Mexican-American Identity in Modern Los Angeles
Abstract
This paper answers different questions analyzing the different aspects regarding the identity of Mexican-Americans in modern-day Los Angeles. Question one discusses how in the 1940s and 1950s, Mexican-Americans dealt with American expectations regarding femininity and masculinity. It examines the reactions of pachucos concerning gender expectations. It also details how Mexican-American military members struggled with gender and sexuality expectations. Finally, the question investigates the impact of AIDs and the changes in gender and sexuality expectations in the 1980s and 1990s. In question two, the paper describes the local and national political objectives of the Chicano Movement. Further, it identifies the groups that formed the activist movement and why they remained united in the fight against socio-economic injustices. Finally, in question three, it delves into the effects of the Latino community immigrating to Los Angeles and how they have impacted future generations. It also considers how food, political involvement, and labor influence the Latino community. This examination of cultural factors results in the paper investigating how ongoing immigration continues to affect the Latinos’ way of life. Through these questions, the paper provides a compelling discussion that details the challenges and struggles that Mexican-Americans experienced after immigrating to the United States. It also identifies the impacts of Anglo-American culture on the Mexican-Americans. Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon involves the rise of the Pachucos, who challenged the traditional-Latino way of life; for example, they supported women’s self-empowerment. As Latinos continued to settle in the United States, intermingling with natives, a grander fusion of cultures took place and altered Mexican-Americans’ social, economic, and political understanding.
Mexican-American Identity in Modern Los Angeles
Question One
In the 1940s and 1950s, American expectations of femininity and masculinity resulted in women in Mexican-American society maintaining homemakers’ role. For example, women would not become garbage collectors since culture stressed that it was a man’s responsibility (Hayes-Bautista, Chamberlain, and Zuniga). In many ways, defining things like objects and jobs as either masculine or feminine left most women frustrated; hence they engaged in a powerful social movement to demand equality.
Pachuquismo challenged and complied with gender expectations through their counterculture practices. According to Regua, the Pachuco style countered Mexican-Americans’ gender expectations by resisting the reality of a male-dominated culture. It let women wear male zoot suits, challenging the long-held gender roles. However, Pachucos fulfilled women’s gender expectations by allowing them to become self-empowered by adopting strong attitudes, contrasting the traditional Latino-American image of femininity.
Mexican-American military members struggled with gender and sexuality expectations since the US military was an all-male environment that stressed heterosexuality. According to Rosales, despite having a homosocial milieu in the military that augmented a fixed and conventional gendered process, encouraging alternative masculine sexualities and conduct, people experience a dogmatic insistence on compulsory heterosexuality beliefs. For that reason, straight men judged gay men marines, soldiers, and airmen based on their sexual orientation and not a commitment to services.
In the 1980s and 1990s, AIDS affected more women than men because they had less access to information regarding the illness, few opportunities to access treatment, and primary caregivers to sick family members (Vasquez). At the same time, gender roles expectations remain unchanged since most societies agreed that men had to work and provide for their families; however, women had to be homemakers.
Question Two
The general political goals of the Chicano Movement included the attainment of education reforms, the achievement of rights of farmworkers, and restoration of the land. According to Araiza, Chicanos determined that attaining social, economic, cultural, and political autonomy highlighted the most feasible approach towards ending racial prejudice, abuse, and oppression. Regua explains that the movement’s leaders acknowledged that assuming control of their political life, culture, and lands would let them attain their objective. Farmworkers lacked a union, hence, mobilized organizing attempts to form outfits that would protect their liberties and privileges as well as reclaim their lost land. In American cities and education facilities, motivated by farmworkers’ resolve, Chicano youths started the fight for civil rights both in local and national situations. They organized protests, demanding better education. Today, the lasting legacy of change propagated by the Chicano Movement continues to exist.
Grape workers, civil rights activists, and students are the predominant groups that formed the Chicano Movement. According to Regua, activists such as Rodolfo Gonzales used the platform to push for a new identification for Mexican-Americans and advocate for socio-political empowerment. They also demanded respect for the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo by demanding the reclamation of land grabbed by Anglo settlers. Araiza opines that grape workers through the United Farm Workers (UFW) fought for enhanced socio-economic conditions. Grape workers and civil rights activists motivated students engaged in mass mobilization, forming movements that sought academic reforms. The fight for social and economic empowerment of the Mexican-Americans united the different groups under the Chicano Movement. Ultimately, ensuring that Mexican-Americans held government positions, Chicano teachers’ employment, improved working conditions for migrants, and creating on bilingual and bicultural programs are some of the reforms that the Chicano Movement attained.
Question Three
Immigration from Mexico and Central America created fiscal, economic, and demographic effects that shape Los Angeles. According to Hayes-Bautista et al., immigration has increased the population of immigrants residing in Los Angeles, changing majority groups’ dominance. The high concentration of low-skilled immigrants resulted in businesses accessing a large pool of labor; however, it reduced jobs and wages accorded to less-educated natives. Immigration increased the national fiscal burden caused by educational and other socio-economic immigrants’ needs. Also, they burdened Los Angeles’s public coffers since they had large families, held low-paying jobs and were less educated (Araiza). However, their struggles resulted in the formation of activist groups, such as Chicano Movement that fought for social and economic empowerment of the Mexican-American’s, creating a better situation for the other generations in Los Angeles. Today, the state government is responsible for immigrants’ welfare, assuring them of an improved life.
Immigrants increased access to both skilled and unskilled labor, increasing worker productivity in businesses across Los Angeles. The labor force utilized the scares natural resources adequately, resulting in economic development (Hayes-Bautista et al.). Engaging in political activism changed the status quo ensuring that Mexican-Americans become part of the larger American society. Involvement in politics resulted in civic engagement, assuring the Latino community of access to education and health. To engage in economic development, the Latinos used their skills to develop fast food outlets, providing various Hispanic flavors. The food also ensured that they identified with their culture since the preparation and the various cuisines represented a significant part of Latin American society. Continued immigration has impacted the Latino experience in Los Angeles. Latino immigrants’ continued flows augment the Spanish culture, including language and food; hence, it will endure in the US.
Works Cited
Araiza, Lauren. “In common struggle against a common oppression”: The United Farm Workers and the Black Panther Party, 1968-1973.” The Journal of African American History, vol. 94, no. 2, 2009, pp. 200-223.
Hayes-Bautista, David E., Cynthia L. Chamberlin, and Nancy Zuniga. “A gold rush Salvadoran in California’s Latino world, 1857.” Southern California Quarterly, vol. 91, no. 3, 2009, pp. 257-294.
Regua, Nannette. “Women in the Chicano Movement: Grassroots activism in San José.” Chicana/Latina Studies, vol. 12, no. 1, 2012), pp. 114-152.
Rosales, Steven. “Macho nation? Chicano soldiering, Sexuality, and manhood during the Vietnam war era.” The Oral History Review, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 299-324.
Vasquez, Jessica M. “Blurred borders for some but not “others”: Racialization, “flexible ethnicity,” gender, and third-generation Mexican American identity.” Sociological Perspectives, vol. 53, no. 1, 2010, pp. 45-71.