Chicano Protest Posters
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Abstract: This page focuses on the different kinds of posters created and seen during the Chicano Moratorium, highlighting the importance and significance they show during the protests. We are going to focus on the writing and the art created in these posters and how the symbols and choice of words empower the movement and create more awareness so that others can understand and hopefully join the Chicano cause.
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2023-06-11T19:08:04-07:00
As we know The Chicano Moratorium were a number of protests and demonstrations that were a reaction to the large socioeconomic and political problems impacting the Chicano community, also the Vietnam War and its high number of deaths amongst the Mexican American soldiers who served at the time. The rally in East Los Angeles in 1970 had approximately 20,0000 Chicanos unified marching through the streets of LA bringing awareness to the injustices their communities continuously have to live through.
The posters during the Chicano Moratorium were very crucial and played an important role in bringing awareness towards the movement. There were students, poets, writers, teachers, and activists that brought a great amount of awareness however some unluckily have been unjustly jailed due to the impact they had. The posters were created by the same people that formed part of the march/protest expressing their demands and publicizing their complaints in regard to the Chicano community. The posters were clearly made to influence those around them and possibly inflict emotion enabling people to become one whole unified movement in order to show resistance to the unjust government and the surreal living conditions.
Many of the posters that were used during the movement had impactful and striking aspects whether they included just an image, writing, or both. The first aspect raising awareness, which as mentioned is the act of "spreading the word" or spreading information about the movement by creating these posters that will hopefully reach out and create a bigger more involved community. The next aspect being the visual part of the movement which consists of expressing the ideals and identification of the group who are protesting, in this case those identifications were the "Virgen de Guadalupe" and the Mexican flag. The third aspect is the political interpretation regarding the statements and demands such as addressing the problems involving the high number of deaths within the Mexican American troops who were serving in the Vietnam War and as well the suppression of the Chicano c9ommunities in relation to higher education and better job opportunities. Furthermore, these posters also included part of the Chicano history, culture, and cultural art showing the diversity of Chicanos in hopes that it enables them to have a rightful place in American society. Therefore, the posters were aimed to evoke a sense of resistance, pride, and togetherness amongst Chicanos and other groups, encouraging communities to take part of the movement supporting the Chicano cause.
The messages that are shown in the various posters that were created are all similar to one another even if they have a different meaning to them. For example, some of the posters say, "Stop killing Us, Stop Murdering our People, Our fight is in the Barrio not Vietnam, We want Justice, Murdered in Vietnam & Our Home, Enough is Enough, We demand Freedom, Be Brown & Proud, Chicano Power". And at the end of the day all the posters are an expression of resistance to the Chicano cause and as a result to the creativity of the protesters there were many unique creations that luckily spread throughout communities evoking unification allowing the spread of the movement.
