My Identity. ( What do you mean I am a Chicano?! )

 Last semester i took a Chicano/a Studies Class at the college i attend. I heard a lot of good things about the prof. who teaches it. After i registered for the class my wife told me that i better not get all Mexican. i was like whatever. What exactly does that mean anyway? To get all Mexican. Did she think i was going to start raising chickens in the backyard? Start sporting some boots and a cowboy hat? Or maybe just throw up a big sticker or the Virgin Mary on the back of my truck? Yo no se.

 Needless to say i have not gotten all Mexican like she feared. But i did discover something about who i am. I discovered my Identity! You see i have struggled with my identity my whole life. ( And i am not talking on a sexual level either you morons) I was born in California, raised in the O.C. my entire life. My father came here from Mexico when he was 7 yrs old. My mom is 2nd generation born here from Mexico. My parents never taught me Spanish. The only time they spoke it was when then did not want us kids to hear what they were saying.
 So i grew up in a mostly white neighborhood. Most of my friends in H.S. were white. We were a pretty close group of friends always getting into some trouble of some kind. But i was always labeled the "Crazy Mexican" and that kind messed me up in the head. You see if i go down to Mexico, i am not considered Mexican. i am a pocho which is spoiled fruit. i did not mind it when my friends labeled me, but what hurt was when the adults and parents labeled me. As adults they should have known better, but whatever i guess i was that "Crazy Mexican" i constantly drank their alcohol and made out with their daughters. An even trade don't you think?
 EL CALIFORNIO: No i did not just misspell California ( remember people i am a Chicano so i will be using a few Spanish and some Spanglish here and there. Sometimes i will explain those words to you and sometimes i wont. If i dont give a definition, to the Spanish i dont want you to try to google or thumb trough your spanish/english dictionary from H.S., no instead get your ass up and go find a Mexican we are everywhere. We watch your kids, cut your grass, sell you grass, clean up after you, make your food, But watch out, we also marry your daughters, do your taxes, defend you in court, stitch you back together and prescribe you the good stuff. Yes the brown people are on the rise. Sorry A.D.D. moment there what i am trying to say is go ask a Mexican.) (Speaking of Ask a Mexican great book by Gustavo Arellano What up hommie hope you found my blog. no need to thank me for the plug but if you must send cash no checks please.)
Okie dokie El Californio is the prof. who taught the Chicano/a Studies Class. We shall refer to him as El Califa for short. CALIFORNIO is a Spanish word to describe a person that was born in California when California was still Mexico. No mensos and mensas he is not that old but he is like 4th or like 7th generation born here in California. i call him that out of much respect. When he passes if his children do not put EL CALIFORNIO on his tombstone, i will spray it on for him.
i noticed that El Califa really liked us the phrase "si se puede" which means "yes we can" which was President Obama's campaign slogan. So my first impression was "great another Mexican supporter of President Obama, man i do not want this class to be full of politics." Little did I know that "SI SE PUEDE" was the phrase used by Cesar Chavez during his struggle to unite the farm workers and fought for their rights.
You ask what is Chicano/a? Chicano/a is anyone born here in America with ancestry to Mexico. But it is more than that. Imagine a blank piece of white paper, now with a black marker write MEXICAN on it, now on top the exact same place where the letters you just wrote write AMERICAN, so that the two over lap. Chicano/a is being American, and being Mexican at the same time it is messing the two together so there is only one.
Here is another example, take lowrider cars and the culture they have created. Now google lowriders in Japan. You are going to be surprised to see them mimicking that exact culture craze there that we see here. Now why is that? Chicanos or Mexicans whatever, started and perfercted lowriders but they did here in America not in Mexico. So you see the craze of it in Japan the allure of it is Lowriders are American as apple pie and the Mexicans who picked those apples.
Sincerely
El