Angeles and Albuquerque; some were on the periphery, as in fresno; some encompassed the entire community, as was...

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