www.se.edu/native-american/wp-content/uploads/sites/49/2020/06/4.pdf

Mechica: Indigenous Origin of the Chicano Hybrid Identity

Rolando J. Diaz Southeastern Oklahoma State University

Both Homi Bhabha and Gloria Anzaldúa speak of a “third” element that emerges as a “structure of ambivalence” (Bhabha 217) and as a “new consciousness” (Anzaldúa 102). Bhabha develops his concept of culture in terms of class, gender, and race, whereas Anzaldúa bases her concept of culture in terms of fluid, and transient borders. The term Mechica and the Chicano hybrid identity (historical, cultural, and linguistic) are presented here as an amalgamation of various components that when brought together result in something new, something distinct, and something altogether greater than the sum of its parts. The native roots of the Chicano can be traced back to the Aztecs and to other indigenous people in what would become Mexico. His European roots were introduced by the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. The complexity of the Chicano is that he is both the conqueror and the conquered. He is an amalgamation of both the indigenous and the European. He speaks the language of conquest (Spanish in Mexico; English in the United States), yet holds on to remnants of Nahuatl. This paper will approach the Chicano identity as hybrid of the Indigenous/Native American and the European/Spanish patrimonies.