to people. being chicano means that like we have multiple identities. like we love tamales, and we love burgers. all of us right here, we all got college degrees. three of us right here, we got masters. my brother just got accepted to a ph.d. program at ucla. what? ph.d. over here? so the whole idea of the immigrant, of like who are they? they re taking away. they re not giving back. you re looking at us, man, and we re like, we re paying your taxes. we re paying your salary. we re creating music. we re building bridges. we re creating family. that s what we want to see. that s the america i want to see, you know? we don t all have to be the same. it s all good. no, it s not about blending together unless you want to blend it all together. i got two of those blended kids. so this is afro-mexican music. i got the afro. you know what, you down to playing?
and now i m hella proud of being chicano, of having my family that came from another country, that worked so hard to be here, you know what i m saying? losing your language, feeling proud of who you are, right? but also not knowing who you are. that anxiety, that pride, that anxiousness. like knowing where you can be proud. all that. you mix that, and that experience is what we call being chicano. being chicano. it s funny. everything you re saying makes me feel like, i think i m a chicano, because that s all the same stuff. you know what i m saying? america has a tendency for everybody who comes over here to want them to sort of buy into americanism or get out of the way. and that is wrong. you know, families can t feel that they can practice their culture. this is a land of immigrants. this was native land first and then you know, you stole black folks from africa and brought them here. then, too, all the latino folks,
light brown and tan. and i understand as the country becomes more latino, i feel like i need to reach out, you know? i need to go to east l.a. i need to meet people and talk to people. being chicano means that like we have multiple identities. like we love tamales, and we love burgers. all of us right here, we all got college degrees. three of us right here, we got masters. my brother just got accepted to a ph.d. program at ucla. what? ph.d. over here? so the whole idea of the immigrant, of like who are they? they re taking away. they re not giving back. you re looking at us, man, and we re like, we re paying your taxes. we re paying your salary. we re creating music. we re building bridges. we re creating family. that s what we want to see. that s the america i want to see, you know? we don t all have to be the same. it s all good. no, it s not about blending together unless you want to blend it all together. i got two of those blended kids. so this is afro-mexican music.
and now i m hella proud of being chicano, of having my family that came from another country, that worked so hard to be here, you know what i m saying? losing your language, feeling proud of who you are, right? but also not knowing who you are. that anxiety, that pride, that anxiousness. like knowing where you can be proud. all that. you mix that, and that experience is what we call being chicano. being chicano. it s funny. everything you re saying makes me feel like, i think i m a chicano, because that s all the same stuff. you know what i m saying? america has a tendency for everybody who comes over here to want them to sort of buy into americanism or get out of the way. and that is wrong. you know, families can t feel that they can practice their culture. this is a land of immigrants.
before the spanish said would you like to borrow this language? yeah, yeah, you know what i m saying? how did you grow up? like what was your spanish was my first language, but when you come to school here, you know, everything s about english. everything s about being american. everything s about being white. you know what i m saying? assimilation. assimilation, man. put your mexican food away. over here we eat ham and cheese white bread sandwiches and that s what i wanted, you know? when i was a kid, i was ashamed of who i was. i was ashamed of speaking spanish. i wanted to be something else, you know? i wanted to have that, like, nice white boy haircut, you know, like the one that s slick on the side? after going to college, after like getting a master s degree, after all the stuff that an american dream is supposed to give, there s still the fear and there s still the are we okay being visible? so it s the colonization of the mind as they call it? and now i m he