Object number:
2010.54.1253
Object name:
poster; work on paper
Title:
Call Me Chicano
Date made:
1970
Material/Technique:
Screen print on paper
Dimensions:
H: 23 in, W: 35 in
Credit line:
All Of Us Or None Archive. Gift of the Rossman Family.
Copyright status:
Copyright Not Evaluated
Copyright holder:
Gregorio Rios
Physical description:
poster
Content description:
Top of poster has text: "Call Me / Chicano" on top of stylized designs in green and brown. Below this text are several stylized drawings. From left to right: An Mesoamerican Indian with a shield and some sort of weapon, the head of a man with a mustache, a soldier from the waist up gripping a gun in his right hand and a book with: "Educa- / ción / Igual y / Libre" on its coverin his left, and a young girl in profile seated at a desk writing. These images are all connected through stylized linear and multi-colored design elements. The center of the poster has a stylized green scroll with the text: "I am a product of a social system, / A mere number, insignificant entity. / I have a name. / Whether that name is Garcia, Gonzales, / Ramirez, Rojas, or Rivera. I am a person. / I am a person with the features of ancient civilization. / The Maya, the Toltec, the Aztec, the Mixtec, and / in the present the Tarahumara. / I am a 'Mexicano', but to hell with the number, / To hell with the degrading names tagged on me by a / Racist Society. / Names like Wetback, Spic, Greaser, Taco Vendor, Bean, / or Mexican-American with a derogatory inflection. / I am a "Chicano". / I am a Chicano because it gives me identity and pride. / It gives me pride because I gave myself that name / and it gives me identity because it did not result from / WASP origin. / It comes from my people, the 'Mexicanos'. / 'Chicano' might sound bad to your conditioned ears. / This is what the system has accomplished to do to some / of you, but be proud. / Be Proud That It Is A Product Of A Fast Growing Revolution / Of Ideas And A Sincere Conviction That The Chicano Must / Better Himself In A Society That Has Systematically Neglected Him. / by Gregorio Rios / Y 'a huevo' 'el águila' / Salvará Los Chicanitos / Porque ellos son los / de ma√±ana...". [This is an early example of the self-descriptive term Chicano, which since the 1970s has tended to refer to politicized Mexican-Americans. -LMC]
Concepts:
child; Chicano; soldier; stereotype; male; racism
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