Rewriting the Chicano Movement: New Histories of Mexican American Activism in the Civil Rights Era ed. by Mario T. García and Ellen McCracken (review)
- Rewriting the Chicano Movement: New Histories of Mexican American Activism in the Civil Rights Era ed. by Mario T. García and Ellen McCracken
Emerging scholars have reevaluated the Chicana/o movement by grappling with its multidimensionality. Broadening its scope and scale, with a particular focus on obscured actors and elements, Rewriting the Chicano Movement contributes to the conversations brought forth by recent works such as Maylei Blackwell, María Cotera, and Dionne Espinoza's Chicana Movidas: New Narratives of Activism and Feminism in the Movement Era (University of Texas Press, 2018) and Mario T. García's The Chicano Movement: Perspectives from the Twenty-First Century (Routledge, 2014). This anthology foregrounds how murals served as social statements and shaped movement ideology; the value of testimonios (testimonies) in illuminating New Mexico activism and female leadership in educational reform; how fostering cultural memory, a sense of belonging, and potent symbols are just as valuable as political victories; and the ways public art spoke back against racist tropes targeting Chicanas/os in cinema and television.
The articles on Texas further reveal the movement's multiple layers. Mario T. García extends his generational framework to highlight how the 1936 El Paso school strike was a forerunner to the educational blowouts in Texas and California in the 1960s and 1970s. The strike at San Jacinto School is notable for the use of direct action at a time when the League [End Page 596] of Latin American Citizens (LULAC) leveraged court rulings to combat injustices. As García notes, the student walkout refuted the idea that Mexican Americans were passive and inferior. As with the later blowouts, both Chicana/o students and their parents fought to get demands met. This multigenerational approach raises questions about the permeability of activist epochs.
Generational cross-fertilization is also reflected in Tiffany Jazmin González's piece on Chicanas in the Texas political arena. Seasoned fighters such as Martha Cotera and Virginia Muzqúiz worked alongside younger activists such as María Elena Martínez and Irma Mireles not only to bolster the La Raza Unida Party (LRUP), but also to demonstrate the importance of the Latina/o vote. González charts Chicanas' interventions in both the Texas and National Women's Political Caucuses (TWPC, NWPC), and the corresponding political capital generated in the Mexican American Business and Professional Women's Association. Contentious fights over representation in TWPC and NWPC ultimately did not deter Chicanas; rather, they galvanized women such as Irma Rangel and María Cárdenas to break down gender and racial barriers in higher education as well as in local and state government. As González rightly points out, Chicanas laid the groundwork for effective Latina political organizing. Chicana involvement in LRUP was central to honing the skills and the political pressure necessary to maneuver the electoral arena. Without such third parties, how limited are Latinas in continuing this political legacy?
The other work on the Texas Chicana/o movement in this collection addresses the multiethnic nature of resistance. Jesús Jesse Esparza analyzes the Chicana/o Moratorium in Houston to demonstrate motivations for resistance and to illuminate the strengths and limitations of coalitionbuilding. For many Chicano/a and African American youth, the military draft was a racist and classist system facilitated by the lack of college opportunities and the denial of deferment applications. As Esparza notes, excessive war casualty rates shared among Chicanos and African Americans allowed the two groups to come together and form alliances with White anti-war activists. Under the umbrella of the Houston chapter of the National Chicano Moratorium Committee, the Mexican American Youth Organization and the Brown Berets played a key role in facilitating massive protests, which included African Americans and Whites, in Chicana/o neighborhoods. Aligned with other groups, Chicanas/os were able to amplify their demands and raise consciousness. However, Esparza reveals that the Houston Chicana/o Moratorium waned as the Students for a Democratic Society...
