Uniting Diverse Latino Groups

When asked if there would be anything to keep me from presenting my views on Hispanic Heritage Month, I answered, “Yes! My Chicanismo, my Indian heritage!” I don’t want to discredit our Hispanic heritage but there is a need to acknowledge and pay tribute to our ignored Indian heritage. A Chicano is both Hispanic and Indian.

Our ancestors were not only the conquistadores but also the conquered. However, it is our vanquished heritage that has always hurt, haunted us and been ignored.

The term “Hispanic” alone negates our Indian heritage. “Chicano” is more than a political label for it has a real link to our indigenous past. The first mestizos were born of Spanish soldiers and indigenous maidens. This scorned underclass was called Meshicanos and evolved to shicanos , Chicanos.

Up until recently the term “Chicano” was so abhored in Mexico that much of the media preferred to use Mexicano-Americano .

At the beginning of this century any Mexicano who crossed the border and lost his Mexican culture was called a Chicano, no less than a traitor. Many of these immigrants were poor rural mestizos shunned by both countries.

To be a Chicano in the political sense, is to remember history and the investment in blood, sweat and tears. The East Los Angeles riot, walkouts, boycotts and protest marches were not led by Hispanics but by Chicanos.

There is no question the generic term “Hispanic” seems to have united a whole country of diverse Latinos from Afro-Hispanics to Anglo-Hispanics. As a handle it has been efficient for the government, the media and the corporate world. However, it has yet to make a difference in education, median incomes and political representation. Numbers are power but the seams and splits still show. Cuban Americans and Mexican Americans continue a rivalry. Cuban Americans lead in the Hispanic economy, but Mexican Americans have the numbers and get along better with Puerto Ricans. The melting pot theory that proved a myth for this country may also prove a myth for Hispanics.

Every year on Oct. 12, this country celebrates Columbus Day, while Latin America celebrates El Dia de la Raza , the day a new race and culture was born--that of the mestizo, the Indio-Hispanic.

JOSE ANTONIO BURCIAGA

Stanford University