I Am Joaquin

[[Link titlelink title]] I Am Joaquin (aka Yo Soy Joaquin), by Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales, is a famous epic poem associated with the Chicano movement of the 1960s in the United States. In I am Joaquin, Joaquin (the narrative voice of the poem) speaks of the struggles that the Chicano people have faced in trying to achieve economic justice and equal rights in the U.S, as well as to find an identity of being part of a hybrid mestizo society. He promises that his culture will survive if all Chicano people stand proud and demand acceptance.

The Chicano movement inspired much new poetry. I Am Joaquin is one of the earliest and most widely read works associated with the movement. In its entirety, the poem describes the then modern dilemma of Chicanos in the 1960s trying to assimilate with American culture while trying to keep some semblance of their culture intact for future generations, then proceeds to outline 2000 years of Mexican and Mexican-American history, highlighting the different, often opposing strains that make up the Chicano heritage.

Segments of the Taylor Street Archives Taylor Street Archivesprovide an insight to the Mexican-American experience...sharing residency with Italian-American immigrants in the Hull House Neighborhood. The Hull House Neighborhood, Chicago's Little Italy, is also known as the Legendary Taylor Street, the port-of-call for chicago's Italian-American immigrants. As a minority group within a minority subculture, Mexican-Americans achieved a level of equality that was rare. Taylor Street's Little italy had Tex-Mexes (arrivals from Texas) who lived as neighbors and friends within the core of the Italian American community and the Mex-Mexes (arrivals from Mexico)who lived on the outer fringes of Little Italy.

Many Mexican Americans became assimillated as equals into the Italian-American subculture of Taylor Street. Chicago's famous Rosebud restaurant hired on and trained numerous Mexican-Americans to cook southern Italian style. Today, it is rare to find a 5 star Italian restaurant that does not have as a cook and/or partner a Mexican-American whose roots go back to the kitchen of the original Rosebud restaurant. Mexican-Americans earned their way into the strictest of all caste systems, Italian-American organized crime families. The notorious 42 gang, the genesis of the Chicago Mob, was not out-of-bounds for deserving Mexican-Americans who had "made their bones." Harry Alleman, whose father had married a neighborhood Italian-American girl, developed a world renowned reputation, as an alleged member of the Chicago mob, for his "double jeopardy" trial.

• I am Joaquin (poem)
• Analysis [1]