Honesty Over Activism: A Sevillano Perspective

My decision at a young age to abstain from La Raza and the Chicano Power movement was rooted less in national politics and more in a foundational commitment to family integrity, specifically regarding the historical friction between the Sevillanos and the Gabrieleños. Influenced by my Grandfather’s era 1700-1959, I grew up with the understanding that while Sevillanos were defined by their adherence to the truth, the Gabrieleños were often regarded as unreliable or deceptive. To join a movement that required a unified front with those I had been taught to distrust felt like a compromise of my own character; I could not align myself with a collective identity that seemed to gloss over these deep-seated local reputations. Ultimately, my loyalty to the Sevillano legacy of honesty outweighed the pull of ethnic activism, as I chose to honor a personal code of ethics over a political cause I felt was built on an unstable social foundation.

For more info on the movement check out my first written essay from 2023 on the Chicano Revolution from Compton College in honor of the Eighth day of La Puríssima Mission or the 11th Mission, in dedication of La Soledad the 13th Mission for the Ninth day, on El Camino Road (King’s Highway) or Royal Road

Link available below

From the Zoot Suit Riots to Aztlán: A History of El Movimiento

The Chicano Solidarity Group has been around for 200 years, and the term Chicano has been around for 100 years. The Chicano label was originally a derogatory slur during 1910-1930 to discriminate against people born in Los Angeles by Mexicans from Mexico which refers to immigrants of the working class in the United States. They were also known as Pachucos in the early 1930s in Westside Arizona (or El Paso Texas) who represent the “Real McCoy” or a Veterano Elder which know to this day that the suit was first created by the Mexican-American, however the younger generations say this is not true. Pachucos used linguistic resistance of Calo the Origin term of Chicano or Roman Gypsy slang of Lunfardo/Lombardo 1% Outlaws from Andalusia.  It implied that Mexican-Americans were of lower class status and lacked culture that was recognized as a superior racist slur. During the 1940s-1950s the term was still used but this time, it was to label every Pachuco a Mexican-American Youth as Outsiders of the East-side of Los Angeles with ties to the West-side of Arizona (or El Paso,Texas). The suit, a Flamboyant one was re-framed by media and military as unpatriotic, this sparked the Zoot Suit Riots. And again this time it was weaponized to expose an entire generation of Pachucos as criminals and expressed as gang-affiliated hoodlums who rejected American values. This label went on throughout the 1950s after World War II Veterans returned home and though equality was sought through assimilation the phrase still remained a stinging insult used against teenagers who were rebellious for their perception of not having any cultural refinement and lack of patriotism. During the 1960s and 1970s the expression intentionally seized the word to signal a break from the "Mexican-American" label. Driven by El Movimiento, young activists—particularly student groups like MEChA. The reclamation of "Chicano" transformed the term from a derogatory slur into a defiant political identity that rejected the assimilationist goals of previous generations. This reclamation is a rebirth of the idiom Chicano in order to isolate it from the melting pot of the United States through empowerment of indigenous knowledge which is the root of our lineage. As activists embraced the concept of Aztlán—the ancestral Aztec homeland in the Southwest which they well asserted to make it known that they are not immigrants but are indigenous on their own land. This successfully pushed Labor Strikes, the battle for Land Rights, and the execution of Chicano studies in universities re-coined the term Chicano through the movement of empowerment of Brown Pride and Self-Determination.