ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author develops a generational model to more concretely periodize Chicana/o history. With McWilliams as a point of departure, they can better appreciate historical changes among Mexicans in the United States through generational changes. McWilliams also focused on the US-Mexico War (1846—1848) and the post-war period up to the late nineteenth century. He describes the effects of the Great Depression, particularly the deportation of thousands of Mexicans from the United States, is still another period. He concludes his periodization with thoughts about the conditions and aspirations of Mexican Americans following the war and the beginning of the Cold War. The Chicano Generation defied this strategy and noted that it had not succeeded in removing the subaltern and second-class citizenship that Chicanas/os occupied. Chicanas/os knew little about the US-Mexico War and how it influenced their history within the United States. The Chicano Generation represented the activists and adherents of the Chicano movement of the late 1960s and 1970s.
