Introduction
The 1975 Voting Rights Act Extension and Expansion was a key moment in the history of the Chicano Movement, also known as “El Movimiento”. Chicano is a term used to refer to individuals with Mexican heritage born in the United States. For the purposes of this project, I will sometimes use the terms Chicano and Mexican American interchangeably but will only use the term Mexican as an identifier of Mexican immigrants in the United States or individuals residing in Mexico. The 1975 amendments to the Voting Rights Act extended the existing sections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act which worked to outlaw discriminatory voting practices like literacy tests and poll taxes and expanded the act to further protect language minorities including Native Americans, Asian Americans, Alaskan Natives, and Spanish speakers. The 1975 ruling set a precedent for how the United States would treat Spanish speakers, Latino communities, and the topic of bilingualism in the years after the extension went into effect. The 1975 extension and expansion was an opportunity to bring to light the issues of oppression and discrimination affecting the Chicano community. Out of the 1975 Act came increased acceptance and promotion of bilingualism, increased voter participation, and Chicano political candidates, and the continuation of Chicano activists fighting for Chicano civil rights.
Defining Chicano
To be Chicano is to simultaneously belong and not belong, to fit in and be an outcast, and to be too Mexican and not Mexican enough. The Chicano identity, as previously stated, is an identity specific to individuals born in the United States who have Mexican heritage. The Chicano experience is distinctly different from that of fellow Latinos and Americans. Although Chicanos are American, there is no way to perceive “Americanness” like there is “Mexicanness.” Because of the obvious “Mexicanness” seen by others, Chicanos are not exempt from any stereotypes used against Mexicans. Regardless of citizenship or ability, or lack of, to speak Spanish, Chicanos are subjected to the discrimination faced by Mexicans being told to “go back to Mexico.” Chicanos exist in a country whose structures are set to work against them. Because of this continued discrimination, the fight for Chicano civil rights continues to this day. The 1975 Voting Rights Act Extension and Expansion signaled a forward progression for Chicanos after an extensive history of oppression in the United States. By examining government documentation of the 1975 Act, personal testimony in support of the Act, and public reception and response to the Act I will demonstrate how the history between the United States and Mexico created an environment that fostered the continued oppression of Chicanos in the U.S. today.
The History of Chicanos
The United States’ relationship with Mexico is rooted in colonization and imperialism. These roots are seen in the treatment of Chicanos in the United States. All Latinos in the United States faced incredible social, economic, and political challenges in the United States. Chicanos faced the additional challenge of being visibly Mexican. Mexicans had been deemed lazy, dirty, poor, and uneducated by Anglo Americans who subscribed to ideas of white supremacy. These stereotypes resulted in years of attempted silencing and erasure of Chicano identity in the United States. Many Chicanos recall being punished for speaking Spanish at school while their white peers were praised for speaking and learning Spanish. This history left a lasting impression as many Chicanos grew up punishing their children for speaking Spanish as it had become a point of shame and pain. Many Chicano families lived in poorly kept housing and struggled to put food on the table. Chicanos were abused, harassed, and denied the opportunities of advancement offered to their white peers. Although Chicanos were legally classified as white, they were clearly “other”. Because of this status as “other,” the discriminatory voting practices that prevented African Americans from voting also affected Chicanos, despite their legally declared race.
Barriers to Voting
While discriminatory practices such as literacy tests and poll taxes were prohibited by the 1965 Voting Rights Act a significant barrier remained for many Chicanos; a language barrier. Even if those Chicanos could speak English, oftentimes their skills were far more developed in reading and speaking Spanish. Many saw no need to expand the Voting Rights Act to include language minorities since they felt the existing law sufficiently addressed the described, those individuals failed to grasp that regardless of whether those barriers persisted or not, some could not uphold their civic duty if they could not read their ballot. The language barrier was not the only issue facing Chicano voters. Chicano voters were constantly faced with harassment and intimidation by employers, poll workers, or politicians when they tried to register to vote or cast their ballot. The 1975 Voting Rights Act Extension and Expansion attempted to address the language barrier by requiring voting materials such as ballots and educational materials to be provided in English as well as Spanish in jurisdictions where more than five percent of the citizens of voting age of the jurisdiction are members of a single language minority group, fewer than 50 percent of the voting age citizens of the jurisdiction voted in the 1972 presidential election, or where that election was conducted only in English. With significant barriers to voting removed for Chicano communities, many Chicanos could openly vote for the first time without fear of harassment or intimidation or being unable to educate themselves on their preferred candidate with only English material. In addition to Chicano voters flocking to the polls, Chicano politicians began to gain traction as their community could confidently cast their vote, ensuring a more fair representation of support at the polls for the politicians. For the first time, Chicanos saw themselves represented in positions of political power and felt empowered as citizens of the United States.
El Movimiento
The 1975 Voting Rights Act Extension is part of a much larger push for civil rights in the United States. In the ’60s and ’70s, alongside notable Chicano civil rights leaders such as Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, were activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, fighting for black civil rights in the Jim Crow south. These movements sought to address the long history of colonialism, racism, and systematic discrimination against minorities in the U.S. Protests such as the Montgomery bus boycott, the Greensboro sit-ins, and the march on Washington are well-known in the United States and are even part of a standard school curriculum. However, while the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, also called El Movimiento, and Black Civil Rights Movement occurred alongside each other, events such as the United Farm Workers strike in California, the Los Angeles school walkouts, and the 1975 Voting Rights Act Extension are unknown to almost all of the general American public. Because this information has been withheld in schools, many young Chicanos don’t have the chance to learn their history and are uneducated about the powerful past of their community. The fact that these events remain unknown is why this project matters. Chicano visibility remains unaddressed and falls through the cracks in education. This visibility is crucial to understanding the history of the Chicano community as well as the history of the United States. Understanding that the United States was built on ideals of colonial violence and oppression is key to understanding the root of issues facing the Chicano community.
Continued Discrimination
Despite the progress made by the Chicano Civil Rights Movement with changes like those made in the 1975 Voting Rights Act Extension and Expansion, discrimination against Chicanos is present today. In 2009, parents of a Chicano child enrolled in a catholic school in Kansas sued the school for implementing an English-only policy at the school and expelling the student when the parents refused to sign the slip sent home to allow their child to completely cut out Spanish during the school day. A judge ultimately ruled in favor of the Kansas Catholic School determining that the practices were not discriminatory. As recently as 2017, an English-Only Act was presented before the house of representatives that aimed to declare English as the official language of the United States and establish a uniform English language rule for naturalization. This act was not made as a response to the presence of Italian, German, or French language in the U.S., it was a response to the use of Spanish. Although this act was never passed, it is an echo of the English-only, anti-Mexican, sentiment prevalent in the United States.
Conclusion
Looking at these examples of discriminatory rulings and laws proposed and passed as early as 5 years prior, we see that the fight for equality under the law is not over for Chicanos. By studying acts such as the 1975 Voting Rights Act Extension, we see the significant positive impact of acts like these and the continued action needed to make Chicano issues visible in the United States.
Sources
Congress.gov. “Text – H.R.6219 – 94th Congress (1975-1976): An Act to amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to extend certain provisions for an additional seven years, to make permanent the ban against certain prerequisites to voting, and for other purposes.” August 6, 1975. https://www.congress.gov/bill/94th-congress/house-bill/6219/text.
Congress.gov. “Text – H.R.997 – 115th Congress (2017-2018): English Language Unity Act of 2017.” March 2, 2017. https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/997/text.
Estrada, Leobardo F., F. Chris García, Reynaldo Flores Macías, and Lionel Maldonado. “Chicanos in the United States: A History of Exploitation and Resistance” in Daedalus 110, no. 2 (1981): 103–31. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20024726.
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Hunter, David H. “The 1975 Voting Rights Act and Language Minorities.” Catholic University Law Review 25, Cath. U. L. Rev. 250 (1976). https://scholarship.law.edu/lawreview/vol25/iss2/4.
“In the United States District Court for the District of Kansas: Adam SIlva, et al., Plaintiffs, vs. St. Anne Catholic School, Wichita, Kansas, et al., Defendants. Case No. 08-1143-JTM.” January 12, 2009. https://ecf.ksd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2008cv1143-70.
Jordan, Barbara. “Extension of the Voting Rights Act.” Testimony of representative Barbara Jordan before the subcommittee on constitutional rights senate committees on the judiciary, April 1975. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth611318/.
Perrillo, Jonna. “The Perils of Bilingualism: Anglo Anxiety and Spanish Instruction in the Borderlands,” in The Journal of American History, Volume 108, Issue 1, June 2021, Pages 70–92, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaab064.
Rodriguez, Modesto. “Testimony of Modesto Rodriguez, Pearsall, Tex., accompanied by George Korbel, and Al Perez, associate counsel, Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.” In Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary House of Representatives, 519-535. February 1975. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=DY-qWoJ-nE8C&pg=GBS.PA518&hl=en.