Was the early Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s involved with social justice issues? That is what one of my students excitedly wanted to know, after returning from a national conference in which the primary theme was social justice.
The student’s question reveals a sense of innocence, though it might be better explained by the lack of the handing down of historical memory. Perhaps an even better explanation is that the history of brown peoples in this country continues to be erased and invisibilized, even by those involved in documenting such histories and memories. Moreover, to be sure, documenting that era is virtually a cottage industry, though other than Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, brown peoples from that era or any era are rarely seen or acknowledged in documentaries and history books, etc.
The short answer: yes and no.
The Chicano Movement did not use the term “social justice,” though it was very much a part of its agenda. However, several truisms should be understood from the beginning. The movement generally did have warts (sexism, misogyny and homophobia) and a number of faults (romanticism of ancient Aztecs/Maya cultures, at the expense of living indigenous peoples and cultures). Yet the nature of the question tells us that, somehow, there is the mistaken belief, and I have seen and heard this narrative, that the movement itself was the warts and the faults.
Truly, that is a mischaracterization, and I say this coming from someone who grew up in the heart of East L.A., from 1960 to 1973, a time that covered the pre-Chicano Movement era when Mexican Americans were generally very anti-Mexican. Yes, the term people use nowadays is internalized racism, or internalized hate, embarrassment and shame.
When the Chicano Movement burst onto the scene, something radical happened, which political scientists refer to as a “primary process.” Translation: a political volcanic eruption that reversed more than 100 years of living in submission. Indeed, there was fury. It was Mexican independence and the Mexican Revolution rolled into one. The days of internalized oppression and shame were over as the era of Chicano Power, Brown Pride and Brown is Beautiful had begun. This was not a small matter.
