Chicano Literature - Cultural Roots

1848 - Treaty of Guadalupe - Hidalgo: Texas boundary redefined by Rio Grande; ownership of California by the US, as well as parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Colorado

turn of the century (c. 1910) - massive Mexican immigration to the US due to dictatorship and coups in Mexico

the term Chicano: Many Mexican Americans who were naturalized Americans after the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo used the term “Chicano” derisively to identify working-class Mexicans not fully accepted by their Mexican compatriots because they were mestizo, they lacked education, and they spoke a mixture of English and Spanish, forming clever neologisms. The term “Chicano” itself was also embraced by a growing base of Chicanos, who rejected Latin American, Mexican American, Hispanic, and even Latino (“I don’t speak Latin, therefore I am not Latino”) during the nascent Chicano movement.

c. 1960s / El Movimiento - Chicano Civil Rights Movement. Formation of the "Raza Unida Party"

Chicano literature is therefore written by a group of people who identify with the political, cultural, and social Chicano movement, and who use expository writing, autobiography, fiction, poetry, drama, and film to document the history of Chicano consciousness in the United States. 

1969 "I am Joaquin" by  Rodolfo Corky Gonzales (1928-2005)

1972: Rudolfo Anaya. Bless Me, Ultima.

1987: Gloria Anzaldúa [and the Xicana Movement]: Borderlands / La Frontera (1987)