Presenter: Paul Guajardo, College of the Family, Home and Social Sciences, History
Authors: Paul Guajardo
Faculty Advisor: Ignacio Garcia, College of Family, Home and Social Sciences, History
Institution: Brigham Young University
Currently, Hispanics are the largest minority group in America, but they are often pulled between two (or more) cultures, thus millions of Latinx must navigate these complex and competing identities which often produce the phenomenon that W.E.B. DuBois called double-consciousness. This struggle for self is a key concept in the Chicanx movement which famously advocates the remembrance and promulgation of one’s native culture amidst the assimilative tides of Americanism. Unfortunately, these opposing views lead to an “us versus them” mentality; with the hegemony of the White United States on the one hand, and the uncompromising emphasis on one´s ancestral origins on the other. For many Mexican-Americans, the decision is not so straightforward. For example, Richard Rodriguez--a Mexican American intellectual and prolific author--has been called an “inauthentic ethnic” for taking a nuanced position on race. In Hunger of Memory, he writes, “I have become notorious among certain leaders of American’s Ethnic Left. I am considered a dupe, an ass, the fool—Tom Brown, the brown Uncle Tom… Consider me, if you choose, a comic victim of two cultures.” Similarly, Domingo Martinez, in his memoir The Boy Kings of Texas, notes, “I was never ‘bilingual.’ I did my best to forget Spanish from the start ... English in that area was the language of money, domination … English was power … I didn’t identify with the Mexican culture” (29-30). Complexities occur at the crossroads of culture as Chicanx navigate the intersection between a US identity and the culture of ancestors. Often, a critical examination of both sides leads to reactionary ire, but Hispanics need freedom and space to develop their identities instead of trying to classify millions of Latinx as either “white washed” or “unassimilated.”