The Chicano Movement and the role of women

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Applied Geography, grade: 2,0, Karlsruhe University of Education, language: English, abstract: The 1960's and 1970's were critical years for the Latino community across the United States. Spanish-speaking people from the east to the west coast were engaged in groundbreaking civil-rights efforts during these decades. These efforts, which were built on earlier struggles of Latino and Latina activists since the end of the Mexican-American war in 1848 (cf. Escobar 1993), established a new factor in U.S. society and race relations. Hard work was put in to achieve those goals. The most challenging region of Latino activism during this era was southern California. In Los Angeles, Mexican-Americans had to face severe discrimination, segregation and racism.

Therefore, some of the most important events in the Chicano community occurred in Los Angeles; the Chicano Blowouts, the Chicano Moratorium and the Chicana women rights movement, also known as the Chicana Feminist Movement. All three fuelled a national movement, that would forever change the face of Latino identity and politics in America (cf. Trevino 2001). Having Mexican ancestry during that time was not considered as something to be proud of, people with Mexican heritage were not treated as equals by the white population in the United States, therefore it was just a question of time until some sort of movement would break out. This paper will focus on Chicana women and Chicana feminism, with a closer look at how the Chicano Movement dealt with Mexican-American women. Another point of particular interest is if and how Chicanas influenced the Chicano Movement and how they dealt with each other and finally the investigation of the role of Chicana women within the Chicano/Chicana Movement, their traditional role and the later change to the modern role, within the Chicano community and within American society. To be able to answer these questions, one at first has to take a closer look at the Chicano Movement itself. The first chapter introduces the Chicano Movement in general, explains terms and definitions, the second chapter focuses on major events during the movement, the third chapter deals with the leaders of the movement and the last chapter with Chicana women, feminism, their role during the Chicano Movement and their position within society back then and nowadays. The paper ends with a functional conclusion.