Generational Analysis of Mexican American Identity and Political Consciousness from the Creation Generation to the Chicano Movement
Overview
This paper examines Rodolfo Alvarez's framework of Mexican American generational development, contrasting the Creation Generation and Mexican American Generation's relative complacency with the Chicano Generation's active assertion of civil rights and self-determination. The analysis explores how cultural displacement, economic marginalization, and land appropriation by Anglo-American settlers shaped Mexican American consciousness and political activism.
What this coursework covers
- Alvarez's generational framework: Creation Generation as indigenous peoples experiencing rapid cultural separation post-Southwest incorporation
- Mexican American Generation's false sense of psychic security despite continued economic dependence and social marginalization
- Chicano Generation's self-definition and challenge to previous generations' assumptions through active political engagement and civil rights activism
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CHIC 110A 4.8 Final
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CHIC 110A 4.8 Final
Part 1 – Question 1
Rodolfo Alvarez refers to the first generation as the Creation Generation because it came immediately after the incorporation of the Southwest into the United States. The first generation experienced rapid and clear separation from the culture of Mexico, their parent country. This generation constituted indigenous peoples who had always conceived the land as their own. Therefore, their subsequent subjugation differed from other ethnic groups that migrated to America in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Mexican American Generation achieved a sense of "psychic security" from the slight developments in income, education, social acceptance, and political efficacy compared to previous generations who experienced worse marginalization (Alvarez, n.d.). This generation was economically better than their parents, and a few years of schooling had granted them better social and political lives, something their parents had failed to achieve. This sense of "psychic security" was a false sense of complacency since the Mexican American Generation was still as economically dependent and powerless to implement meaningful equity as the members of previous generations.
The Mexican American Generation experienced less marginalization, but that did not mean they could affect their progress. In fact, the generation lagged behind other ethnic groups (like the Blacks) in every measure of social progress, such as education levels, annual income per family, and political efficacy.