“El Movimiento” and its Music

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“El Movimiento,” also known as the “Chicano Movement,” emerged out of political and economic discourse against Mexican Americans in the 1960s. The Chicano Movement was primarily inspired by the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, and most importantly, the farmworkers movement.

Chicano movement poster with “Chicano Power” and “Viva La Raza” over a Mexican flag, ca. 1970s. [Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture © Platt Poster Company] latinoamerican2.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/2267122

The beginnings of the Chicano Movement and its music can be traced to the formation of the United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union in 1965 in rural central California. The UFW was a movement co-founded by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta to fight for better social and economic conditions for Mexicans in America. Chicano studies scholar, J. Francisco Hidalgo, states in a 1972 interview with the University of Southern California that, “There was a dormant desire to organize around the issues of education, economic exploitation, police brutality, over-proportionate number of Chicanos in Vietnam, suppression of the language, and culture, unemployment, the farm worker issue, Chicano Studies, the increasing number of Chicanos on campuses, political representation, health services, and so forth.”

Dolores Huerta (left) and César Chávez (right). Co-founders of the UFW. www.history.com/news/chicano-movement

The Chicano movement sparked many different genres drawn from Mexican folk and popular music. But most commonly from this movement, huelga songs were used and created to inspire others to rise up against these abusive farm bosses and were typically played on the picket lines and at meetings. These huelga songs were written in forms such as marches, corridos, and rancheras. On top of these forms, huelga songs were adaptations of other tunes. For example, the civil rights song and text from “We Shall Overcome” was translated to become “Nosotros Venceremos.”

A comparison of the two songs, “We Shall Overcome” and “Nosotros Venceremos” and their lyrics.

Of all these songs that were inspired by this movement, the one song that was most well-known was a folk song called “De Colores,” which actually came from Spain, and the Cursillo movement in the Spanish Catholic Church in the 1940s. This song is still well known today.

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