Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States.[1
][2] The label Chicano is sometimes used interchangeably with Mexican American, although the terms have different meanings.[3][4][5][6] While Mexican-American identity emerged to encourage assimilation into White American society and separate the community from African-American political struggle,[7][8] Chicano identity emerged among anti-assimilationist youth, some of whom belonged to the Pachuco subculture, who claimed the term (which had previously been a classist and racist slur).[9][10] Chicano was widely reclaimed in the 1960s and 1970s to express political empowerment, ethnic solidarity, and pride in being of Indigenous descent (with many using the Nahuatl language as a symbol), diverging from the more assimilationist Mexican American identity.[8][11] Chicano Movement leaders were influenced by and collaborated with Black Power leaders and activists.[12][13] Chicano youth in barrios rejected cultural assimilation into whiteness and embraced their identity and worldview as a form of empowerment and resistance.[14]