Hey everyone, I know we’re already pretty deep into July, but I wanted to drop a line and wish a happy Disability Pride Month to all the homies, carnalas, and siblings in the sub holding it down with disabilities, chronic illness, neurodivergence, or mental health battles.

I feel like this month doesn't get talked about enough, especially in our circles, and it’s super important for our community:

We all know how traditional households can be. Too often, disability or mental health gets met with silence, pity, or just a generic "échale ganas." This month is about flipping that script from shame to pride and empowerment and we are more than capable of breaking that cycle.

Being Chicano is beautiful, but navigating the world with a disability on top of that comes with unique and difficult hurdles. Recognizing this month helps us push for better cultural understanding and real accessibility in our spaces.

There are so many disabled folks doing amazing work, making art, and organizing in our communities. We need to make sure everyone is seen, heard, and fully included at the carnita asada, in the movement, and everywhere else.

To all the carnales and carnalas fighting invisible or visible battles: your worth isn't tied to your productivity. You belong here, and you make the community stronger just by being you.

Power to the people!

https://www.reddit.com/r/ElPaso/s/TC5RT6t3Qi

https://www.reddit.com/r/ElPaso/s/zR5T8M0GFW

That's the way to beat the heat 🤭🫶

In college I took a “theater as activism” course that focused a lot on GGP, but not exclusively. We watched excerpts from a GGP video series, and I think the short teatro I’m thinking of was one of them.

It’s set in a classroom filled with Chicane students and a white teacher. I think either the teacher or one of the students is named Abigail, which the teacher exaggerates when she says it “Abigaaaaail.” The teacher is taking roll call and I remember one student is named Moctezuma, which she mispronounces as Montezuma. He corrects her, and she repeats the mispronunciation. He corrects her again and she says something like “How about Monty?” and moves on to the next student. The same process of name anglicizing is repeated with each student’s name.

Does anyone remember the title of this work, and if it is GGP? I’m now a teacher, and I want to share it with one of my fellow Chicane colleagues.

EDIT: I’m now almost positive that it’s a Luis Valdez piece, not GGP.

My father is Mexican. My mother is a white Southern American. I’ve always referred to myself as Latino or brown but recently I’ve gotten so much backlash for it.

People act stupid, saying stuff like “You Americans always think you’re Latino, you have to be born in a Latino country to be it, you’re just white.” Like yeah, let’s all pretend we live in a make believe world where white Americans look at us people who have brown skin and Mexican features and genuinely think we are white.

Feel like I’m going crazy. If I say I’m Mexican-American, I’m a ‘race obsessed’ American. If I say I’m American, I’m a silly little self-hating Mexican. If I lived my whole life as a white person I would be fine referring to myself as such, but I’ve been mocked, harassed, even literally spat on for the simple fact I’m brown. If people who I’ve never talked to can take a single look at my face and call me Mexican, how am I not Latino???

Has anyone else experienced this? I’m 17 so maybe this is common for teens to say this stuff but it drives me crazy.

I grew up in rural Northern California. there weren’t many latinos around me, but within the last 6 years or so, the latino population has increased in my hometown. it was an interesting experience growing up, I sometimes would get confused on why I had black hair and brown eyes, why my parents only spoke spanish… unlike most of my peers.

I only got more proud of my heritage as I got older, I remember being in high school thinking i wanted a Latino boyfriend. I also had some latino friends. I remember whenever I would go to Socal or the bay area, I would be jealous of the kids my age over there because I wanted to be more in place with more latinos at school.

I remember in middle school, i would watch superEego, sergio ratza, derekvlogs, frank legend, before posting latino content/skits online was a thing and it was so soothing to watch.

now as an adult, I live in a major US city with lots of Latinos from different countries. I have plenty of Latino friends, and I am a very proud chicana. a lot of my latino friends/coworkers see me as a bit of a novelty in a sense, because I’m a Mexican American from rural northern california. sometimes I even get told “you sound like you’re from LA.” hehe.

Que música pondrás cuando se vaya el payaso?

https://youtu.be/XDkhzVw0yBs?is=6t1A2jG0cnlmKie0

If you were one if these pendejos and actually thought Trump was going to treat you as an equal, screw you. Educate yourself and start having discussion that prevent you from voting against your own best interest. There are no Chicanos on the KKK roles.

Welcome to the Weekly Discussion Thread! Use this thread to share all the little things that don't fit into full posts, introduce yourself, go off-topic, self-promote, ask questions related to identity, and whatever else you can think of.

Also, come check out the Chicano Discord for more conversation.

I noticed we Mexicans and Mexican Americans call each other la raza compared to other Latinos. I wish there was more unity between us as a Mexican community