I've learned something new AND made some connections!!!

Chapter 4 in "The Art of Protest" brought forth a lot of new information to me, almost too much at once. I had always wondered what else was going on during the the time of segregation and protest. The African-Americans were not the only minority being discriminated against, but I had heard little or no information on the subject. This chapter offered a wealth of information about the discrimination of the Chicanos/as.

The most interesting bits that I took away from the chapter were the many connections between this movement and Civil Rights movement. Several areas of the text made allusions to the similarities between the two.

An important aspect of the Chicano/a movement was its integration of art. The three Mexican muralists that had the biggest effect on the movement, "three greats", were Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siquieros. I had heard previously of Rivera and Orozco, as we studied them in Unit 3 of NCC's First Year, but I never really made the connection between them and this movement. Pulqueria art, or art that featured landscapes and familiar scenes was also mentioned in the text and connected with the Civil Rights movement.

"Just as the adaption of the black church music for the purposes of the civil rights movement allowed a radical new content to enter through a familiar, nonthreatening mode, the existence of pulqueria art probably lessened the shock of the radical new messages being conveyed by community murals." (p. 106)

The next connection was the inclusion of faith in both movements and how it was integral.

"And when they marched, the UFW members carried a statue of the Virgen de Guadeloupe, patron saint of the Mexican poor, thus linking the Catholic faith of the majority of the union members to the struggle, as black Christianity helped form a base for the civil rights movement." (p. 109)

There were also similarities between the leaders. the strategies, the groups, and the nationalism of the two movements.

"The nonviolent strategies of King and Chavez, for example, exist unproblematically alongside the armed struggle represented by the Mexican revolutionaries, the Black Panthers, and the Tijerina. And while the overall image was surely intended to evoke an emerging chicanismo, a Chicano nationalism similar to the black nationalism discussed in chapter 2, none of the pictured individuals, including the temporary ones, were full supporters of a nationalist position." (p. 111)

Another connection was made between the Black Panthers and a Chicano group called the Brown Berets.

"California was also home to one of the most radical, paramilitary groups in the movement, the Brown Berets, a group with many similarities to the Black Panthers that protested police brutality in the barrios and often provided security for marches and rallies." (p. 112)

Lastly, both movements had connections to the colonization, or anti colonization, of their countries of origin.

"Just as the black movement drew strength from the image of anti colonial struggles in Africa, Chicanos drew special inspiration from the struggles in the Spanish-speaking countries of South America against European and U.S. colonialism. (p. 113)

I found this chapter very informative and interesting, but could not help but wonder why these movements did not join together as they had a similar cause. As they say, there is strength in numbers. However, there may have been some overlap, here and there, it just may not have been discussed in this section.