While September marks the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, one California lawmaker is starting the celebration with recognition of the most populous segement of American folks of Hispanic descent.

Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., will file a resolution to establish August as Chicano-Chicana Heritage Month, which would recognize and celebrate the significant contributions of Mexican Americans, who make up 61.4% of Hispanics in the United States.

“We are not a monolith. America, in my opinion, is a great social experiment, something that has not been seen in this world before,” Correa, who represents portions of Southern California's Orange County, said in an interview with Spectrum News. “We've got people from all over the world coming to this country to celebrate, to make the country strong and great. And by us remembering who we are, in our heritage, it only adds to the strength of this country.”

According to a release from Correa's office, the largest share of Orange County's population is Hispanic, and a near-majority of Mexican descent. While he said he would like to take credit for the resolution, he said he has to credit local Orange County leaders for bringing it to his attention.

“I had a council member from Santa Ana [Jonathan Hernandez] and one from Anaheim [Natalie Rubalcava] that said we need to do this, and that's why I'm doing it at their behest,” said Correa. “These are what I would call the new generation of elected officials, leaders so to speak, and it really touched my heart because these folks didn't grow up in the '60s in the '70s the way I did.”

The resolution would officially recognize the month of August as Chicano-Chicana Heritage Month, to promote the significant contributions of Mexican Americans in United States history. The term “Chicano” was once used with a derogatory term for Mexican-Americans, but that changed during the 1960s.

Some of the most prominent Chicano and Chicana figures in American history include labor leaders Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez and musical icon Selena Quintanilla Pérez, who are also honored in this resolution. 

Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, Correa remembers all too well the discrimination Mexican Americans faced in the community he now proudly represents.

“Latinos, Chicanos, Hispanics, at that time were about 5% of the population in the U.S. — [but] we probably accounted for about 20% of casualties in the Vietnam War,” said Correa. “The early '60s was when they got rid of segregated swimming pools. For example, my favorite water spot was [Anaheim's] Pearson Park swimming pool. Well, just a few years before that, Mexicans could only go swimming the day before they changed the water at the swimming pool.”

“Growing up, you didn’t want to be known as a Chicano or Chicana, that’s a bad thing but after a while, it was like well, it’s derogatory, but what are they referring to?” Correa said. “It started out as being a bad term and we ended up owning it and saying no, this is who we are.”

Mexican Americans took ownership of the term Chicano in the mid-20th century as part of a movement that sought to establish political and cultural identity. The movement's most powerful moment of visibility and strength revolved around the Chicano Moratorium, a student protest of the Vietnam War, which drew 30,000 students and protesters to march down the streets of East Los Angeles communities.

That movement to recognizing and celebrating Chicano and Chicana heritage has only grown. Santa Ana, California, held its first Chicano Heritage Festival last year. This resolution is intended to further cultural pride for Mexican Americans.

“Uplifting Chicano history and impact is important to me as a lifelong Anaheim resident of Mexican American heritage,” Anaheim Councilmember Natalie Rubacalva told Spectrum News. “Like so many, I grew up here with Chicano culture playing a big role in Anaheim with murals and other art, clothing, restaurants, stores and iconic businesses.”

“Our libraries, community centers, parks and programs will celebrate throughout August with books to read, cooking events and plans for a new mural in the heart of downtown, showing how Chicano culture continues to enrich our city today,” Rubacalva added, saying she was “inspired” by Correa’s initiative to recognize Chicano and Chicana heritage at the federal level.

More than 60 lawmakers have joined Correa as co-sponsor on the resolution, including many California lawmakers, representatives from Florida, Arizona, Texas, and New York among others. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has also signed on as a co-sponsor.

This is just the latest effort in Congress to continue celebrating Chicano and Chicana contributions to America. Earlier this summer, a group of legislators introduced a resolution to honor Gloria Molina, a former California legislator who was the first Latina elected to the California State Assembly, the first on the Los Angeles City Council and the first on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

The Chicano movement, Molina told an interviewer with the California State Archives oral history program, was about identifying the barriers placed in front of Mexican Americans, and pushing back on them, “confronting and not saying, ‘por eso estamos como estamos’ [that’s why we are in the conditions we are in],” she said. “They were charging and saying, ‘wait a minute, it’s because of racism. It’s because of discrimination. Because of lack of opportunity. Because it challenges things.’”