Why Chicano Studies?
Why Chicano Studies?
Why Chicano Studies?
MAGAZINE
OCTOBER 06, 2008
CONTENTS
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Dana described the Mexican Americans as “an idle, Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, and
thriftless people” who could make nothing for them- Colorado, as well as parts of Wyoming, Kansas,
selves (1959: 9). And in 1852, Colonel Monroe re- and Oklahoma, a territory larger than France,
ported to Washington that “the New Mexicans are Spain, and Italy combined.
thoroughly debased and totally incapable of self- During the period of Americanization from
government, and there is no latent quality about 1912 to 1960, Mexican Americans fared little better
them that can ever make them respectable. They despite their efforts to become Americans. During
have more Indian blood than Spanish, and in some this period, from 1913 to 1930, more than a million
respects are below the Pueblo Indians, for they are and a half Mexicans made their way north from
not as honest or as industrious” (Congressional Mexico to the United States, owing to the
Globe, 32nd Con-gress, 2nd Session, January 10, destabilization of Mexico during its civil war from
1853, Appendix, p. 104). 1913 to 1921. This influx of Mexicans to the
Four years later, W.W.H. Davis, United States United States plus the population of Mexicans who
Attorney for the Territory of New Mexico, wrote a were part of the conquest generation came to
propos his experiences with Mexican Americans constitute the primary population of Mexican
that “they possess the cunning and deceit of the Americans that has given rise to their present
Indian, the politeness and the spirit of revenge of demographics in 21st century America.
the Spaniard, and the imaginative temperament and We have no definitive count as to the numbers
fiery impulses of the moor.” He described them as of Mexicans who came with the dismembered terri-
smart and quick but lacking the “stability and tory. Figures range from a low of 75,000 to
character and soundness of intellect that give such 300,000. The dismembered territory was certainly
vast superiority to the Anglo-Saxon race over every not void of population, considering the cities that
other people” (New Mexico and her People, 1857, were part of the annexed territory–San Antonio, El
85-86). Paso, Santa Fe and the San Luis Valley of
In 1874, General William Tecumseh Sherman Colorado, Tucson, San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa
quipped before a committee of the House of Repre- Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, and
sentatives that Mexico be prevailed upon to take Pueblo, Colorado, not counting the hundreds of
back the territory of New Mexico (Arnold L. Rodri- smaller communities dotting the land-scape.
guez, “New Mexico in Transition,” New Mexico The third factor in the demographic growth of
Historical Review, XXIV, July 1949, 186). And in Mexican Americans was the 20 year immigration
1902, Sena-tor Albert Beveridge of Indiana compact between the United States and Mexico that
objected to statehood for the New Mexico Territory brought thousands of Mexican “braceros”
on the grounds that “the majority of people in New (laborers) into the country between 1942 and 1962.
Mexico could speak only [Spanish]. . . . Illiteracy This demographic troika of Mexican Americans
was high and the arid conditions of the southwest (conquest generation, civil war refugees, and
imposed serious limita-tions on agriculture” (Robert braceros) now numbers some 30 million, its growth
W. Larson, New Mexi-co’s Quest for Statehood due principally to fertility abetted certainly by a
1846-1912, 1968: 215). small but steady annual ingress of immigrants since
Even after 64 years as Americans, Mexican 1962.
Ame-ricans were considered foreigners in their own These 30 million Mexican Americans are 66%
land. Little thought was given to the fact that Mex- of the American Hispanic population. That is, two
ican Americans were not immigrants to the United out of three American Hispanics are Mexican
States, that they were a “territorial minority” cum Americans. These are not undocumented workers;
Americans as a booty of war, that the border had they are Ame-rican citizens. But in the current wave
crossed them, and not the other way around. By the of nativist hysteria, American Hispanics including
20th century, mainstream Americans had forgotten Mexican Americans are regarded as aliens whose
that as a consequence of the U.S.–Mexico War of expedient deportation is desirable in the national
1846-1848 Mexi-co was dismembered, giving up interest. As American citizens, Mexican Americans
more than half of its territory to the United States: a have been thrown into the mix with undocumented
territory now consti-tuting the states of Texas, New Hispanic workers not only from Mexico but
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throughout Latin America, under the rubric of in 1966 with the creation of Quinto Sol Publica-
“illegal immigrants.” This is “Why Chicano tions headed by Octa-vio Romano. By 1970, I had
Studies?” Americans need to understand that written extensively about Mexican Americans and
Mexican Americans are not a new population. That their plight in the United States. In the Fall of 1969
they have been part of the American enterprise for I had taught the first course in Chicano literature in
160 years. And this is why after almost 40 years I the country. By 1970, I was finishing up Back-
am still convinced about the need for Chicano grounds of Mexican American Literature, first
Studies. literary history in the field (University of New
Mexico, 1971).
I n 1970 I was recruited to be founding director as many departments as we could. Our recruitment
of the Chicano Studies Program at the efforts were effective, bringing to the UT El Paso
University of Texas at El Paso, first such campus Chicano luminaries like Rodolfo de la
program in the state (and still there). By this time, I Garza in Political Science, Donald Castro in
had become conscientized as a Chicano. From 1967 English, Hector Serrano in Theater, and Tomas
on, I had become identified as a Quinto Sol Writer, Arciniega in Education. We increased the number of
that is, among the first wave of Chicano writers of Chicano faculty substantially, but still nowhere near
the Chicano Renais-sance which had its beginning a percentage reflecting our numbers in the
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American population or our numbers in El Paso–a the American mainstream, although a number of
community more than 75 percent mejicano at the Chicano writers have made their way into that
time. mainstream. Despite Chicano nationalism, there is a
More than half the students at the University of wave of Chicanos who desperately seek approval of
Texas at El Paso in 1970 were mejicanos, but the white mainstream which progressively validates
Mexi-can American visibility on campus was Chicanos who most reflect its values. In the
restrictted to the maintenance workers, janitors, and background, however, silent running, are those die-
gardeners. Our objectives for Chicano Studies were hard Chicano venues like Arte Publico Press and
twofold: not only would Chicano Studies help us to The Bilingual Review Press which continue to
enlighten both Chicanos and non-Chicanos about nurture the aspirations of Chicano writers still
who we were, but Chicano Studies would enable us marginalized by mainstream presses.
to promote our visibility beyond maintenance In 1968 the absence of minority writers in an-
workers, janitors, and gardeners. Moreover, thologies of American literature, especially those
Chicano Studies would provide the missing pieces anthologies used in colleges and universities, was so
of American history anent Mexi-can Americans. exacerbated that the minority caucuses of the Na-
Chicano Studies would show Ameri-cans the rich tional Council of Teachers of English banded to-
heritage of Mexican Americans and the splendor of gether as the NCTE Task Force on Racism and
their indigenous past. This was one way to bring Bias in the Teaching of English, issuing a blistering
Chicanos into the consciousness of the American report entitled Searching for America which
mainstream, though Chicano Studies was not detailed just how bad the situation was. Along with
explicitly a mainstream venue. Chicano Studies was Carlota Carde-nas Dwyer and Jose Carrasco, I was
the alternative to the mainstream. That was Octa- a founding member of that Task Force. The NCTE
vio Romano’s argument in the editorial of the first Report inclu-ded the piece on “Chicanos and
issue of El Grito in 1967. Since the American main- American Literature” by Jose Carrasco and me,
stream rejected Chicanos, Chicanos would establish later reprinted in The Wiley Reader (1975).
their own institutions and outlets for their cultural In 1970 I sent a piece on “Chicano Poetry:
productions. Chicano achievement was not Roots and Writers” to Richard Ohman then editor
predicated on the approval of the mainstream. of College English. He returned the manuscript
While Chicanos wanted to be in the mainstream with a note saying he didn’t think the article would
they would not be brown copies of whites in the be of much interest to the readers of College
mainstream. English, besides he was already considering a piece
Now, almost forty years later, looking back on on Chicano literature for an upcoming issue of
the progress and evolution of Chicano Studies I College English. The piece turned out to be an
wonder how much mainstreaming has taken place. essay on Chicano literature by a non-Chicano. The
And whether mainstreaming has been the ignis following year I presented “Chica-no Poetry: Roots
fatuus it has always been for Chicanos. In a recent and Writers” at the First National Symposium on
edition of The American Tradition in Literature Chicano Literature organized by Ed Simmen at Pan
published by McGraw Hill, the 2500 page American University in Edinburg, Texas, and
anthology did not include one American Hispanic published as part of the proceedings along with the
writer (that is, an Hispanic writer who is of the presentations of Tomas Rivera and Jose Reyna. In
United States and not from Hispanic America). Not 1972 the piece was reprinted in Southwes-tern
till page 2299 do we see an Hispanic writer: Isabel American Literature. In the meantime, I fin-ished
Allende, the Chilean writer who now lives and my work on Backgrounds of Mexican American
writes in the United States. Not one Chicano writer Literature (University of New Mexico, 1971), first
appears in the McGraw Hill anthology which study in the field.
purports to be the American tradition in literature. By 1971 the Modern Language Association had
This situation would be like including Chinua sanctioned a Chicano Caucus, as had the American
Achebe in the anthology as representative of Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.
African American writers. It appeared that the Chicano voice was gaining in
Five decades later Chicanos are still invisible to volume. It also appeared that conceptions of Chica-
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nos were changing. Helping that change along was a medio grito, as it were, aborting its premise and
establishment of La Luz magazine in Denver in promise. This does not mean, of course, that the
1972, the first Hispanic public affairs magazine in study of Chicanos cannot go on without academic
English, organized by Dan Valdes as Publisher and programs of Chicano Studies. But rooted in an
me as Associate Publisher. Over the ten years of my academic setting of respect and encouragement,
tenure with La Luz we published dozens of pieces Chicano Studies pro-vides the ground and lens from
by Chica-nos in various genres. In 1973 and through which to illuminate the historical
Washington Square Press brought out my anthology processes that have brought Chicanos to this point
of We Are Chicanos which included many of the in American history. These are the same heuristic
early luminaries of the Chicano Renaissance. considerations that undergird other disciplines.
However, suspicions about the ideological
T
organized in Cor-pus Christi, Texas, in 1929. The characterize the situation.
term Chicano has been lost in the lexicon of he immigration debate avers the proposition
Hispanicity and Latinismo. More attention seems to that Americans, by and large, know little
be paid now to members of Hispanic groups in the about Chicanos other than what they learn
United States with minimal population numbers about them through public media. Everywhere
compared to the 30 million Mexican Americans today, Chicanos are being assailed by nativists and
currently in the U.S. population (not counting the jingoists who see them as progeny of “black”
purported numbers of undocumented Mexicans in Spaniards and savage Indians. Chicano Studies
the country). Of the 45 million American Hispanics becomes, therefore, the instrument through which
counted in the Census, two-thirds of them (66 Americans can come to see Chicanos in their own
percent) are Mexican Americans. right rather than through the normative view of
The subalternization of Chicanos in Hispanic mainstream Americans.
Studies emphasizes the point: Why Chicano Stud- For the past 39 years I’ve taught Chicano
ies? Why? Because Chicano Studies is being cut off literature to undergraduates, Master’s students, and
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doctoral candidates. Most of these students have seditious, programs that promote divisiveness and
been Chicanos. The students we also want to reach breed revolution, pro-grams like Chicano Studies–
are non-Chicanos. But they have not signed up for any ethnic studies pro-gram that challenges Western
Chicano Studies courses in numbers to suggest that values. One Arizona legislator believes that such an
we are reaching them with our story. This is also initiative will restore the image of the United States
why we need to keep and strengthen Chicano as a “melting pot.”
Studies, why Chicano Studies must be imbricated As Chicanos we must ask ourselves: what is
into the study of the American experience. driving this current wave of xenophobic fear? At
Last semester (Fall 2007) I taught on-line the this point in time, it is diminution of this fear that is
introductory graduate course to Chicano Studies the essential mission of Chicano Studies.
T
which is part of our Interdisciplinary Master’s Pro-
gram at Western New Mexico University. All the hirty-eight years after my initial experience
graduate students were Chicanos. This indicates the with Chicano Studies at the University of
work the Chicano Faculty Caucus has to do in Texas at El Paso, I have become part of
promo-ting to all our students, especially non an
Chicanos, the Chicano courses in our embryonic
Chicano Studies Program.
Como una hija querida, tenemos que defender effort in Chicano Studies at Western New
Chicano Studies porque si no, perderemos nuestro Mexico
futuro. That’s too important a future to lose, too ex- University, an Hispanic Serving Institution whose
acting a price to pay. This is the exact moment of student body is about 51 percent Hispanic. I’m ex-
history for Chicanos to rise to the occasion. cited by the venture as are my Chicano colleagues
Inaction sustains the status quo. Now, more than on campus. Our joint efforts as a Chicano Faculty
ever, we must band together in common cause. Caucus brought the Chicano Studies program into
Chicano Studies deserves no less. being. It’s a nascent program ready to take on the
Everywhere, there are xenophobic and fascist challenges of the 21st century, secure in the
forces that threaten the existence of Chicano knowledge of its his-torical past. Chicano Studies
Studies. Mainstream suspicions about the has never been about windmills or revolution; it’s
ideological agenda of Chicano Studies has become about our place in the American sun.
paranoiac. In Arizona there are legislative initiatives
to remove from the schools programs deemed to be Copyright © 2008 by the author. All rights
reserved.