Chicano music is a living expression of resistance, resilience, and cultural affirmation, rooted in the historical and ongoing struggles of Mexican American communities in the United States. Emerging visibly during the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s but with deeper antecedents in earlier migrations and labor organizing, Chicano music has always functioned as a tool for political education, collective memory, and cultural survival.

Drawing from Mexican traditional forms—such as corridos, rancheras, and son jarocho—and blending them with African American musical influences like jazz, soul, funk, and later hip-hop, Chicano musicians created hybrid sounds that reflected life at the crossroads of borders and histories. Artists have long used music to document migrations, protest injustices, affirm identity, and celebrate cultural survival. Whether in the protest songs of El Teatro Campesino, the barrio anthems of Lalo Guerrero, or the narrative-driven fusions of contemporary artists, Chicano music articulates a vision of belonging grounded in dignity, struggle, and collective voice.

In the San Joaquin Valley, Chicano music takes on local textures and histories. Carlos Rodríguez, leader of Mezcal, reflects on how Latin rock, Afro-Caribbean percussion, and community-based learning shaped a uniquely Central Valley sound rooted in self-taught musicianship, dance culture, and intergenerational teaching. Héctor Uriarte, a songwriter and playwright, emphasizes music as a vehicle for telling difficult stories of assimilation, internalized racism, and political awakening, crafting bilingual songs that move fluidly across Latin rock, Chicano jazz, and protest ballads. Marilyn Rodriguez, a third-generation mariachi and youth music educator, highlights how mariachi traditions once marked youth musicians as outsiders in their own communities, yet have become vital tools for cultural affirmation and pride today.

This story offers these artist’s perspectives on how Chicano music remains a vital space for reclaiming history, resisting erasure, and building solidarities across generations.