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One thing I want to accomplish w/ this web blog is to publicize media portrayals of Latino people so I will post reviews of movies that deal with us.
It seems every few years Hollywood rediscovers Mexican-Chicano people and they make a movie about us. Usually one blockbuster film every 10 years or so. Remember "Boulevarde Nights" "Stand and Deliver" "My Family" "American me" "Tortilla Soup" etc.?
Now with the media revolution, there are plenty of straight to DVD movies being made that say they portray the Latino experience. Man of these movies are low buck expoitation films but for fun I will include them in my wrathful reviews. So big and small films will be critiqued.
I have found it helpful to think about what we are not when describing who we are. No matter what you individually think we are, you must understand the mainstream world does not look at us as individuals but as a part of a much larger group.
As an educated Chicano I speak fluent English and, without a moustache, many non Latino people (and too many Latino people) don't think I am a Chicano. Yet it sure bothers me the way Latino people are portrayed in Hollywood etc.
I have an unfinished book dealing with this subject.
"Dogs, Horses and Mexicans: Hollywood's Portrayals of the Latino" This book deals with how Mexicans are depicted in American movies. The book started off looking at cowboy moives but it has grown to include some other crime dramas, coming of age films etc. Watch for it in late 2009!
Hola
For many years I've been asked that question.
I sometimes describe myself as the product of a mixed marriage. My father was Mexican and my mother was a Chicana. Growing up during the 1960's it was not easy being socially concious and culturally confused.
Maybe if I had been fully accepted as just another kid in my Catholic grammar school I would not have felt different but I wasn't My mother was always painfully aware of rascism in society. Unfortunately in her situation, her answer to discrimination was to take a low profile and not stand out at all. As an ambitious loud mouthed kid who wanted to fully participate in things; that was not what I had in mind.
As a kid I dreamed of being an astronaut etc but the nuns soon told me "Mexicans don't become astronauts" and bottom lien I didn't' feel any connection to wearing the American flag. I thought I might be an astronaut for Mexico but that didn't go over very well.
As I grew up I found the most severe critics of Mexicans and therefore Chicanos were indeed Mexican Americans.
I discovered a long time ago that Mexican Americans hate Mexican immigrants. (I will write more about this but let's continue.) So when I realized I was Mexican and not American and not "White" I tried hard to understand what it was to be "Mexican".
Of course I could barely speak Spanish so it was hard to identify with Mexicans. My mother spoke Spanish but was obsessed with her children learning English and speaking it properly. That rejection of Spanish stigmatized all things Mexican and to this day I can not properly roll my " r r 's ". The shame of it all!
So I grew up culturally confused. Yes, and high school was still ahead.
Hello
This is a home to every wandering Chicano and Chicana.
Who are the Chicanos?
Anyone of Mexican or Latino background who tries to find an identity in the melting pot of North America. Anyone who identifies with Mexican or Latino culture. Anyone who thinks they are a Chicano and who would not want to be anything else. This is a loose definition but then culture is porous and voluntary; we self identify.
As descendants of the indigenous nomads who settled North America and the Spanish invaders who conquered those peoples, we Chicanos seek an identity and an effective role in America.
Our ancestors have helped build the USA and now we seek to understand and build and our history.
I have written about radical Chicano politics and Latinos in America. In this blog I will tie things together and hope to stimulate a dialogue. I've invited some of my alter egos to help the conversation.
Sebastian de la O will join me from time to time, and some others.