- Lil Rob
Roberto Flores (born September 1975), better known as Lil Rob, is a Mexican American (Chicano) rap artist from San Diego, California, USA. He was born and raised in the La Colonia area of Eden Gardens, a Hispanic neighborhood near Solana Beach. Lil Rob debuted as an artist in 1992. Prior to the release of his album Twelve Eighteen Part 1, he regularly moved as many as 100,000 units for each independent CD he recorded. - Tomás Rivera
Tomás Rivera was a Chicano author, poet, and educator. He was chancellor of the University of California, Riverside, the first Mexican American to hold the position at any university of the University of California. He is best remembered for his 1971 Faulknerian stream-of-consciousness novella "Y no se lo tragó la tierra", translated into English as "...and the earth did not devour him". - Cheech Marin
Richard "Cheech" Marin (born on July 13, 1946 in Los Angeles, California) is an American comedian and actor, who gained recognition as part of the comedy act Cheech and Chong during the 1970s and early 1980s, and as Don Johnson's quick-and-scheme partner, Insp. Joe Dominguez on "Nash Bridges". His nickname "Cheech" is short for "Chicharron", a spicy fried pork skin which is a popular snack amongst Mexicans. - César Chávez
César Estrada Chávez was a Mexican American (Chicano) farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. Supporters say his work led to numerous improvements for union workers. He is considered a hero for farm laborers, and fought against illegal immigration to help keep wages higher and improve work safety rules. - Luis Valdez
Luis Valdez (born June 26, 1940) is an American playwright, writer and film director. He is regarded as the father of Chicano theater in the United States. - Rudolfo Anaya
Rudolfo Anaya (born October 30, 1937, in Pastura, New Mexico) is a Mexican American (Chicano) author. - Ana Castillo
Ana Castillo (June 15, 1953-) is a celebrated poet, novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Castillo was born and raised in Chicago. She has one son, Marcel Ramon Herrera , born in Evanston, Illinois, on September 21, 1983. Long considered one of the leading voices to emerge from the Chicana experience, Castillo is a prolific author whose work has been critically acclaimed and widely anthologized in the United States and abroad. - Lalo Guerrero
Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero (December 24, 1916 - March 17, 2005), credited as being "the father of Chicano music," was a Mexican-American guitarist, singer and farm labor activist best known for his strong influence on today's Latin artists. - Kid Frost
Arturo Molina Jr. (born May 31, 1964 in East Los Angeles, California), better known as Kid Frost, is a Mexican American rap artist, who is regarded as one of the most widely recognized Chicano rappers in the hip hop industry. - Mr. Lil' One
Mr. Lil' One (born Rayes Solis Rodrigues) is a Chicano rapper from San Diego, California. Mr. Lil' One, raps mostly in the English language, but has recorded some tracks in Spanish. Mr. Lil' One made his name in the West Coast underground rapping scene in the early 1990s and is now a household name in Chicano Rap circles. - Gary Soto
Gary Soto (born Febuary 1952) is an American author and poet. He has received many awards for his writing, which is centered on the Mexican-American or Chicano experience. Soto was born and raised in Fresno, California, to working-class Mexican-American parents. He had an older brother named Bobby, and a younger sister named Debra. Soto lived in Fresno where he worked as a factory laborer. His inspirations include Thomas Berger, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Pablo Neruda, … - Judy Baca
Judith Francisca Baca (born September 20, 1946) is an American artist, activist, and University of California, Los Angeles professor of fine arts. She is the founder and executive director of the Venice, California-based Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), a community arts center, and is best known as the director of the mural project that created one of the largest murals in the world, the "Great Wall of Los Angeles". - Oscar Zeta Acosta
Oscar Zeta Acosta (April 8, 1935 - 1977 was a Mexican American (Chicano) attorney, author, politician, and Chicano Movement activist. He is most famously known as "Dr. Gonzo" in Hunter S. Thompson's book, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". - Jae-P
Jae-P is a Chicano rapper. Born Juan Pablo Huerta in Los Angeles on May 24, 1984, Jae-P is the son of Mexican immigrants. Both of his parents were originally from the southern part of Mexico. Growing up in South-Central L.A., Jae-P heard his parents playing Mexican norteño, banda, ranchera, tejano and mariachi and other Mexican music at home but heard hip-hop and R&B in the streets. Jae-P was 18 when, in 2002, he signed with Univision Records. - Alicia Gaspar de Alba
Alicia Gaspar de Alba is a scholar, historian, writer, and poet whose works include novels and scholarly studies on Chicano culture and sexuality. - Rolando Hinojosa
Rolando Hinojosa is a novelist and the Ellen Clayton Garwood professor in the English Department at the University of Texas at Austin. Hinojosa has devoted most of his career as a writer to his "Klail City Death Trip Series," which comprises 15 volumes to-date, from “Estampas del Valle y otras obras” (1973) to “We Happy Few” (2006). He has completely populated a fictional county in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas through this generational narrative. - Lil Cuete
Lil Cuete is a Chicano rapper from Norwalk, California. He is currently colaborating with various other rap artists in the Los Angeles, California music scene. He is affiliated with the Varrio Norwalk Los One Ways gang street gang. Lil Cuete is currently contracted with Eastside Records. He has released four albums, one each year.He has a song in the lowrider 2005 tour which it is called You Know Your Special - Slow Pain
Slow Pain is a chicano rapper born in Pico Rivera, CA. In 1994 he released a bootleg tape of his upcoming album off of Thump Records called "The Baby O.G.". Slow Pain is known for his G-funk beats, and mostly raps in English. Slow Pain's style is based on a rough style and this Pico Rivera native is well known for hit songs "Lex's & Hoes", "Wicked Ass Funk", "Bump Dat Ass", "Rollers Only (Latin Rollers)", … - Manuel Ramos
Manuel Ramos, an attorney who also has taught Chicano literature courses at Metropolitan State College of Denver, is the author of several crime fiction novels. These novels have garnered critical and popular recognition such as the Colorado Book Award and the Chicano/Latino Literary Award (University of California at Irvine), as well as an Edgar nomination from the Mystery Writers of America. - Alurista
Alurista is the nom de plume of Alberto Baltazar Urista Heredia (born August 8 1947), a Chicano poet and activist. - Lil Menace
Lil Menace is a Chicano rapper from Huntington Park, California. Lil Menace began rapping when he was about 16 years old. Influenced by Eazy-E, Lil Rob, Cali Life Style, and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, he created his own style of hardcore street gangster Chicano Rap. When Lil Menace was 18, he had to leave the gang scene to take care of his mother after she was diagnosed with cancer. In early 2001 Lil Menace began his professional career with "The World Is Mine" (2001), … - José Antonio Burciaga
José Antonio "Tony" Burciaga was a Chicano artist, poet, and writer who explored issues of Chicano identity and American society. - Carlos Almaraz
Carlos Almaraz (October 5, 1941-1989) was a Mexican-American artist and an early proponent of the Chicano street arts movement. - Sergio Troncoso
Sergio Troncoso received a Fulbright scholarship to study in Mexico City where he studied Mexico and Latin America. Later he mixed studying philosophy with working as a labor economist. Now he writes and teaches fiction writing. He is a member of the board of directors of the Hudson Valley Writers' Center. - Kemo The Blaxican
Kemo the Blaxican is a rapper best known as a former member of the Chicano rap crew, Delinquent Habits. Kemo is of Mexican and African American ancestry - hence the "Blaxican" part of his name. - Gronk
Gronk (born 1957 in East Los Angeles, California, USA) is the artistic name of Chicano painter and performance artist Glugio Nicondra. According to Gronk, his widely-repeated birth year of 1954 is false and directly attributed to his long-time dealer, Daniel Saxon, … - Harry Gamboa Jr.
Harry Gamboa Jr. (born 1951) is a Chicano essayist, photographer, director and performance artist. Founding member of influential chicano performance art collective, ASCO. He was the first of five children born to Harry T. Gamboa and Carmen Gamboa, a working class Mexican American couple. He grew up in East Los Angeles California, an urban area tormented by poverty, violence and racial conflict. - Darkroom Familia
Darkroom Familia are a hardcore hip hop group of Chicano and African American rappers. Their CD "Los Traficantes - Matan Mi Gente" was influenced by traditional Mexican corridos. They put out their first tape in 1988, and are still releasing tracks to this day. Lead rapper, Sir Dyno is serving a seven year sentence on Federal charges dating back a few years, and is now said to be retired. Members of Darkroom include Sir Dyno, Oso, D-Roll and Duke, Crooked. - Rodolfo Acuña
Rodolfo Francisco Acuña, Ph.D., (born May 18 1932) in Boyle Heights was raised in Los Angeles. He is an historian, professor, and perhaps the foremost scholar of Chicano Studies, which he teaches at California State University, Northridge. He is the author of the seminal work of Chicano history, "Occupied America: A History of Chicanos", which approaches the history of the Southwestern United States from the point of view of Mexican Americans. - Ester Hernandez
Ester Hernandez (born 1944) is a Chicana artist. She is a native of San Francisco, California, where she grew up. She is of indigenous Yaqui and Mexican descent. Hernandez graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. Soon after graduation, she began to become known for her paintings, many of which depict women's roles in society. In 1983, Hernandez painted an elderly woman of Hispanic or Native American race. This painting was named "The Healer". - Moctesuma Esparza
Moctesuma Esparza (born March 12, 1949) is a first-generation Chicano producer and filmmaker. - José Montoya
José Montoya is a poet and an artist from Sacramento, California. He is one of the most influential Chicano bilingual poets. He has published many well-known poems in anthologies and magazines. He is Sacramento's poet laureate. Making his start soon after the Korean War when he entered San Diego City College as an art student, Montoya later transferred to the California College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland, California. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1962. - Nativo Lopez
Lawrence "Nativo" Lopez (born 1951) is a Chicano political leader and immigrant rights activist in Southern California. Lopez is the president of the Mexican American Political Association and the executive director of the Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana (formerly the Hermandad Mexicana Nacional), a community service and advocacy organization for Mexican-American immigrants in California. - Tomás Riley
Tomás Riley is a poet, writer, educator and a veteran of the seminal Chicano spoken-word collective The Taco Shop Poets. He has appeared in the HBO documentary Americanos: Latino Life in the United States, Gregory Nava's PBS dramatic series American Family (2002), and is profiled in Hector Galán's ITVS documentary series on Latina/o arts: Visiones(2004). His self-released spoken word CD Message From the New Forreal debuted in 2003, and he performs on Raza Spoken Here Vol. - Lil Coner
Lil Coner is a West Coast Chicano rapper from Union City, California. He has worked with arists like Darkroom Familia, The Game, Jim Jones, Mac Mall, Keak Da Sneak and Speedy Loc - Carlos Montes
Carlos Montes was a co-founder of the Brown Berets, a revolutionary Chicano organization in the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s. The Brown Berets were inspired by and often compared to the Black Panther Party. Montes was one of the leaders of the East LA "blowouts", or the walkouts from East LA high schools in 1968. Montes is one of the people portrayed in the 2006 HBO movie Walkout.The agenda of the Brown Berets was to fight police harassment, … - Rodolfo Gonzales
Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales was a Mexican American boxer, poet, and political activist. He convened the first-ever Chicano youth conference in March of 1969, which was attended by many future Chicano activists and artists. The conference also promulgated the Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, a manifesto demanding self-determination for Chicanos. As an early figure of the movement for the equal rights of Mexican Americans, … - Emma Tenayuca
Emma Tenayuca (December 21, 1916, in San Antonio, Texas - July 23, 1999) was a labor organizer for pecan shellers in San Antonio, Texas, in the 1930s and beyond. She led Mexican workers' movements in Texas. Tenayuca's first knowledge of the struggles of working people came from visits as a young child to the Plaza del Zacate, a place where socialists and anarchists would come to speak and work with families with grievances. - Frederick Luis Aldama
Frederick Luis Aladma obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University and is a professor at Ohio State University, where he teaches Chicano/a, Latino/a and Post-colonial literature and film. He is the author of several books, including "Dancing With Ghosts: A Critical Biography of Arturo Islas", "Postethnic Narrative Criticism", "Spilling the Beans in Chicanolandia: Conversations with Artists and Writers", … - Michael Peña
Michael Anthony Peña is an American actor. Peña, a Mexican American, was born in Chicago, Illinois, where his father worked at a button factory and his mother was an assistant to a social worker, although both of Peña's parents were originally farmers. Peña attended Marist High School in Chicago. Though Peña has been a regular in independent productions since 1994, his breakthrough performances came in 2004 in two Best Picture Oscar-winning Paul Haggis penned films, …
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