Nationalism, Aztlán and Chicanismo
Posted: 30 Aug 2010
Date Written: October 2009
Abstract
Scholars of the Chicano movement and more particularly Chicano nationalism have often studied it as a product of the biographical and ideological contests among the leaders themselves. However, by engaging the literature on nations and nationalism more broadly we can place Chicano nationalism and in particular the concepts of Aztlan and Chicanismo into a broader framework that illuminates critical structural conditions and grassroots formations that gave rise to nationalism. This provides important theoretical and conceptual tools. First we can understand Chicano nationalism and Chicanos in general as connected to range of groups around the world who have faced various forms of social, political and economic exclusion by nation states that have developed national aspirations of their own. Second we can also unify theories of nations and nationalism by examining both the bottom up social movement aspects of national formation that are driven by broad structural trends. Thus, Chicano nationalism is not an aberration or creature simply of the U.S. but part of a broader phenomenon. This paper will help move the study of Chicano nationalism away from the realm of biography, terms entirely defined by the U.S. and into a more global discourse that also helps us understand the dynamics through which minority groups come to develop national aspirations.
Keywords: Nationalism, Aztlán, Chicano Movement
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