Mi Familia: An Autoethnographic Experience of a Northern New Mexican/Southern Coloradoan Chicano Family

Jr., Jason Romero

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Mi Familia: An Autoethnographic Experience of a Northern New Mexican/Southern Coloradoan Chicano Family Public Deposited

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Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/q811kk085

Abstract

Though the Latino experience has been studied through a large amount of works, there is a gap pertaining to the experience of Chicanas and Chicanos who trace their ancestry into the current-day Southwest United States. This Honors Thesis explores that experience, telling the stories of Jason Romero, Sr, Charlene (Martinez) Romero, Julian Romero, Sherry (Skelton) Romero, Eloveida Velasquez and Rudolfo Martinez before analyzing their connection to the larger Chicana/o community through issues of violence, education, religion/spirituality and roots. Using personal interviews with family members and a variety of literature pertaining to Chicanas/os and New Mexicans, this Thesis uses these stories to illustrate the continued presence of these issues, but also the importance of continued activism in addressing them. A secondary purpose of this Thesis is to explore and reflect upon the Martinez-Romero family’s struggles and contributions that have ultimately culminated with my presence at the University of Colorado, experiences faced by others within the Chicano/a community that have also culminated with social progress and political radicalization that was visible through the Chicano Movement and other socially progressive movements. I argue that violence, low educational attainment, imposed religious institutions and the separation of Chicanas and Chicanos from their roots is a result of colonization, and must continue to be addressed through activism, which should build upon the organizations and struggles of earlier generations.

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