POLITICS & SOCIAL SCIENCE

Latino Studies/ Social Science

B/W Illustrations

Chicano Movement For Beginners captures the spirit, energy, and enduring legacy of the political and cultural movement that galvanized the Mexican American community from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s. El Movimiento, as it was called, gave Chicano and Chicana youth a voice to combat prejudice and injustice, a new sense of cultural awareness, and an unprecedented level of ethnic identity and pride.

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Beyond commemorating the past, this extraordinary work of graphic nonfiction reaffirms the goals and vitality of the Chicano Movement for the simple reason that many of the critical issues Mexican American activists first brought to the nation’s attention in the ‘60s and ’70s—educational disadvantage, endemic poverty, social bias, and political exclusion—remain pervasive almost a half-century later.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR/ ILLUSTRATOR

Writer, artist, and educator Maceo Montoya is an assistant professor of Chicano Studies at the University of California, Davis, where he teaches courses in Chicano Literature and the Chicana/o Mural Workshop. He is also the director of Taller Arte del Nuevo Amenecer (TANA), a community-based art center in Woodland, California. Professor Montoya is the author of several acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction, including The Scoundrel and the Optimist (2010), The Deportation of Wopper Barraza: A Novel (2014), Letters to the Poet from His Brother(2014), and You Must Fight Them: A Novella and Stories (2015). His paintings, drawings, and prints have been widely exhibited and published.