Wearing the Red, White, and Blue Trunks of Aztlán: Rodolfo ‘Corky’ Gonzales and the Convergence of American and Chicano Nationalism 29 AZTLÁN: A JOURNAL OF CHICANO STUDIES 83 (Spring 2004)

Authors

Tom I. Romero, University of DenverFollow

Publication Date

1-1-2004

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

Sturm College of Law

Abstract

This essay examines the relationship between American and Chicano nationalism in the decades after World War II. Focusing on mainstream media portrayals of Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, it argues that one of Chicano cultural nationalism’s most recognizable proponents rose to prominence as a result of his long-standing association with highly mutable American ideals. To prove this thesis, the essay analyzes the meaning of Gonzales’s boxing and political careers in relation to shifting concepts of race and nation. Gonzales’s “all-American” boxing image, it is shown, provided a means to understand the articulation of Chicano nationalism in the early years of the Chicano movement. The essay concludes that in wearing the red, white, and blue trunks of Aztlán, Gonzales demonstrates one way in which American and Chicano nationalist discourse could be resolved in a racially fractured America.

Publication Statement

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Originally published as Tom I. Romero, Wearing the Red, White, and Blue Trunks of Aztlán: Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales and the Convergence of American and Chicano Nationalism, 29 Aztlán: J. Chicano Stud. 83 (2004).

Recommended Citation

Tom I. Romero, Wearing the Red, White, and Blue Trunks of Aztlán: Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales and the Convergence of American and Chicano Nationalism, 29 Aztlán: J. Chicano Stud. 83 (2004).