In Chicano! A Quest for a Homeland, a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) documentary produced by Hector Galan and Mylène Moreno, viewers learn more about the hardships that Mexican Americans faced. Narrated by Henry Cisneros, the documentary argues that “overnight a hundred thousand Mexicans became foreigners on soil” after the United States won the Mexican-American war and Mexico lost half of its territory (2:49). This thesis seems reasonable and historically grounded because many Mexican people had their lives dramatically changed without a say. Although many people only know of the idea of manifest destiny after the United States won half of Mexico’s territory, they fail to learn about the lasting effects that it had on the Mexican Americans who had made a life for themselves in the territory. This documentary fits into the larger historical topic as it highlights the untold truth of the fight that Mexican Americans had to endure to earn their place in a society that was once their own.
The documentary has more primary sources than secondary sources, including videos of protests and speeches. Furthermore, clips of Mexican Americans in their daily life are shown over the narration throughout the whole documentary. These clips give viewers a visual sense of what occurred during that time period, so viewers are forced to see their living conditions and the true hardships that Mexican Americans had to endure. One example of a primary source was the narration of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, revealing that Mexican Americans were promised “free enjoyment of their liberty and property” (3:03). This is an important primary source as it is the foundation for the rest of the argument. The documentary uses this statement to explain the actions that Mexican Americans took to advocate for their rights stated in the treaty and to illustrate Americans’ lost promise. This is a significant primary source for viewers to hear word for word what Americans had stated in a formal document to the Mexican Americans. To convey to viewers that tensions were rising, the documentary contains a short clip of Tajina explaining to the community that “we are now waiting for an answer from the State Department to claim what belongs to us” (7:06). This clip is beneficial for viewers in depicting Tajina as a prominent speaker for the Mexican American community as he rallies the community together with his speech. Lastly, the documentary uses video clips of protests for viewers to feel the full vitality of the Mexican American community and their effort to make a change in society. One specific example of this is the video clips of the Moratorium movement where many Mexican Americans gathered in a march. There are aerial pan shots that depict the 30,000 people who came together on the street which indicates to the viewer how huge of an event this was (44:59). Video evidence of Mexican Americans innocently dancing and listening to music at Laguna Park before the police declared an illegal assembly just to catch a group of people who stole beer (45:54). The documentary then shows the chaos, violence and stampede that erupted at the park (47:07-48:40). Clips of police officers beating innocent Mexican Americans were especially alarming as it makes the violence more surreal for viewers. These series of clips that illustrate the innocence of the Mexican Americans and the drastic events that followed hours later was effective in demonstrating the frustration that Mexican Americans had. These clips force the viewers to feel some sort of emotion and allow the viewers to better connect and understand the struggle for Mexican Americans in America.
The documentary uses secondary sources like poets, artists and community activists to further narrate the events that occur. For example, Alurista, a poet, describes the stark differences between the police and the Mexican Americans in their idea of the violence that occured at Laguna Park. He explains that “the police called it a Chicano riot, and the people called it a police riot” (48:05). The documentary is not just one sided in merely showing the Mexican American perspective. This source is important in revealing the reason why the Mexican Americans and the Americans/justice system cannot reach an agreement: they both view events differently. Both of the sides have different/opposite views on one another which merely increases the animosity between the two groups. Another secondary source, Rosalio Muñoz, Co-founder of the Chicano Moratorium Committee, exemplifies how the draft for the Vietnam war greatly affected Mexican Americans. Muñoz states that people were becoming an “expert at getting out of the war. . . so as more and more middle-class people could afford lawyers, the draft boards filled up their quotas with more of the poor and particularly Mexican Americans” (41:05-41:18). This source is successful in revealing how the wealth gap affected many Mexican Americans lives. Viewers can now learn that this was just one way in which the Mexican American community was affected and the lack of government involvement to interfere with the middle-class that was escaping the war. I believe that the documentary should have included more secondary sources from historians or interviews from how white people or police officers. As a result, viewers can learn about how nonwhite people reacted to the protests and lack of rights that were given to Mexican Americans. Compared to The American Pageant by Lizabeth Cohen and David M. Kennedy, they describe the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo as “breathtaking” (384). In contrast, the documentary reveals that the treaty caused “a hundred thousand Mexicans [to become] foreigners on soil that had belonged to their families for generations” (2:49-2:57). Cohen and Kennedy focus on the idea of Manifest Destiny and the American perspective that the land gained was a significant stride for America’s westward expansion, while the documentary focuses on the Mexican American perspective and how they were trapped in a country that is not even theirs anymore.
In conclusion, Chicano! A Quest for a Homeland lays out the struggle and hardships that Mexican Americans had to endure. The PBS documentary also reveals the progression of how the Mexican American community created the Chicano movement to fight for the rights that they were once promised. This documentary fits into the larger historical topic as it preserves historical events that involved Mexican Americans (i.e. videos of protests and speeches), and this documentary highlights a new perspective of history from the Mexican American point of view.
Works Cited
Kennedy, David M., et al. The American Pageant: A History of the Republic. Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006.
Galan, Hector and Mylène Moreno, directors. Chicano! A Quest for a Homeland. YouTube, YouTube, 14 Sept. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYfiCnHW_NU&feature=youtu.be. Accessed 20 May 2022.
Dos Mundos Juntos 