Past, Present and Future: The Chicano Narrative
February 16, 2007-February 18, 2007
The Chicano Narrative, an in media res epic of human struggle, is not over. It weaves the vignettes of the historical farm workers’ labor strikes with the testimony on the 1968 high school walkouts. Our narrative is linked to the first Chicanos who defied institutionalized barriers and asserted their citizenship with the most powerful weapon, higher education. Our narrative records the role of the Chicano as a humanitarian leader in the national pro-immigrant rights demonstrations of May 1st, 2006. The Chicano Narrative traces the success of the student-led actions against the Coca-Cola Corporation’s human rights violations and the injustices of maquiladora industries at home and abroad. These battles in our Chicano Narrative herald the future of a transnational Chicano movement that extends beyond geographic borders. It is not over, the plot of our narrative holds much more to tell.
The East Coast Chicano Student Forum at Yale during February of 2007 aims to create a dialogue between the past, present, and future of the Chicano movement. Our goal is to revisit the past, evaluate our present and define our future. As we consider the temporal boundaries of past, present, and future we will also discuss the ideological borders of our Chicanismo, which challenges us to continuously redefine and redesign. Furthermore, this conference will foster discussion on gender and sexuality and its place in the Chicano Narrative, in order to highlight the expanding definition of the Chicano identity. At this point in the narrative, we must discuss the ethnic composition of the Chicano movement and analyze the idea of the movement as a decolonized one; has the Chicano movement transcended physical borders and can it be declared a “state of mind?”
As Chicano activists we must remember those initial struggles that brought us together and learn from the strength and bravery of the first Chicano pioneers who made their mark at institutions of higher education nationwide, including our own colleges and universities. As Chicano activists of the present and the future we must review the advent of social networks and their effects on grass roots activism in the form of cell phones, Myspace, Facebook, and the Internet. The Chicano Narrative is in our hands today, it is a story for us to create and for future generations to revisit and use to recreate. The Chicano Narrative has proved to be resilient through change, we must ensure that this resilience remains characteristic of our movement and continues to tell our story. We must continue forward, looking into the future, recording our present endeavors and always remembering the story of our beginning.
Please join us as at the East Coast Chicano Student Forum at Yale, where it began, on February 16-18, 2007 for a more unified movement forward.
February 16, 2007-February 18, 2007
The Chicano Narrative, an in media res epic of human struggle, is not over. It weaves the vignettes of the historical farm workers’ labor strikes with the testimony on the 1968 high school walkouts. Our narrative is linked to the first Chicanos who defied institutionalized barriers and asserted their citizenship with the most powerful weapon, higher education. Our narrative records the role of the Chicano as a humanitarian leader in the national pro-immigrant rights demonstrations of May 1st, 2006. The Chicano Narrative traces the success of the student-led actions against the Coca-Cola Corporation’s human rights violations and the injustices of maquiladora industries at home and abroad. These battles in our Chicano Narrative herald the future of a transnational Chicano movement that extends beyond geographic borders. It is not over, the plot of our narrative holds much more to tell.
The East Coast Chicano Student Forum at Yale during February of 2007 aims to create a dialogue between the past, present, and future of the Chicano movement. Our goal is to revisit the past, evaluate our present and define our future. As we consider the temporal boundaries of past, present, and future we will also discuss the ideological borders of our Chicanismo, which challenges us to continuously redefine and redesign. Furthermore, this conference will foster discussion on gender and sexuality and its place in the Chicano Narrative, in order to highlight the expanding definition of the Chicano identity. At this point in the narrative, we must discuss the ethnic composition of the Chicano movement and analyze the idea of the movement as a decolonized one; has the Chicano movement transcended physical borders and can it be declared a “state of mind?”
As Chicano activists we must remember those initial struggles that brought us together and learn from the strength and bravery of the first Chicano pioneers who made their mark at institutions of higher education nationwide, including our own colleges and universities. As Chicano activists of the present and the future we must review the advent of social networks and their effects on grass roots activism in the form of cell phones, Myspace, Facebook, and the Internet. The Chicano Narrative is in our hands today, it is a story for us to create and for future generations to revisit and use to recreate. The Chicano Narrative has proved to be resilient through change, we must ensure that this resilience remains characteristic of our movement and continues to tell our story. We must continue forward, looking into the future, recording our present endeavors and always remembering the story of our beginning.
Please join us as at the East Coast Chicano Student Forum at Yale, where it began, on February 16-18, 2007 for a more unified movement forward.
