The USA is a melting pot of many cultural and ethnic groups, which has fused with the European settlers throughout centuries and has taken a deserved place within the American culture. One of these groups is a Latin American/Mexican group, which emerged due to the immigration of people from neighboring Mexico and other countries south to the USA. However, the group faced oppression and a lack of recognition during many historical periods, which gave rise to the Chicano civil rights movement in the 1960s. Chicano protesters used activism and art as media for contesting their role in the US culture. This resulted in Chicano art, which still remains a vital dimension of the contribution of the Latino people to the contemporary artistic landscape of the United States.

How Did Chicano Activists Use Art?

Since Mexican Americans were facing many decades of cultural erasure and denial in the USA, the civil rights movements of the 1960s couldn’t help giving rise to the revival of Mexican rights and struggles. One of the primary tools in the Chicano movement was art, with established Chicano artists like César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, among others, disseminating protest art to:

• support the emerging labor rights movement (e.g., the United Farm Workers union);
• reject forced assimilation and revive the authentic Mexican cultural identity;
• educate the communities and preserve the history of the Mexican community;
• voice protest against social and economic injustices, including police brutality and a lack of access to resources.

To achieve these goals, Chicano artists created large murals in public places and urban areas. The murals symbolized the Chicano movement’s fight for justice and served as symbols of national pride and identity.

Where Can You Find Chicano Art Today?

There are many places across the USA to explore the surviving Chicano art. For example, you can see over 80 large murals in Chicano Park in San Diego, dedicated to various themes related to Mexican heritage and activism of the 1960s. Besides, several well-known museums, such as El Museo del Barrio in Los Angeles and the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, feature many pieces of Chicano and Latino art in their collections.

There is a series of surviving murals in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, IL, many of which were created by Héctor Duarte. San Antonio, TX, is also rich in historic murals depicting Tejano culture and the civil rights struggles of the 20th century. Interested visitors can also explore the West Side Murals as a place of surviving Chicano history in the city. Other notable places to visit include La Alma Lincoln Park in Denver, CO, and the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ.