Yo soy Chicano. I am a Chicano. My grandparents immigrated from central México. I was born in the United States. Because I am of Mexican origin, I also consider myself Mexicano although others might not share my perception.
I use the term Chicano to refer to people of Mexican origin living in the United States, regardless of their place of birth or authorization to live here. Many of those who I consider Chicano don’t themselves embrace that identity. I do not identify with the new, trendy term Latinx. I think I understand the rationale for this term, but it misses the mark in its purported objective, to be all-inclusive. The term Chicanx excludes people like me who struggled to make the term Chicano acceptable in our community. It also largely excludes monolingual Spanish-speaking Chicanos and Mexicanos who are perplexed by Latinx. I agree with the scholars Vasti Torres, Ebelia Hernández and Sylvia Martinez who in “Understanding the Latinx Experience” described Latinx last year as a form of “linguistic imperialism.”