Meanings of Chicano: Millennial Student Activists and the Politics of Labeling

This article examines how Latino millennial student activists navigated debates over the meaning and relevance of the “Chicano” label in the late 2000s, a period shaped by both intensified anti-immigrant politics and narratives of post-racial progress following Barack Obama’s election. Drawing on a comparative ethnography of six Latino student organizations across three different types of campuses between 2008 and 2010, the study combines participant observation, 60 in-depth interviews, and a survey of 80 members. We argue that labeling debates are moments of boundary contestation that emerge when personal and collective identities are misaligned. Building on theories of Latinidad as permanent political contestation and using a sacred—profane—mundane framework, we show how students interpreted the Chicano label as deeply meaningful, exclusionary or outdated, or politically irrelevant. Although organizations often adopted a shared panethnic Latino identity, variation in personal identification generated tensions over historical continuity, inclusivity, and political efficacy. By foregrounding meaning-making processes, the article demonstrates how younger activists rework rather than simply abandon inherited political identities, contributing to scholarship on collective identity formation, racialization, and social movement mobilization.