A Natural History of Chicano Literature: Juan Felipe Herrera

How Literature Shapes Latino Culture

Chicano (Mexican) American Ethnic Group - Michelle Clark

A Brief and General History (Status) of Chicanos (Mexican Americans)

To begin our text, American Mosaic: Multicultural Readings in Context, only nicks the surface of the true complexity of the immigrants that might identify with the word Chicano. Its origins have even been disputed by scholars. Author Himilce Novas in Everything You Need to Know about Latino History answers the question “Who are Chicanos?” by stating that, “Chicanos (the name is an abbreviation of ‘Mexicanos’, Spanish for Mexicans) was initially used as an uncomplimentary term by both Anglos and Mexican Americans to refer to unskilled workers born in Mexico, particularly by recent immigrants”. "Chicano" refers specifically to Mexican-Americans, or anyone else of Mexican heritage born and/or raised in the United States.

A different view:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUdHVYZyUCU

Although the origins of Chicano history date as far back as the 12th century, when the Mexican abandoned the Island of Aztlan in search of their promised land, most critics seem to agree that what is known as Chicano literature dates back to 1848 (developing only after the conclusion of the Mexican War in 1848 brought about by The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which stipulated that Mexican citizens could either stay where they were or return to Mexico), the year Mexico ceded the territory known today as the "Southwest" to the United States. Though many of the Mexicans in this situation elected to become American citizens, they did not by magic suddenly fit. For the purposes of this project, the term came into its most popular usage during the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 70s as Mexican-American activists sought to define a cultural and political identity for themselves.Among the many immigrant groups that have come to the United States, Chicanos are exceptional in several respects, many (though not all) of which I will highlight. Before 1965, 95% of all immigrants came from European countries and by virtue of a vast ocean that had been crossed, were making an irrevocable commitment to this land. As border immigrants (who do not have an ocean between them and their homeland), the literature often depicts the Mexican-American experience as it relates to the implication of an ambiguous identity of being "neither from here, nor from there".

In the 1960s, the term was picked up by a generation of activists to signify their uniquely American identity which meant two things: 1) acknowledged and took pride in their Mexican heritage, and 2) demanded that white America acknowledge historic and persistent patterns of racial inequality in legal, political, educational, and social opportunities for Mexican-Americans. A Chicano(a) identity specifically rejects the idea that we must deny our Mexican heritage in order to be a 'real' American. To identify as Chicano, means to be both Mexican and American.

The word "Hispanic" is a bit more universal than "Chicano." Historically, areas conquered by the Spaniards were considered part of a region originally called Hispania. Modern countries which can trace their history to Spain are now considered to be Hispanic, and include Mexico, Central America, and most of South America where Spanish is the primary language.

Statistics
In 2000 of the total population of 281.4 million there were 20.6 million Mexicans and Mexican Americans (or 7.3%) living in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. For Census 2000, “People who identify with the terms ‘Hispanic’ or ‘Latino’ are those who classify themselves in one of the specific Hispanic or Latino categories listed on the Census 2000 or ACS questionnaire - ‘Mexican,’ ‘Puerto Rican,’ or ‘Cuban’ - as well as those who indicate that they are ‘other Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino.’ Origin can be viewed as the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States. People who identify their origin as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino may be of any race”.



For Census 2000, the questions on race and Hispanic origin were asked of every individual living in the United States. The question on Hispanic origin asked respondents if they were Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino. The question on race asked respondents to report the race or races they considered themselves to be. Both questions are based on self-identification. The OMB defines Hispanic or Latino as “a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race.” Mexican (Chicano) Americans are a self-identified ethnic group within these demographics.

Workplace Research and Demographics

Name of Company contacted: Selective Insurance Company of America (SICA)
Address: 40 Wantage Avenue, Branchville, New Jersey 07890
Name of Contact: Marian Squashic, Human Resources Manager

“This is a very diverse environment. We have people here who come from a wide range of age groups, educational levels and ethnicities. Everyone comes together and is able to work together.”
Melvin Harris,
Quality Control Coordinator

(accessed from http://www.selective.com/WebApplications/EDS/PublicSite/About_Selective/PDF/Selective%2009%20CSR%205-10.pdf)

What type of diversity do they have?
SICA has 1,800 employees. The most recent EEO-1 reported the employee breakdown is as follows:
82.83% White (1491)
8.88% Black or African American (160)
6.05% Asian American (109)
2% Hispanic American (40)

How do they accommodate?
SICA believes diversity implies not only multiplicities of race, but also age, ethnicity, gender, religious beliefs and ways of thinking. They state, “We live and work in diverse communities, and supporting the community includes creating an inclusive workplace where a diverse workforce can thrive. To help build such an environment, SICA has established a Diversity and Inclusion Council with the goal of leveraging inclusion to enable the success of each individual in the company”.

Their 2010 diversity initiatives remain grounded in building employee awareness and sharing employee experiences, while shifting focus toward leveraging inclusion to achieve superior business results. The Diversity & Inclusion Council will continue to be the focal point of SICA’s diversity initiatives and is centered on three business objectives:

• Increase Business Opportunities and Support Profitable Growth through Diverse Markets

• Support a Culture that Values and Fosters a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce

• Encourage Company-wide Employee Engagement

SICA began their diversity initiative in 2007 with the focus on building awareness and sharing employee experiences. Since then, they have implemented a variety of company-wide events such as an e-Learning Program to foster understanding and respect; women’s leadership events to foster building relationships and leadership; eSelect® features on employees of various cultures and backgrounds; and companywide culture celebrations.

The company has also put in place four new committees within the Council to help build awareness of diversity and share employee experiences: Cultural, Employee NetWorks, Innovation, and Women’s Leadership. Each committee works with employees throughout Selective to provide educational opportunities, forums and networking venues for fostering an inclusive and diverse workforce.

What contributions do the "ethnic" groups make to the overall organizational structure?
The Diversity and Inclusion Council has created a number of opportunities for discussion and learning. Since 2007, the company has implemented several diversity initiatives such as:

• An e-Learning Program to foster understanding and respect.

• Women’s Leadership educational events to foster relationship building and understanding gender differences.

• Intranet features on employees of various cultures and backgrounds.

• Companywide culture celebrations.

The Council’s other achievements in 2009 included:

• An educational seminar on the underlying biases in the hiring and selection process to help managers better evaluate a candidate’s abilities and qualities.

• A workshop for senior managers on how individual belief systems, organizational structures and company culture create barriers to performance, and the ways managers can remove these barriers.

• Celebrations of Black History, Hispanic Heritage and Women’s History with lunches, posters and feature stories on the company intranet.

• A presentation for all employees by a noted researcher and author on diversity, discussing why the best group decisions are those that draw upon the qualities that make each of us unique.

• A “Diversify Your Lunch” program in which participants lunched with employees they did not routinely come in contact with, and hence were able to explore differences, find common ground and solve business problems.

• Encouraging diversity of thought by bringing together employees from different disciplines and asking them to identify new avenues of business growth.

Some Quick and Interesting Facts:
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization that seeks to improve understanding of the U.S. Hispanic population and to chronicle Latinos' growing impact on the nation (accessed at http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/96.pdf):

A total of 29.2 million Hispanics of Mexican origin resided in the United States in 2007, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Mexicans in this statistical profile are people who self-identified as Hispanics of Mexican origin; this means either they themselves are Mexican immigrants or they trace their family ancestry to Mexico. Mexicans are the largest population of Hispanic origin living in the United States, accounting for nearly two-thirds (64.3%) of the U.S. Hispanic population in 2007.1

This statistical profile compares the demographic, income and economic characteristics of the Mexican population with the characteristics of all Hispanics and the U.S. population overall. It is based on Pew Hispanic Center tabulations of the 2007 American Community Survey. Key facts include:

• Immigration status. Four-in-ten Mexicans (39.9%) in the United States are foreign born, compared with 39.8% of Hispanics and 12.6% of the U.S. population overall. Most immigrants from Mexico (62.6%) arrived in the U.S. in 1990 or later. Two-in-ten of Mexican immigrants (21.9%) are U.S. citizens.
• Language. A majority of Mexicans (59.1%) speak English proficiently.2 Some 40.9% of Mexicans ages 5 and older report speaking English less than very well, compared with 38.8% of all Hispanics.
• Age. Mexicans are younger than the U.S. population and Hispanics overall. The median age of Mexicans is 25; the median ages of the U.S. population and all Hispanics are 36 and 27, respectively.
• Marital status. Less than half of Mexicans (49.3%) and Hispanics overall (47.3%) are married.
• Fertility. Thirty-six percent of Mexican women ages 15 to 44 who gave birth in the 12 months prior to the survey were unmarried. That was less than the rate for all Hispanic women—38.1%—but greater than the rate for U.S. women—33.4%.
• Regional dispersion. Nearly four-in-ten Mexicans (37.6%) live in California, and one-in-four (25.0%) live in Texas.
• Educational attainment. Mexicans have lower levels of education than the Hispanic population overall. Nine percent of Mexicans ages 25 and older—compared with 12.6% of all U.S. Hispanics—have obtained at least a bachelor’s degree.
• Income. The median annual personal earnings for Mexicans ages 16 and older were $20,238 in 2007; the median earnings for all U.S. Hispanics were $21,048. Poverty status. The share of Mexicans who live in poverty, 20.8%, is higher than the rate for the general U.S. population (11.9%) and similar to the share for all Hispanics (19.5%).
• Homeownership. The rate of Mexican homeownership (51.2%) is higher than the rate for all Hispanics (49.9%) but lower than the 67.2% rate for the U.S. population as a whole.

1 Percentages are computed before numbers are rounded.
2 Mexicans ages 5 and older who report speaking only English at home or speaking English very well. Hispanics of Mexican Origin in the United States, 2007

Ethnic Group Literature and the "American Dream"
Just like the historical chronicles of other ethnic minorities, Chicano immigration is punctuated by severely adverse conditions, harsh work, community initiative, heartache, triumphs, determined spirits and hope for the future. Chicano immigrants cross borders to the United States in search of peace and prosperity, leaving an unstable homeland for a life of hard work and the chance to provide a better future for their children.

Chicano authors faced some of the same dilemmas as all authors whose ethnic identities are central to their work. A Chicano(a) identity specifically rejects the idea that we must deny our Mexican heritage in order to be a 'real' American. To identify as Chicano, means to be both Mexican and American. So, how do Chicano writers preserve language and culture while reaching out to a larger community? Their close proximity created a unique problem as well. Unlike most immigrants who were separated by great distance from their old countries, Chicanos lived within easy distance of their original culture. This closeness is beneficial in that it has made it easier for authors to retain more of their language and culture than most immigrants. As a blend of cultures from both sides of the border, it has come to stand for the struggle of being accepted into the Anglo-dominated society of the United States while maintaining the cultural sense developed as a Latino-cultured U.S. born Mexican. There are several common themes represented in the literature. They are:

• Identity
• social and political protest against exploitation
• immigration experience (particularly from a migrant agricultural perspective)
  
• life in the barrio
• unity of all Hispanic people

In most respects, Chicanos -- particularly those born here -- are very much like other Americans: They work hard, support their own families without outside assistance, have more education and higher earnings than their parents, and own their own homes. In short, they are pursuing the American Dream with increasing success. This is a population that feels they have to grapple for survival and against oblivion. New literature by US-Latino writers reveals that sense of a more complex state of consciousness. Their work portrays characters cast aside by their society; living the American Dream without finding fulfillment; and lost in a place and time where names and villages are regularly erased.

Tomás Rivera’s, Christmas Eve, depicts the double oppression of the Chicano working-class as cheap labor by American bosses and as consumers who then support an economic structure built upon that labor by exploiting children and the infirm. The depiction begins by declaring that “Christmas Eve was approaching and the barrage of commercials, music and Christmas cheer over the radio and the blare of announcements over the loud speakers on top of the station wagon advertising movies … resounded and seemed to draw it closer” (Rico and Mano, p 577). Doña Maria is compelled to respond to this consumerist “barrage” and forces herself to visit a department store. She explains to her husband that times are changing, the children “see so many things” that they want to possess; gone are the days when one could make his/her “own toys … out of clay …” (Rico and Mano, p 579).

Somewhat different challenges are explored by the writing of Chicana poet, Pat Mora. Known for her work dealing with the issues of being Mexican and female in the United State, her writing often reflects the struggle of a woman as she tries to the balance. Elena is narrated by a woman who moves with her family to United States. The children grow up in America, learn English, and go to American schools. She insists, "My Spanish isn't good enough." (Rico and Mano, 586, Line 1) The mother remembers the time that she spoke the same language as her children and communicating to them without a problem. Mora expresses this by saying, “I remember how I’d smile listening to my little ones/understanding every word they’d say/ their jokes, their songs, their plots/ Vamos a pedirle dulces a mama’. Vamos. But that was in Mexico.” (Rico and Mano, p 586, Lines 2-7) Having moved from Mexico to the United States, Elena worries that her lack of English proficiency will make her "deaf / when [her] children need [her] help" (Rico and Mano, p 586, Lines). It seems that Elena's dilemma is that she is literate in Spanish but not in English, the dominant language (suggesting) the complexity of literacy in a multicultural, multilingual society. To make matters worse, the initiative to bridge the isolation from her children and to overcome her feeling dumb will now alienate her from her husband. He too does not speak the language that their children know so well and is feeling subjugated by her learning it, “I bought a book to learn English/ My husband frowned, drank more beer/ My oldest said, [“Mama, he doesn’t want you to be smarter than he is”].” (Rico and Mano, p 586, Lines 12-15).

Pat Mora (accessed: http://www.patmora.com/):

Work Cited

"American FactFinder Help; Hispanic or Latino origin". U.S. Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov/home/en/epss/glossary_h.html#hispanic_or_latino_origin. Retrieved 2010-06-08.

Kanellos, Nicolás, ed. Herencia: The Anthology of Hispanic Literature in the United States, New York, Oxford University Press 1995 44-60

Novas, Himlice. Everything You Need to Know about Latino History. New York: Plume, 1994. Print.

Sandra Cisneros Image. Accessed 12 June 2010 from http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/KNO/7154P4~Latino-Writers-Sandra-Cisneros-Poster.jpg

"Setting the Historical and Cultural Context." American Mosaic: Multicultural Readings in Context. Ed. Barbara Roche Rico and Sandra Mano. 3rd ed.Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001. 553-9. Print.