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Chicanos and Mexican Americans |
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Chicanismo emerged as the cultural consciousness behind the Chicano Movement. The central aspect of Chicanismo is the identification of Chicanos with their Indigenous American roots to create an affinity with the notion that they are native to the land rather than immigrants.[1] Chicanismo brought a new sense of nationalism for Chicanos that extended the notion of family to all Chicano people.[1][2] Barrios, or working-class neighborhoods, became the cultural hubs for the people.[1] It created a symbolic connection to the ancestral ties of Mesoamerica and the Nahuatl language through the situating of Aztlán, the ancestral home of the Aztecs, in the southwestern United States.[1] Chicanismo also rejected Americanization and assimilation as a form of cultural destruction of the Chicano people, fostering notions of Brown Pride.[2] Xicanisma has been referred to as an extension of Chicanismo.[3]