In the early 1900’s, a large number of the Mexican population immigrated to America to establish better and more successful lives. They no longer saw themselves as solely Mexican; they were Mexican-Americans. Throughout the twentieth century, American society marginalized these Mexican-American communities and refused to acknowledge their place or their rights. Above that, they faced the challenge of understanding their new identity; this struggle to define their identity led to a major civil rights movement in America, called the Chicano Movement. Numerous events helped spark this movement and shape its course, like World War II, the Great Depression, the farmworkers movement, and the other civil rights movements of the 1960’s. Above all, the exceedingly deadly Vietnam War, which expanded across two decades, had one of the most important roles in unifying the goals of the Chicano movement, as well as influencing the Chicano identity and their cultural values. The Vietnam War impacted Chicanos by exposing the racist foundation and unequal educational system of American society, defining their identity through the anti-war movement, establishing the Chicano Moratorium Committee, and forming a Chicano anti-war art movement.
Through the Vietnam War draft, Chicano communities became hyperaware of the underlying racism rooted in American society and their inferior educational opportunities. The Vietnam War disproportionately drafted minorities, including the Mexican-American population, due to the fact that only a majority of the white population secured their chance to attend university. Even though a large amount of Chicanos were drafted, that did not change the racist and segregated structure of the U.S. system; several Chicano veterans recall their time in the military as a degrading, racist, and unjust experience. In a journal article reflecting on the significance of the Chicano movement, it states that “the US’s white supremacist system had made Chicanos strangers in their own land, placed them last in jobs, education and rights but had always placed them first to die in its wars”. Thousands more Mexican-American soldiers were killed in the war than their white counterparts, all because of the disproportionate draft, the inferior treatment, and their lack of opportunity to attend college. The American educational system was prejudice against Chicanos, refusing to acknowledge their existence, their culture, their needs, and discouraging them to apply to universities. In response to these clear injustices, the Vietnam anti-war movement became a vehicle and an initiative to voice the larger issues in American society. Chicanos saw the movement as a chance to oppose the fact that U.S. money was going towards an irrelevant, deadly proxy war instead of towards fixing issues within the American society, like the lack of educational opportunities for Chicanos. Chicano activists began to speak out against the Vietnam War; eventually, their passion for the political movement intertwined with the Chicano movement as more Mexican-Americans became aware of the war’s significantly negative impact. By the late 1960’s, Chicano students had initiated peaceful protests, school walkouts, and had established on campus groups to improve the American educational system. A few reforms they presented included: bilingual instruction, Mexican-American history classes, and more Mexican-American teachers and staff. Undeniably, the Chicano movement strengthened through the opposition to the Vietnam War because the Mexican-American population unified under two additional goals: fighting to fix the discriminatory and unequal educational system, and thereby fighting to end the deep-rooted racist structure of American society.
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The circumstances of the Vietnam War challenged the traditional values of Chicano culture, like their definitions of masculinity and femininity, inspired cultural nationalism, and became the driving force to define the Chicano movement. Some Chicano youth were drafted to the Vietnam War, others chose to be soldiers out of their search to be patriotic and honor their families. As the Chicano population experienced the fatal outcomes of the Vietnam War, more began to doubt whether sacrificing their life for an impertinent proxy war was worth their family’s honor and respect. In addition, the Vietnam War shifted the Chicano community’s notion of masculinity. Traditionally, masculinity meant joining the military and fighting for their country, but after these circumstances, masculinity did not equate to bravery in the war. Moreover, the struggle of redefining masculinity meant redefining the expectations for Chicana woman. Whether a man or a woman, the Chicano population agreed that opposing the Vietnam war, fighting for La Raza, fighting for their rights, and advancing the Chicano movement was their most important action. The anti-war movement also changed their outlook on their Chicano identity in relation to the greater American population. The more they doubted and changed their traditional values, the more they pushed the movement towards defining the Chicano identity. The war sparked ideas, voices, conversations, and dialogues; as their efforts to push against America’s societal expectations grew, the more they could clearly define their own community. More Chicanos began to identify with the figure of being the U.S. government’s ‘enemy’ (in the eyes of the government, anyone who opposed their decision to join the war was labeled an enemy). At that point, most were proud to be traitors. In addition, Chicanos fully developed their ideas of what it meant to be a U.S. citizen and belong in American society. Instead of feeling an American patriotism during the war, the Chicano movement ignited their own cultural nationalism, further inspiring their community to fight for their rights and search for what it means to be Chicano.
After the opposition to the Vietnam War gained national support, the Chicano community took their passion for the anti-war movement one step further by establishing an organization called the National Chicano Moratorium Committee. This became a national campaign to increase the anti-war efforts and raise awareness against the inequality and racism which marginalized communities experience in America. Because of this organization and its fearless leader, Rosalio Muñoz, one of the largest anti-war marches was held in Los Angeles in the fall of 1970, gathering over 30,000 supporters. Despite its peaceful nature, the police decided to intervene, using tear gas and weapons to dismantle the protest. It quickly degraded into chaos; fights broke out, people were arrested, and many influential Chicano leaders were killed that day, including Angel Diaz, Lynn Ward, and Ruben Salazar. Even Corky Gonzales, a leader and a poet for the Chicano movement, was sent to jail. From that day forward, the Chicano Moratorium of 1970 became a significant demonstration of police brutality and is still remembered and recognized by the Chicano community every year. The Chicano Moratorium committee established a form of patriotism, not towards the U.S., but towards the Chicano community and their struggle. Never again would they allow American society to suppress or ignore them, to drown out their voices, to dismiss their culture, or to neglect their identity as Chicanos. Through this patriotism, art became an important medium for the Chicano community to publicly announce upcoming marches. In addition, art became the means to voice their beliefs and helped express their Chicano pride, traditions, and culture rooted in resistance. Many art pieces were dedicated to the veterans and those killed during the Vietnam War, like The Black and White Mural, pained by Gronk and Willie Herrón in 1973 in the Boyle Heights area of LA, which depicts the tragic events of the Chicano Moratorium; likewise, the Los Cinco Puntos War memorial in LA recognizes the Mexican-American soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the war. Lastly, many Chicano authors published narratives, poems, and biographies of Chicano soldiers to raise awareness to their contribution, purposefully filling the gaps of the Chicano narrative and history that were never nationally recognized. The anti-war art movement, the intolerance to an unequal society, and the resistance to assimilation became an important part of history in the Chicano narrative, and undoubtedly helped define the values in Chicano culture.
The Vietnam War and its opposition inspired a larger Chicano movement to fight for equal rights, an equal educational system, and an end to America’s racist societal structure. It shifted the Chicano perspective on traditional expectations, thereby establishing a new set of Chicano values. Most importantly, the war sparked a significant art movement which voiced the Chicano narrative, reinforced their values, and significantly influenced how Chicanos define their culture and identity.
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