Chicano Studies

Is Chicano Studies really failing? Some authors and some of the people believe so.

I don’t necessarily believe it is failing us but it is only failing those of us who have indigenous mindsets, those of us who have reverted back to the ancestor’s type of thinking, their perspective on things. We Chicanos are by the day, are going back to the ancestor’s ways.

Reverting does not mean, living in a hut and wearing clothing that barely covers the privates, your standards of living does not define who you are or what your culture is.

Chicano Studies may have failed to follow the pack and revert to indigenous teachings, learn more about indigenous society. Instead it is staying with Chicanismo, which is influenced very much by european culture and style. Mestizaje is what Chicanismo focuses on. La Nuestra Raza, we are not a new kind of people. They believe in this Melting Pot theory that everyone born in Mexico is Mexican. They are Mexican by nationality but not by blood. And both have huge differences between them.

Do we need to aquire euro thought and go by blood quantum to see who can get into the “tribe�? Get on the “reservation�? While it may be true that not all Mexicanos or Chicanos may have very much indigenous roots, is it fair to teach the same type of material to the entire community? Chicano Studies promotes these claims of being a mix of spaniard and indigenous blood, both, in a half-breed manner type of thinking, why do you have to have such thoughts?

On the other hand though, Chicano studies is just reporting and teaching what some of us are already doing, practicing spanish influenced culture, the fact that some of us go to Church. So it’s not really a black and white thing when it comes to really explain what Chicano Studies is all about. To say that Chicano Studies is failing is basing such a statement on a portion of the facts. You cannot practice Chicanismo, a european influenced type of thinking and say it is failing the indigenous minded gente. Indigenismo is more on our path, maybe there needs to be a set of classes under Indigenismo, however, the word itself “Indigenismo” is spaniard. It can be called Mesoamerican studies or even go under the umbrella of “American Indian Studies”. What is true however is that we need teachings to satisfy the brains of Chicano Students who are on an indigenous path. However there is an alternative.

In the beginning, Chicanos pushed for our indigenous path to be raised, they referred to Aztlan, a place that has been proven to exist, the beginning of the Mexicas. It is theorized the tribes who stopped along the path to Tenochtitlan are part of the old Mexica tribes who took on new names like the Hopi and Comanche who are in the uto-aztecan family. However there is no doubt that Chicanos of the past were very proud in our indigenous roots and before the Chicano Movement there was no indigenous culture being practiced on a large scale, nowadays you can go to Los Angeles or San Jose to find a Danza Azteca group engaging in our ancestor’s warrior dances. Some people in our community believe that Chicano Studies have migrated to teachings that stress Mestizaje. Promoting the colonized mind, promoting and abetting those who believe a Chicano has to learn spanish to be considered Chicano, these Chicanos promote the assimilation of Mexicans into Spaniard culture. Chicano Studies can change back, to accomodate a more indigenous-centric ideology and thinkings, instead of books that promote Chicano-european influenced folklore, use books by Miguel Leon Portilla, Guillermo Banfil.

Guillermo Banfil’s books covers modern day indigenous culture and society, the rules in a community, the types of cultures and ways of getting these done in an indigenous society. So that could cover the Sociologic aspect of Indigenismo. If you read Miguel Leon Portilla’s book on “Aztec Thought and Culture”, there are bits and pieces where they cover the mindset of a man in Aztec society, whether that person is a warrior or not. It covers the psychologic principles of war, hunger, association with the female species and whatnot.

Our Ancient Mexican studies in school is not up to par, full of european rhetoric and systems of theories. The push of the Bering Strait theory being the reason how our indigenous people of the Americas got here. Everytime they find carbon data that surpasses the number in years the Bering Strait theory claims, the theorists who support and argue for the Bering Strait theory are always “mistakened” and quietly add in terms of thousands of years to the Bering Strait theory. We cannot even get our own true history being taught to us but we are fed books written by eurocentric scientists and historians who still use the accounts written by Hernan Cortes and Bernal Diaz del Castillo as factual evidence never to be challenged.

~ by xicano on February 4, 2006.