By Eneri Rodriguez – WestWord.com – Photo: Daniel Salazar.
Photo: Museo de las Americas new exhibition Pachucos y Sirenas looks at 1940s Mexican-American counterculture in the Southwest. (Daniel Salazar)
In the 1930s and 1940s, being brown in the United States meant being unwelcome here, and in that climate, Chicano men and women known as Pachucos and Pachucas created a subculture that expressed Mexican-American pride. Museo de las Americas‘ newest exhibit, Pachucos y Sirenas, takes a nostalgic look at that era of Chicano history. The show includes works about Caló, the slang that has shaped how Chicanos in the Southwest speak Spanish today, as well as rebellion and cultural pride.
