This paper will discuss the effects of cultural racism upon Mexican-Americans in the United States. The first part of the paper will examine how Chicanos were victims of cultural racism on the part of Anglo-Americans prior to the Second World War. The second part of the paper will discuss how Mexican-Americans were victims of such racism between 1945 and 1980. The third part of the paper will discuss how they have been victims of cultural racism since 1980. The last part of the paper will examine how Chicanos have overcome such racism and reaffirmed their cultural heritage.
Cultural Racism prior to the Second World War
Cultural racism directed at Mexican-Americans actually had its roots in the cultural prejudice directed at Spain by the inhabitants of western European countries. Such prejudice developed prior to the Protestant Reformation of the Sixteenth Century as northwestern Europe began asserting dominance in commercial and scientific arenas. This prejudice was reinforced by the anti-Catholic fervor which arose during the Reformation, especially when Protestant England contested control of world commerce with Catholic Spain. This conflict was transported to the western hemisphere and largely Protestant North America adopted the prejudice against Spanish culture. As Spain was driven out of the western hemisphere, the prejudice was transferred to the inhabitants of the Latin American countries, especially the one in closest proximity to the United States, Mexico (Powell, 1971, pp. 5-10; Nava, 1970, p. 130).
This prejudice against Spanish culture was legitimized and largely popularized by North American historians throughout the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. These so-called "scholars" wrote of Spain and Spanish culture in terms of the Protestant-Catholic conflict, presenting examples of the superiority of the English/Teutonic culture over the Latin culture. When a corrective picture was emphasized duri...