Much of what we now consider to be problems concerning immigration and assimilation really concern Mexican immigration and assimilation.
No other immigrant group in American history has asserted or has been able to assert a historical claim to American territory. Mexicans and Mexican-Americans can and do make that claim.
To me, you have to declare yourself a Chicano in order to be a Chicano. That makes a Chicano a Mexican-American with a defiant political attitude that centers on his or her right to self-definition. I'm a Chicano because I say I am.
You have to want to be Chicano to be Chicano.
You have the United States, and you have Mexico, and then you have this Mexican-American thing which is this third culture, which I like to call Aztlan.
Hopefully I'll be the first Mexican-American going into Hillbilly Heaven.
Chavez Ravine is the dawn of Chicano consciousness.
I grew up in East Los Angeles, which is the biggest population of Mexican-Americans in America. I was born and raised there.
