Targeting Chicano

Progressive, The, July, 2002 by Barbara Renaud Gonzalez

Hey man, heavy shit, man ... are we drivin' OK man?

--from the film Up in Smoke, written by, and starring, Cheech Marin and produced by Lou Adler, 1978.

More than forty years after Cesar Chavez began organizing farm workers in California, the word depicting that struggle for justice has been sold for a million dollars.

In the Beginning

"Chicano" is a word that evokes the radicalization of Mexican American politics during the civil rights movement. Until recently, the average Jose despised it, preferring more neutered, poeticized labels--Hispanic, Latino, Mexicano, Tejano, Hispano, Mexican American. Chicano in the '60s meant anti-war protests, long hair, MECHA, the Brown Berets, Corky Gonzalez, and La Raza Unida.

While the word defended a culture, it was a political act to be one. I embraced this word, "Chicana," in my college days in Texas, because it was imbued with the me that was hated: my brown face, my clumsy English and broken Spanish, my farm worker traditions.

To me, this word became as sacred as my abuelita's embroidered table-cloth as I shaped the word into my own reflection.

With this heirloom, I could begin the difficult journey to loving myself for exactly who I was. A proud word, it conveyed history, defiance, and, finally, soul--evolving over time into something deeper than tribe or belonging or even loyalty to the family that sacrificed for me.

In my own way, I discovered that "Chicano" means true love of self, so that I could love you and all, so that I would not do to others what had been done so brutally to me.

"Chicano": In our best moments, a new conciencia for America.

But ay, the glitter of a rhinestone necklace is seductive. And so we have sold the only property we have left--our word for struggle, justice, hope.

I think we sold ourselves too cheaply.

I think the price we will pay is too high.

The Sale

Now on a lavish five-year, fifteen-city museum tour, "Chicano" is going mainstream. It's a two-pronged, for-profit exhibit consisting of the multimedia "Chicano Now: American Expressions" and "Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge." Impelled and created by the entertainer Cheech Marin's private collection of Chicano art, presented by Target Stores, and sponsored by Hewlett-Packard Company and Daimler-Chrysler, organized and produced by Clear Channel Entertainment, legitimized by the Smithsonian, and applauded by cultural leaders and many of the artists in the exhibit, "Chicano" is coming to a city near you.

The exhibit debuted in San Antonio, where it was greeted with gente decente gratitude from the city's leaders and robust articles in the San Antonio Express-News. "Chicano" was lavished with freeway billboards and bilingual media spots.

On opening night in San Antonio, pachangas gushed with the music of Los Lobos, accordionist Flaco Jimenez, a parade of low-riders, cowboy boots, and invited taggers (who were reprimanded for spraying on the corporate logo).

Cheech Marin is best known for his drug-laced Brownploitation comedy in the Cheech and Chong series, one of which, Up in Smoke, became the highest grossing comedy of 1978, topping $100 million. He recently co-starred with Don Johnson in the CBS one-hour Nash Bridges.

Highlights from the Interactive "Chicano Now!"

The political comedy troupe Culture Clash, in a video tour de force, guides visitors through the exhibit. Members of Culture Clash dress as the Brown Men, funny illegal aliens in spacesuits.

The exhibit consists of many items: "Border," with an eye-catching quote from poet and writer Gloria Anzaldua; "Family," which includes a tender clip of Cheech Marin's own familia; "Food," with an interactive stove that lights up a pan of refried beans as comedian Paul Rodriguez narrates the story of Mexican cuisine ("You can make a taco out of anything"); an altar; a family album of Vietnam hero Roy Benavides; "Work," featuring muralist Judy Baca and noteworthy people who would probably squirm if you called them Chicanos (Astronaut Ellen Ochoa, boxer Oscar de la Hoya); "Musica," a wide-screen video with how-to instructions on an actual dance floor of couples dancing the polkita ad infinitum; a What-Is-Rasquache? video installation featuring jokes by Paul Rodriguez and George Lopez juxtaposed with cultural scholar Tomas Ybarra-Frausto's quote, "To be rasquache is to be down but not out."

There is one free-standing pillar to the Chicano Movement and a glass-encased display of Chicano literature. Nearby, a video installation with monitors features the work of MacArthur fellow Guillermo Gomez Pena alongside director Robert Rodriguez's film clips, notably From Dust till Dawn with a half-naked Salma Hayek writhing with a python. In the next room are poetical short films by Gustavo Vasquez and Lourdes Portillo.

Cheech himself had a large role in the thematic scheme, which is a mishmash of scholarly quotes, comedy, videos, high-tech energy and sound, dioramas, murals, and the pedazo de resistencia, a lowrider simulator, where you can climb on and cruise as Cheech's voice takes you through the barrio. !Orale!