The chicano movement and identity

T he psycho-social process of peo ple of Mexican origin in the U.S. Southwest becoming a ware of their cultural identity up until the beginning of the 1970s Chicano Movement took place in the framework of a conflict with the popular ima gination of the “authentic, American” identity based on Anglo-Saxon values and ethnocentrism. The identity of the individual de pends not only on primary identifications, but also on secondary ones, which occur when the social circle of identifi cations with models that promote the possibility of formulating and creating hierarchies of future expectations about oneself broaden out. When the useful ness of primary identifications ends, the individual’s identity begins to form, depending, in turn, on the process where by the community in question identifies the individual.1 On the other hand, we say that the formation of identity is a dialectical pro cess in which not only similarities play a part but also the differences that se pa rate out the “other,” those exogenous to the group. Personal affirmation also goes through the negation of the “other” and “otherness,” although this negation does not define the totality of the being. The Chicano Movement And Identity