Chicano Studies

3 Pages 787 Words

Chapter nine’s focus in Vigil’s From Indians to Chicanos is on the breakup and transformation of the social order. It is broken down into the Civil Rights Ferment, the 1960s Chicano Movement, and concludes with the 1970s and beyond. With some more emphasized than others, Vigil applies each of the “6 C’s” in this chapter.
The initial factors will be on the first three—Class, Culture, and Color. Many fought their way against great odds into the middle class orthodox American society. Others, with equal strength, contested the social obligations to “Americanize and abandon traditional ways.” Still present was a major separation of income between Mexicans and whites, even in the middle class. Chicanas were finally embracing feminist viewpoints, knowing that they were twice the minority. Chicanos have a pursuit for social justice, for example, organizing to improve living conditions. Moving on to Culture, many Chicanos joined and took a memorial (signed by thousands of Chicanos) to Mexico and handed it over to President Lopez Mateos. This document plead to the Mexican President to negotiate with the United States government to fulfill the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which was designed to protect land grants and cultural rights. However, the United States government never seriously embraced this. Furthermore, Chicano activists offered the idea of bilingual education, which had many positive benefits. Unfortunately, it fell through due to counterattacks and low federal funding. Finally, Vigil moves on to color. Chicanos still had to endure discrimination from the Anglos. One example was a bill that was presented by Congressman Peter Rodino that would permit employers to ask for place of birth identification from anyone “appearing” to be Mexican. This without doubt violated the civil rights of the millions of Mexican Americans who were indeed born in the United States. Also, schools in Chicano...