Evolucion y Revolucion
Evolution and Revolution
As the years went by the Pachuco/a style became more subtle, favoring casual street wear over the extravagance of the zoot suit era. Nonetheless, subtlety did not mean surrender nor assimilation. It was just an evolution of style with the times. By the 1970s Pachucos now evolved into cholos, a word they derived from Spanish colonial times when the Spaniards would call mestizos cholos as a way to denigrate them and compare them to dogs. Nonetheless, Chicanas and Chicanos took that nasty word and transformed it into something that meant unity and community.
The 1970s cholo and chola forged a new identity inspired by their ancestors the pachucos/as. However, their boldness and pride for their latinidad was the same. The cholo and the pachucos' hybridity has never been something they are ashamed of. The diasporic roots of the cholo are something they are immensely proud of. Many of the words that we speak now as modern Chicanos were borne from cholos and Chicanos that found a way to create community in a place where they ostracized and othered.