Beyond Aztlan: Ethnic Autonomy in Comparative Perspective - Softcover

Barrera, Mario

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0268006881 ISBN 13: 9780268006884

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990

Synopsis

**Does achieving equality in a multiethnic society require the complete loss of a minority's cultural identity? **

Mario Barrera strives to answer that question with full historical context in his provocative book Beyond Aztlan. Barrera identifies the goals of the Mexican American population at large―community and equality―and lays out the complicated history of achieving these goals throughout the 20th century. As focus has shifted to equality over community, the Mexican American cultural identity has fragmented and begun to erode.

Barrera explores varied trends, such as the revival of community identity during the Chicano Movement, as well as cultural fragmentation and radicalization. To fully understand and answer the question of economic equality over cultural identity, Barrera looks at minorities in four other countries to compare to the United States: Canada, China, Switzerland, and Nicaragua. He argues that while equality is not easy to attain and even harder to hold onto, a group can still preserve cultural identity while being treated as equals.

About this title

About the Author

Mario Barrera is professor emeritus of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Beyond Aztlan, which is also published by the University of Notre Dame Press, and co-producer of the documentary film Chicano Park.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

If there is an overriding factor in Chicano history, it is the presence of a pervasive and institutionalized system of discrimination affecting all aspects of social life. In the economic realm, this system has taken such forms as dual wages (unequal pay for the same work) and occupational stratification (certain jobs more or less "reserved" for Chicanos and other jobs off-limits). In the political arena, a parallel system has been effected through such mechanisms as gerrymandering and poll taxes. In education, it has taken the form of segregated schools and unequal resources. In housing, racial covenants were used in many places to keep Chicanos out of certain parts of town, by requiring Anglos purchasing homes to promise not to resell their properties to non-Anglos. The list goes on and on. Some scholars have used the term "internal colonialism" to refer to this generalized system.

The pattern of institutional discrimination and segregation was applied to Chicanos in the nineteenth century. Similar patterns had been created for blacks and Native Americans earlier. It was partly motivated by a perception of self-interest on the part of some sectors of the Anglo population, and partly out of prejudice. As shown in earlier chapters, this system became the main target of Chicano political activists after the 1920s as they focused on the goal of equality.

One of the historical ironies in all this is that the barriers erected against Chicanos had the effect of reinforcing Mexican cultural patterns by preventing Chicanos from fully participating in the mainstream social and cultural life of the United States (San Miguel, 1984:205). This was an unintended consequence of the system of institutional discrimination. Indeed, the reinforcement of Mexican culture ran directly counter to the dominant cultural attitudes, which centered around the Americanization of "foreign" groups and disdain and intolerance for non-Anglo cultures.

Institutionalized discrimination also led eventually to the creation of alternative Chicano identities, and particularly to such youth subcultures as the pachuco or zootsuiter of the 1940s, and the cholo and lowrider of the 1970s and 1980s (see Plascencia, 1983: Madrid, 1972).

As we have seen, Chicano political struggles were aimed at breaking the patterns of discrimination in order to provide access to the dominant institutions and to allow individual upward mobility to take place. This essentially integrationist effort has succeeded in part, aided considerably by a number of developments in American society since the 1930s, particularly the New Deal reforms and the labor shortages created by World War II (see Barrera, 1979:Chapter 5). The rapid urbanization of Chicanos in this century has also played an important role.

Since the changes in the status of Chicanos have taken place over several decades, their significance has not always been fully appreciated. Nevertheless, their impact has been substantial. Integration into the dominant institutions is taking place, and greater economic mobility is part of that picture. One consequence of this mobility is greater class differentiation within the Chicano population, as is generally recognized.

However, there is another important consequence to these changing patterns, one that many in the Chicano community refuse to recognize or acknowledge. It represents the second historical irony: as the institutionalized barriers slowly erode, so do the cultural patterns that they have played a major role in maintaining. The contradiction here is that the partial achievement of the egalitarian goal has further undermined the prospect for attaining the communitarian goal. Far from being resolved, the dilemma that this creates has not been clearly perceived or addressed by the Chicano political leadership.

(excerpted from the chapter 6 introduction)

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0268006881
• ISBN 13: 9780268006884
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224