How has Chicano Literature Shaped Chicanos in the U.S.? (Research Paper Sample)

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“How has Chicano literature shaped Chicanos in the U.S?”
Introduction
Chicano literature is mainly the literature that is written by the Mexican Americans who live in the United States. It is paramount to not that Chicano literature is traced back to the 16th century but most of its bulk dates from the period after 1848. This was after the United States annexed large sections of what had been Mexican during the start of the famous Mexican-American War. The Mexican/Chicano literature is not only set in a stone since the term can conceivably combine both the Mexicans who have migrated to the U.S and those U.S-born people of the Mexican ancestry. This latter people include majority of the Spanish-speaking families having lived in the U. S for many generations, mostly staying on the land in areas such as California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas prior to these regions being part of the larger United States. This particular group of people mostly faced various challenges that were distinctly different from their Mexican neighbors due to their status as a cultural and linguistic minority. This means that they faced these challenges because they were primarily Spanish-speaking Catholics in a largely English-speaking Protestant country. In addition, people residing in Southern Texas have since time immemorial had different challenges as compared to people living in Northern Mexico. The Chicano literature term is yet to be associated with American families who have evidently assimilated to the United States culture since this is completely a different phenomenon (Tatum 03).
Origins of the Chicano literature
The Chicano literature is also known as the Chicano identity originated mainly after the famous Mexican-American War and more specifically after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that took place in 1848. It is worth noting that in this noble treaty, The Mexicans ceded nearly half of its main territory, which is currently referred to as the U. S Southwest, and it includes New Mexico, Majority of Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California. All these areas had previously been regions of the Spanish empire. In a stroke of a signature, many hundred thousands of former Mexican citizens were turned into United States citizens through the straight conquest of their own homelands. However, this particular legal status was unfortunately not immediately accompanied by a turn in language or culture (Jacobs 05).
Consequently, over a long period, these Chicanos or Mexican-Americans developed effectively a unique culture which belonged fully neither to the Mexican or the U.S. Thus, After 1848, the Mexican-American culture developed evidently in the social interstices that were between the American and Mexican spheres that made a new cultural life which was patently a product of both cultures but also different in various ways from each other. The Chicano culture is mainly expressed in literature, in other genres and practices and it has been further influenced by the Mexicans migration to the United Sates during the periods of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries (López 26).
It is paramount to note that by 1900, the Mexican-American literature had fully emerged as a unique section of the United States literary culture. Its main origins were Mexican and Spanish, its key language was Spanish as well as it contained a religious sensibility of Catholic. This meant that, despite its ever-growing popularity at that particular period, the Chicano literature revolved within the orbit of oral tradition and the Latin American letters (Jacobs 12).
The Mexican-Americans were able to travel back and forth to their homeland due to their proximity to Mexico and this ensured that they remained with close tie with their native land, which eventually invigorated both cultures. The Mexican Village novel that was written by Josephina Niggli in 1945 was the first significant literary work that had been done by a Mexican-American. This noble novel effectively reached the general American audience and they truly embraced this great job. However, it was first among many of the Chicano literature that was to be produced in various genres such as drama, poetry, and narrative. This remarkable novel is replete with various references to Mexican proverbs, folktales, and legends. The Mexican Village feels like Spanish although it is composed in English since Niggli utilizes Spanish locutions as well as translates some phrases in Spanish literally into English. The resultant of this novel is a job of great originality that points the means to the fundamentals of the sensibility of the Chicano literature. It is paramount to note that currently, the Chicano literature has a huge critical and popular presence in the United States since people came to embrace the culture and they were in-turn influenced by it completely (López 53).
The Mexican-American acculturation process was greatly accelerated by the World War II since the war stimulated the Chicano movement into the big cities where numerous military industries urgently required labor. The high levels of the Mexican-American participation mainly in the military operations drastically reduced cultural isolation. Bless Me, Ultima is a best-known Chicano novel by Rudolf Anaya’s that strongly focuses on the direct impact of the World War II to small New Mexico’s community (Tatum 47).
The Mexican American literature also received a humongous boast in the 1960’s from the noble Civil Rights movement whereby many Chicano publishing houses were constructed and most specifically the famous Quinto Sol of Berkley. There were notable proficient writers that were nurtured by Quinto Sol and they included Tomas Rivera, Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, and Rudolf Anaya. In some ways, Rivera and Hinojosa-Smith had some similarities since they both came from South Texas and had substantial academic training on Latin American and Spanish literatures. They both wrote mainly in Spanish where they frequently wrote in sketches known as estampas and at times in several paragraphs (Espinosa and Mario 31).
Since the establishment of Quinto Sol and most currently, the Arte Publico and the Bilingual Press, Chicano literature has dramatically expanded impressively in every direction. Luis Valdez who is the Teatro Campesion founder has achieved paramount national successes as a filmmaker and a playwright. Richard Rodriguez, who is popularly known to be controversial, has attracted key reviews from the mainstream press, which is predominantly a Chicano writer’s rare experience due to his two great works of autobiography (Tatum 84).
On the other hand, Chicano literature mainly focuses on the themes of history, culture, discrimination, and identity, with a strong emphasis on the validation of the Chicano culture or the Mexican-American experience in the United States. Chicano literature is mostly linked with the cultural and social claims of the notable Chicano movement, which is a vehicle that is used by the Chicanos to represent and express them. The Chicano movement is also mostly a voice of social protest and critique. Other fundamental themes that Chicano literature tackles include the migration experience, and the exact situation of what it feels like living between two distinct languages. This unique literature can be written either in Spanish or English, or even in Spanglish, which is a combination of the two languages. Chicano culture has also influenced the political scene whereby is has focused on the disputed question concern the border and the various methods that the Chicanos utilize in order to cross or saddle that border (Jacobs 29).
Recent research by authoritative scholars has extensively shown that the Chicano terminology was derived mainly from the Mexicano and this particular term was used often in the 1950’s although it attained its popularity during the 1960’s. This was also the period that majority of the magazines and newspapers mostly carried poetry that expressed the passions, aims, and context of the Chicano struggle, which was evidently inseparable from the famous Chicano political and social movement of that time. This was mainly a struggle for economic and social empowerment and the brutal assertion of self-identity and dignity, which the Chicano movement found vocal expression. It is also worth noting that it was during the 1960’s period that the Chicano literature was termed as the Chicano Renaissance because of it signaled the start of the contemporary period specifically in the Chicano literature. Among the noble poets who are mostly honored during this particular period, include Jose Montalvo, Jose Montoya, Angela de Hoyos, Corky Gonzalez, and Richard Sanchez (López 85).
In accordance to Espinosa and Mario (39), previously, the Mexicans were mostly using the Chicano word in Mexico and the upper class Mexicans applied it to the Mexicans of the lower class. However, this term was chosen specifically by the Mexicans-Americans in order to identify among them since it provided a sense of identification that they were not being accorded by many people in the United States. This term brought a sense of belonging among the Mexican-American and it ensured that they remained united. This major factor evolved into an influential culture that also changed the Americans perception about them and they started embracing this unique culture effectively (Tatum 89).
A Chicano is evidently...