Being a third-generation Mexican-American and speaking English exclusively, I heard Spanish spoken by my relatives all my life, especially when they didn't want me to understand what they were talking about.
Cheech MarinRead
To me, you have to declare yourself a Chicano in order to be a Chicano. That makes a Chicano a Mexican-American with a defiant political attitude that centers on his or her right to self-definition. I'm a Chicano because I say I am.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Being a Chicano is about self-identification and embracing one's heritage with pride.
In this quote, Cheech Marin emphasizes the concept of self-identification within the Chicano culture, which represents Mexican-Americans who assert their identity and political rights. Marin suggests that the declaration of being a Chicano is a personal and empowering choice that involves acknowledging one's cultural background while taking a stand on political issues that affect the community.
Themes
IdentityChicanoSelf-DefinitionCultureHeritage
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about cultural pride during a community celebration.
More from Cheech Marin
All quotes →Similar quotes
My hats did give me an identity. In fact, if I had a dollar for every time someone has seen me bareheaded and said, 'I almost didn't recognize you without a hat on', I could have bought the Cowboys myself.
Tom LandryRead
I was a mixed black girl existing in a westernized Hawaiian culture where petite Asian women were the ideal, in a white culture where black women were furthest from the standard of beauty, in an American culture where trans women of color were invisible.
Janet MockRead
I must identify myself with Africa. Then I will have an identity.
Fela KutiRead
Blackness remains the coat you can't take off.
Clint SmithRead
I don't really know what feeling Japanese or Haitian or American is supposed to feel like. I just feel like me.
Naomi OsakaRead
American? Indian? I don't know what these words mean. In Italy, it is all about blood, family, where you come from. I'm asked where I am from. I'm from nowhere; I always was, but now I am happy knowing it.
Jhumpa LahiriRead