As part of our end of the year unit, exploring the use of words as a means of power, my first period and I read a poem by a Mexican-American poet. In the poem, the poet refers to her identity as "Tejana, Mexican, and Chicana." I've heard all of these words before and my students could readily relate to "Tejana and Mexican" but, collectively, we struggled to define exactly what it meant to be "Chicana." We could blanket it by saying it was someone of Mexican descent, but such a word begged for a greater definition. Since google is at the fingertips of nearly everyone, we opted to search "chicano" in the internet genius.
Before reading the definition aloud, I skimmed it, hoping to quickly concise the Wikipedia article into an (almost) 9th grade friendly definition of "Chicana." As I read, though, I couldn't contain my intrigue.
"Oh my, oh my, oh my, this is so interesting."
"What misssssss, what?????"
It turns out that Chicano/a originally meant the "poorest of the poor" Mexicans. Interestingly, when the Mexican-American civil rights movement started in America, the term used to unite the movement was "Chicanos/as" My initial retelling of this information to my students resulted in questioning looks, which I knew mean I had drawn connections that they hadn't. I stepped away from my computer and attempted to translate my 5 second brain explosion to my earnest 8th graders.
"When Mexican-Americans started fighting for civil rights, they rallied under the word "Chicano/a", which meant "poorest of the poor." Despite the privilege of some in the movement, they still considered themselves the poorest of the poor, they still fought for the poorest of the poor. It's as if they were saying, we won't be satisfied until the poorest of the poor are satisfied, we won't stop fighting until the poorest of the poor have rights."
Every light bulb brightened, every student understood, and I felt empowered, enlightened, proud, inspired, responsible. Isn't that what movements are all about? Making sure that the poorest of the poor are treated as the richest of the rich? Isn't true success measured by the quality of life of our poor? I'm nearly done teaching in the Rio Grande Valley, but I've only just finding my place in this movement, the movement that seeks to ensure everyone, even the poorest of the poor, have the same opportunities that the richest of the rich have.
Love reigns when our poorest are our richest.
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