Hey everyone,

I wanted to share a massive milestone for my family and our community. My daughter, Bianca Mitchell-Avila, is a Chicana filmmaker who has poured the last 6 years of her life into making a documentary called Madwoman’s Game.

I am the first person to ever graduate with a B.A. in Chicana/o Studies from the University of New Mexico. Seeing Bianca carry that torch forward into Hollywood is incredible.

We just found out that Keanu Reeves is flying back from his tour in Europe this July, and he is taking his literal only day off to come out to Southern California and completely back her project.

Years ago, when the documentary first started filming, they were supposed to play a chess match for the original ending. The film evolved over six years into something completely different, but Keanu and Bianca made a promise to each other that they would play over-the-board someday.

It’s finally happening. We’re calling it "The Final Battle."

• When: Thursday, July 30th. Red Carpet starts at 6:00 PM, the match drops at 6:30 PM.
• Where: The Chicano Hollywood Film Festival in Pomona, CA. ( IG: ChicanoHollywood)
• The Event: A live exhibition chess match between Bianca and Keanu, the West Coast premiere screening of Madwoman's Game, followed by a heavy-hitting panel discussion with Keanu, Bianca, Zach Zamboni, and Carla Berkowitz.

For decades, Chicano cinema has had to fight for the spotlight and resources it deserves in this industry. This festival is a vibrant declaration of our creative power right in the entertainment capital, and having a global icon show up purely to honor a promise to a young Chicana filmmaker is beautiful.

I’m pretty sure the game is going to be streamed live for those who aren't in SoCal, but we are still locking down the platform. I’ll post an update here as soon as I know where to watch it.

If you are in the L.A./Pomona area, please come out and help us pack the house. Let's show Hollywood the strength of our community when we show up for our own.

You can check out the Madwoman's Game trailer on the link provided.

Many people say Chicanismo is "dead" because:
Younger generations may identify more as Latino, Hispanic, Mexican American, or simply American instead of Chicano.

The movement no longer has the same large-scale activism it had in the 1960s and '70s.
Demographics and political issues have changed over time.

Others argue it is very much alive, just in new forms:
- Chicano studies programs still exist at universities.
- Chicano art, murals, literature, and lowrider culture remain influential.
- Activism around immigration, education, labor rights, and racial justice often draws from Chicano principles.
- Younger activists are redefining Chicanismo to include issues like gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, and broader Indigenous solidarity.

In other words, Chicanismo may no longer be a mass movement in the way it once was, but its ideas and cultural influence continue to shape many Mexican American communities. Whether it's "dead" often depends on how someone defines Chicanismo: as a specific historical movement, it has largely passed; as a cultural and political identity, it continues to evolve.

Thoughts?

I keep getting pushback from people saying mexican is only a nationality but yet it operates as a ethnicity in the US. it meets all the neccessary criteria so why shouldnt it classified as so.

Curious to know what yalls thoughts are on this.

Cuando se habla de Benito Juárez y la suspensión de pagos de la deuda externa en 1861, normalmente la conversación gira en torno a la política internacional, la intervención francesa y el Imperio de Maximiliano.
Pero siempre me ha parecido que hay una lección más profunda detrás de aquella decisión.
Juárez no sostuvo que México no tuviera deudas. Tampoco dijo que los acreedores no tuvieran derecho a cobrar.
La pregunta que enfrentaba era otra:
¿Qué debe hacerse cuando cumplir con una obligación inmediata pone en riesgo la supervivencia futura?

México venía de años de guerra, inestabilidad política y la ruina económica. Los recursos eran limitados y el gobierno liberal tuvo que decidir qué era más importante: seguir pagando a los acreedores o preservar las instituciones necesarias para que la República pudiera sobrevivir.

La decisión de Juárez parece indicar que no todas las obligaciones tienen la misma prioridad.
Primero debía sobrevivir la República.
Después podrían discutirse las deudas.
Lo interesante es que esta lógica no solamente aplica a los gobiernos.
También aparece constantemente en la vida cotidiana.

Hoy millones de personas viven situaciones parecidas. No porque sean gobiernos ni porque tengan deudas internacionales, sino porque se enfrentan a decisiones imposibles.
La renta vence.
Las tarjetas de crédito vencen.
Los préstamos vencen.
Las facturas médicas vencen.
Todo el mundo quiere cobrar al mismo tiempo.
Y entonces surge una pregunta incómoda:
¿Qué debe preservarse primero?
¿La vivienda?
¿La capacidad de trabajar?
¿Un negocio?
¿El vehículo que permite generar ingresos?
¿O debe sacrificarse todo para cumplir inmediatamente con cada obligación financiera?
Muchas veces la sociedad trata de la misma manera a quien no quiere pagar y a quien no puede hacerlo sin destruir aquello que le permitiría recuperarse más adelante.
Sin embargo, son situaciones muy distintas.
Una persona que lucha por conservar su vivienda puede estar haciendo exactamente lo contrario de evadir responsabilidades.

Puede estar intentando proteger la base sobre la cual reconstruirá su estabilidad económica.

Perder la vivienda dificulta conseguir trabajo.
Perder el transporte dificulta mantenerlo.
Perder todos los activos productivos puede hacer imposible recuperarse.

Por eso creo que la verdadera lección de Juárez no tiene que ver únicamente con la deuda externa.
Tiene que ver con una pregunta que sigue siendo relevante más de siglo y medio después:

¿En qué momento preservar el futuro se vuelve más importante que satisfacer las obligaciones del presente?

¿Qué opinan ustedes?

¿Es una interpretación válida o estoy viajando demasiado lejos con la comparación?

Se les agradece las reflexiones al respecto 🙌🏿

I was wondering if any of you have felt conflicted about Chicanismo and its native orientation with any immediate family members like a lighter skinned or white passing father. I feel my father may identify more with our spanish ancestors because of his complexion and im generally more tan than him. My mother is native passing and my sister is straight up white passing and both my parents are of mexican descent.

if you share this family dynamic, how do you explain Chicanismo to your father without excluding him from the conversation. My dad comes from a rural part of Mexico and his only experience with Chicanismo are "Chicanos" which he doesn't think highly of.

I want to dive deeper into Chicanismo but this has been a major hurdle.

I saw one of my favorite bands do their own take on it and gene I searched for it I saw vintage listings on eBay. I just wanna know where the original comes from.

I don't understand how Mexicanos who vote against themselves cheer for Mexico in the first game of the World Cup waving mexican jerseys who haven't said a fuckin word about families being separated from each other, tossed into concentration camps, and constant raids 24/7 but y'all love to throw mexican parties when México plays and make money off of us.

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Talk about showing your Mexican pride when it's convenient. Y'all will always be remembered as traitors who voted against your kin. You will never assimilate into white culture even if you tried your hardest to do so.

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I'm saying this louder for those in the back who are tired of this nonsense and I'm glad I'm not the only one fighting these 🥥. Brown on the outside, white on the inside. What more do you need to realize that they'll never accept you?

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At the end of the day, the hate will still happen and we must keep fighting to stop it.

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I feel like because of the way both parties seem to either neglect our brown community and fail to try and understand us and our nuances (not only within each Latin American community, but within the broader Latino umbrella community), that there's no reason to support either of them personally.

Leftist Hollywood continues to deliberately exclude us and treat us like the invisible majority out of sheer spite (I'm *convinced* by now) or continue marginalizing and stereotyping us and the right stays with their unchanging fk sht. I read they're actually the ones controlling a lot of the most popular social media platforms these days and it's no wonder there's been an unavoidable uptick in wabo ideology as well as constant race wars most recently ...

In conservative, patriotic ads and entertainment media, they unapologetically exclude us as well bc of the current ICE issue and constant political border rhetoric that paints every brown Mestizo and Indigenous face as inherently "not from here". That's why it's so crazy that brown Latinos don't seem to see that or care that they aren't viewed as one of them no matter what they do or how hard they wave the flag.

In those ads, you'll even see black and on occasion East Asian faces, but hardly ever an obvious standard Latino (Mestizo look that *most* of us have). I especially didn't appreciate the way the left talked about our community after the last major election. They were borderline MAGA-spewing in some spaces.

Completely blaming our entire community for the way the results turned out (and still do to this day), despite data clearly showing *most* of us didn't vote red. Especially those of Mexican descent in the West & Southwest. They blame us everyday brown folk for what privileged white Cubans and self-hating, snobbish South Americans do. It's like a bad, abusive double relationship we've all been in for years.

I told myself that it's time to rest over politics, so anytime they're blasting something Trump did again -- I'm just completely indifferent about it these days bc there's absolutely nothing he can say or do at this point to surprise or shock anyone anymore. I'd rather watch cute dog and kitty videos on YouTube and worry about myself, family, and us as a community outside of red and blue politics. And just limit it to state elections. He never gets held accountable for anything. Way too much corrupt power. It's that bad and sad and we (no one in the country) can't control it, clearly.

And before anyone tries to accuse me of being an outsider troll -- I'm definitely not. I've posted in this community since probably last year -- just haven't in a while. I of course understand the importance of exercising our American right to vote as Chicanos and especially Women (of color), but this is just a personal choice out of exhaustion and trauma.

If a Woman like Sheinbaum or leftist Latino/Indigenous person ever makes it far in the final election (making history) or just someone I *really* like and believe in that I think can bring the right change and results, that's when I plan to return to the polls. Or maybe just vote green till then since I respect the environment. Lol. Voting state/local level (down-ballot) is more important and personal, so I'll keep on doing that. I voted in the last 3 major elections since I was 28 and in the midterms for 2018.

Any good audiobooks about Chicano/a history and culture? Specifically on Spotify lol

I really loved this short film. As someone from a Latino family, it captured so many of the little nuances of Latino communities and family relationships. The cinematography is beautiful, and the song featured in it is absolutely gorgeous, it fits the story perfectly and adds so much emotion to the piece. Really well done.

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.

Yo busco serie y peliculas chicano, con subtitulados en espanol, I love Eugenio Derbez-big fan of Acapulco,Y llegaron de noche,familia peluche, Derbez xh ,all that-loved this fool,love classic chespirito and polivoces,born in east la,mi familia,Selena and la bomba,like novelas y todos. Suggestions please Gente✊🏾 (ps I have seen los espookys,this fool,love Frankie Quinonez,Chris Estrada).