No, We Don’t Need a New Chicanx Movement

When I came home late Monday afternoon, I received a text from my friend Yessica with a link to a recent article posted by the Huffington Post. Before even clicking on the link, I needed to brace myself, as my friend had warned me to be cautious on what I was about to read. I opened it hesitantly, reading the bolded headline first, Why We Need a New Chicano Movement. With a complete disregard for non-binary folks in our community in the title itself, I was already clenching my teeth with anxiety before continuing. The author, Mike Leyba, the Director of Communications for United for a Fair Economy, claims that a new resurgence of the Chicanx Movement is necessary with little to no reinforcement on his arguments. Using the words “My People” as ownership, he lists two issues: 1) “My Peoples (Mexican American) history…” is still misrepresented and missing in history textbook publications and; 2) “My People” (Mexican Americans) still face discrimination. Yes, the issues he presents have been a concern of the Chicanx community since the 1960’s and are still ongoing with the severe institutionalized racism within our education and political systems; yet, before we aim to confront these battles that drown the Chicanx community, we need to address the issues within our community first in order to mobilize successfully in battling oppressions:

1) Anti-blackness and colorism still remains visible within our communities.

2) Sexism continues to be rampant.

3) Our privilege is apparent as a majority of documented Chicanx’s continues to claim undocumented spaces, speaking over or speaking for undocumented folks.

4) Homophobia and transphobia still rages on especially in light of 20 trans women being murdered this year with 9 being trans-women of color (Fusion).

My argument here is not that we shouldn’t mobilize to address the concerns that the Chicanx community continues to face, but we need to address the issues listed above before we move forward into sparking a new wave of Chicanx visibility