The Chicano Culture Meeting celebrates the pride of being Latino

In its fourth edition, which begins today and ends on November 9, the Chicano Culture Meeting in Mexico City seeks to reaffirm itself as a bridge and point of exchange of knowledge and wisdom between communities that, although geographically separated, address similar problems.

We seek to celebrate identity, brotherhood and pride in being Latino, strengthening the ties between Mexico and the United States through art and culture. The objective of the meeting is to disseminate the artistic and cultural manifestations of the Chicano community in dialogue with the cultural expressions that take place in the Mexican capital.explained Alfonso Vázquez, founder of the Chicanxs Sin Fronteras collective and coordinator of the event.

In an interview, the historian and anthropologist (Mexico City, 1982) pointed out that since its founding, in 2018, this group has dedicated itself to promoting dialogue and community reflection on topics such as identity, migration and carnalism, creating a cultural bridge between the Chicano and Mexican communities.

He states that the project has its origins in a radio program that, until the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, was broadcast on an independent station to disseminate Chicano, Latino and other communities voices living in the United States in this city.

Our intention was to bring voices to be a counterweight to the narratives that were being made of the Mexican, Latino and migrant communities in the United States. We wanted to give another side to what was said in the main media in that country, but also in some of ours, which repeated those narratives, which considered migrants, Chicanos and people from different communities, including black ones, as the worst in the United States. We wanted to show the opposite, that the Chicano culture and that of migrant groups is vast, enormous, very rich.he claims.

In 2022, the collective held the first Chicano Culture Meeting in the Mexican capital, in the town of La Candelaria, Coyoacán, with the participation of eight women muralists from San Diego and the border, as well as a border artist from Tijuana and San Diego.

That year the second meeting took place, at the Naucalpan College of Sciences and Humanities (CCH) and the La Resistencia café, with the participation of poets. In 2023, the third, dedicated to art and poetry, for which the La Esmeralda National School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving and the University of California House opened their doors.

This fourth edition, says the activist, is the biggestnot only because it has the collaboration of more institutions, including the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (Inbal) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM), but also because painting and Poetry is joined by disciplines such as literature and cinema, as well as social activism.

Now we have 10 headquarters and the participation of activists very involved in community work in the United States. For example, representatives of Underground Scholars come from Berkeley University, who are Chicano people and people from other communities who provide higher education in prison; also from the Partido de la Raza Unida, of California, as well as from Homeboy Art Academy, part of the organization Homeboy Industries, which provides rehabilitation services to former gang members.comments.

The list of participants, on the American side, includes prominent academics, writers and artists, including Dulce M. López, from the University of California in Los Angeles; Carmen Tafolla, from the Texas Institute of Letters; Luis J. Rodríguez and Trini Rodríguez Tlazohteotl, from Tía Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Librería; Felicia Fe Montes, from Women of Maíz; Viva Padilla, from Re/Arte Centro Literario, and Matt Sedillo, from the Mexican Cultural Institute of Los Angeles.

On the national side, in addition to teachers and students from La Esmeralda, poets and writers, there are representatives of the Chicano community in Mexico, such as Roberto Hernández and Ricardo Zepeda, from the Chicano Fest in Guadalajara, as well as Chicanos from the City of Nezahualcóyotl and (the mayor’s office) Gustavo A. Madero, people who did not grow up in the United States, but who identify with that culture and assume its aesthetics in clothing and way of speaking and expressing themselves.

Alfonso Vázquez recalls that this is not the first time that these meetings have taken place between the Chicano and Mexican communities in the country’s capital, but rather they date back to the 1970s, after the emergence of the Chicano movement, between 1968 and 1969, led by César Chávez. and Dolores Huerta.

The particularity of our meetings is that they are not only held in institutional spaces, but also in independent community spaces. Our challenge as a collective is not only to be a bridge between the communities on the other side of the border and this city, but also between government and higher education institutions, and community and independent spaces in places like the town of La Candelaria or Tepito, among others.

The fourth Chicano Culture Meeting in Mexico City opens today in La Esmeralda at 10 a.m.; among other activities, Las Musas Sonideras will participate. Other locations are the José María Velasco gallery, the Acatlán Faculty of Higher Studies, the CCH Naucalpan, the National Preparatory School 4, the UAM Azcapotzalco, Ú-Topicas Librería and the University of California House.

All activities are free to access and can be viewed on Facebook and Instagram in the account @chicanxs_sin_fronteras. There will be live broadcasts at www.facebook.com/ChicanxsSinFronteras.