Chicanx Identity History Perspective and Importance

Step One: Initial Post

Please introduce yourself to the class by sharing a response to this discussion that addresses all of the points listed below. You may reply through writing or in video or audio form.

If you are responding in written form: Feel free to structure this how you would like–maybe a bulleted list with answers for each question, one large paragraph, or a few shorter paragraphs. It might be helpful to imagine you are writing a letter to the class.
If you are responding with a video or audio recording: Create a response that is 3 to 7 minutes in length.
Use the Canvas “Record/Upload Media” button to record your response. (Here’s a link to a guide with directions)Links to an external site.
You can also submit a YouTube link if that works for you.
I ask that you not submit any files that I need to download as that makes viewing them much more difficult.
Answer the following questions:
How do you feel about the perspective covered in this film compared to the information you may have previously received through books, movies, school, and other major sources of history? Was anything new or unexpected?
Based on your analysis of the information presented in the film, how is the Chicanx (meaning people of Mexican-America ancestry) identity in particular, shaped by its history with Spanish settler colonialism? It might help to ask yourself, what makes someone a member of the “Latinx” or “Chicanx” community?
The documentary’s host, Ruben Martinez, frames the entire film around his family’s mixed identity–especially the identities of his young twin daughters. Why do you think knowing the history from the indigenous perspective–as opposed to just the mainstream Eurocentric focus–matters in terms of understanding identity on an individual level?