How Chicano Are You?

Daniel Stange de Acatl

A recent revelation about a rather famous individual has given me some pause for thought. I am speaking about an American/Canadian Folk singer, icon, and recent recipient of an Emmy award for her life achievements. Buffy Marie Saint-Claire has been publicly shamed and attacked for her past and her real identity. People claiming that she is not Native American and digging up old relatives that spoke against her claim of being adopted. She boldly accepted the award and made little appeal to her accusers beyond stating that she really does not know the truth of her birth parents. She lastly said that people are missing the point about what it means to be Indian in a letter her publicist shared with Native News Online.

The whole story has given rise to discussions that many of our own community have engaged in. Call yourself Latina, Hispanic, Chicana/o or Mexican American, but if you did not grow up isolated from the family and neighbors of the same social group, you remember the sting of validation. The caste systems set up in New Spain that endured for hundreds of years on this continent caused a painful division based on skin tones. Criollos and Hispanos with light skin having preference and mulattos and prietos being looked down upon. In México, they still tell dark skin daughters to marry a güero so they can be accepted. On the other spectrum in the USA they tease the light skinned Chicanos for being ‘milkweed’, ‘Chihonkys’ that are not welcome in the inner circles, even wrote a song about the Gringo-Frijolero.

As much as our laughter and good humor is medicine to these emotional and spiritual wounds, there demonstrates a cultural inequity that we fail to remedy. Perhaps our continual outcast on the Yankee social ladder keeps us from unifying our community? Maybe it is the older wounds of colonial genocide and erasure of ancestral wisdom that was buried by great grandmothers? Another factor is the lack of embrace with Black communities that have much more in common with our economic and political struggles. At the center remains our sense of identity.

We developed a false belief in race and now can use genetic markers to regulate people to the cultural and social groups that might have less to do with who and how they personally identify. Blood quantum has been a treacherous and inhuman tool for qualifying American Indian tribal members. It is typically used with horses and dogs for pedigree breeding. In its’ defense it was also, the means through which the preservation of American Indian nations could keep their autonomy and prevent abusive appropriations that continue today by some perspectives.

Some teachers might explain that all people desire to belong and thereby create outsiders that are not welcome. There is some truth to the way some people’s lifestyle and cultural values are in such contradiction, it can be a challenge to coexist. The reality of human nature is that we form social bonds with people that have no biological connection in much more balanced and healthy manners. The Lakota word “Hunka” comes from a ceremony that they do called “making of relatives”. So your Hunka family is closer to you than even your biological members. Most of us have such an experience with childhood friends. Maybe some of us call an Elder tío or tía even though they are not related? All Chicanos are like primos at least, knowing that we share a worldview and past trauma that developed our “tough love” and machismo.

In the Native community, we have an Elder Gringa who has been such a long time member and dancer and translator, she is not treated as an outsider. Recently, when some young Chicanas were developing a sacred woman’s circle, there was some of the new women that wanted to exclude our Elder sister, because they viewed her as a white ally. They wanted only native women to have a voice in this circle and there was no hesitation for myself and other Elders to rebuke these young ladies for their disrespect. Most of them have only been learning their native ways for a few years and the woman they wanted to exclude had been a member of our circle for more than 40 years! I believe the members of the circle just broke off and never fully implemented their agenda. It was a good teaching moment.

The reality is that all people have a responsibility to know themselves; to search for the role and reason for their purpose on this planet.

The reality is that all people have a responsibility to know themselves; to search for the role and reason for their purpose on this planet. There are no pure bloods in América or most other places in the world. Chicanos by definition are a mixed blood people. La Raza Cósmica to many. The seeds of many cultures and nations reside within your genetic code. But you must decide which of those seeds that you want to cultivate and nurture. Mostly your family and your upbringing has done that work and that’s why I have often said, “If you have to ask if you’re Chicano then you’re not”. Still the reality is that anybody can be Chicano. In one of the concerts by the band El Chicano, they even laughed about the idea that we are all Chicanos.

When América coined the term “melting pot”, it was an ignorant few who believed that the people in that melting pot were going to be white. You mix white – black – red – yellow and you get a beautiful shade of Brown. We have the numbers, we have the power, we definitely have the women. What we lack is a better understanding of our ancestral roots from the First Nations people and their harmonious teachings from the four directions. It is a circular model because all things sacred are smooth and round. So let us smooth out our conflicts and sharp edges and bring our attention to the rising sun. Look to the east for this new beginning as the bold round sun lifts into the sky. If anybody asks “how Chicano are you?” You tell them, “As Chicano as I have to be.”

Danny Stange de Acatl is a Denver Native and Cultural activist that serves his community on various levels.