Prototype Issue
Cholo Style: Homies, Homegirls & La Raza
By Jason Venzor
(page 1 of 1)The “cholo” image and identity is tricky for most people to wrap their mind around.
The picture of the pelon gangster covered in tattoos and ready for warfare is something that Hollywood has latched on to whole-heartedly and actively spread. However, the Cholo identity is a fringe sub-culture particular to California. Because of the movies, the superficial cholo image has become the preferred visualization of Mexican-ness throughout the world.
This is problematic, to say the least. The only representation that Mexicans get is gangster-driven. The Hollywood Cholo ideal shows drug addicted denizens of ghettos that have no interests beyond their “old lady” and their low rider. What Hollywood misses, however, is their fierce and un-compromising cultural pride in the face of ghetto reality.
Cholo Style, by Reynaldo Berrios, is a comprehensive exposition of the Cholo identity. While it adds more exposure to a fetishized aspect of Latino culture, I still cannot take much issue with the book, as it comes from living contributors to the culture. Cholos are talked about, like children in a doctor’s office, but they seldom get the opportunity to speak for themselves. In this regard, I truly applaud Mr. Berrios. He has taken his years of producing “Mi Vida Loca” magazine—a Raza publication out of the Bay area, and sculpted countless interviews, drawings and essays that tell the tale of the Cholo experience.
Cholo Style shows the beauty, as well as the limitations of the Cholo mentality. Cholos are angry because, “We became tenants in our own land! And invaders became the landlords!” In order to step back to their rightful place of pride and dignity, the book asserts that La Raza are a glorious people of bravery and honor. Along the way, though, many blows are thrown in the Brown vs. Black struggle that continues to divide people of color. The Cholo mentality is proud of itself, and it has contempt for other cultures that threaten to question it’s strengths. Whites, Blacks, and Asians are slurred throughout the book. This is unfortunate to read, but it shows the complexities of discrimination that are internalized and voiced by disenfranchised people.
The book has some very fine artwork and images of murals and drawings, and much credit must be given to Victor A. Spider, whose art fills the book with the iconic imagery that is so emblematic of the culture. Likewise, the biographies of great social upstarts from throughout La Raza’s history places the modern experience of Latino gang-bangers in the context of rebellion in the “new world.” Tiburcio Vasquez, Rigoberta Menchu,’ and the original Tupac Amaru are given their space of high esteem.
Though the Cholo identity has been a little blown out of proportion as a definer of Latino culture, it is still an element that commands respect. Cholo Style gets that respect. For us, by us.
Orale!
Discussion