Mexican-American women's fashion

Fashion is known to be a form of expression throughout many cultures, just like the Mexican American culture. Over the decades Mexican American women's fashion evolved to celebrate beauty and fashion standards of the day. However, such evolution wasn't often well seen by society, instead it was often deemed non-normative or un-American. This style evolution started in the 1920s with American influence creating the Pelonas, the 1940s when the Pachuca culture came to be, and later evolved into the Chicanas in the 70s and the Cholas in the 90s.

Las Pelonas, meaning "the shorthaired/bald girls," is a style that emerged in the U.S-Mexico borderlands during the early 20th century and served as a form of rebellion against traditional gender roles and societal expectations.^[1][2][3] The name refers to the bobbed haircuts that these women had.^[1] This style, characterized by short haircuts, masculine clothing, and bold accessories, challenged the media's perception of femininity and empowered women to express themselves.^[3] By rejecting restrictive dress codes, Las Pelonas created a new standard for female fashion that celebrated individuality and self-expression.^[2] The media would often use the recognizability of the pelona image to perpetuate negative stereotypes.^[3] This led to violence in the streets directed towards las pelonas for their choice of fashion.^[1]

In the 1920s, pelonas were 15-25-year-old women who were known for their adaptation of the American flapper.^[4] Popular American actresses appearing in Spanish-language media and American consumerism began to influence young Chicanas into a new Americanized style.^[5] This style is defined by short-bobbed hair, scarlet lips, and short dresses, which conflicted with traditional expectations of Chicana women.^[5][4][6] Pelonas preferred an elegant masculine look suitable for sports, driving, and shopping.^[5][4] It allowed them to move more freely and comfortably than the restrictive corsets and long skirts of previous eras.^[4] This era also saw the widespread purchasing of manufactured products, which let women save time on sewing clothes for their family, and this created more time for leisure activities. This embracement of consumerism is a marker of the pelona identity, which upset conservatives who favored traditional ways of living.^[5] The bobbed haircut was heavily criticized, because it was seen as a threat to endangered indigenous culture and the femininity of Chicana women.^[7] The bold use of cosmetics were previously only commonly used by sex workers, which led to critics comparing their application to a painted pinata; however, makeup products were used in barrio beauty pageants where young women were supported by local organizations, like churches, labor unions, and newspapers, for emphasizing their physical appearance.^[5][8][9]  Pelonas’ preferences for makeup, attire, and disposition were also criticized and seen as a rejection of obligatory feminine purity.^[4][9] The U.S-Mexico borderlands create unique cultural and social dynamics for Chicana women.^[4][8][9] Chicano social scientists have characterized this role as “the glue that keeps the Chicano family together” and “the guardians of traditional culture.”^[8]

Media depictions of pelonas’ style influenced how society viewed them.^[10] Newspapers would often mock pelonas in comic strips that depicted them as morally bankrupt, greedy, or dirty through the power of their image.^[10] Jose Posada created “Catrina Calaveras” in 1912 as a political satire image of wealthy Mexican elite.^[11] After his death, the metal print press for his work was recycled to create “El Pantheon de Las Pelonas” in 1924, which inspired Diego Rivera to start incorporating calaveras in his work; thus, using the pelona style to create the iconic images for Día de Los Muertos.^[12] The playful humor when depicting pelonas became bitter contempt. The media used to mock pelonas resulted in dehumanizing them into a few sexual signifiers.^[10] This dehumanization resulted in the 1924 summer incident in Mexico City where a group of male students attacked pelonas by throwing water on them and shaving their heads.^[13] This attack was done to express their distaste for the style and to chastise pelonas for their intrusion into public male-dominated spaces.^[14][13] Pelonas carved out a unique space for themselves that did not fit into any existing figures of femininity.^[15] The image was powerful enough to cross borders and, most influentially, it was available for those who are nonliterate.^[15][14] The style lost popularity in the 1930s depression and some people celebrated the ‘death’ of las pelonas as a sign of a return to tradition; however, thirty years later Pachucas would continue to challenge gender norms.^[10][13]   

Pachucas were second generation Mexican Americans, characterized for their Zoot suits and how they used fashion in order to express their sexuality, individuality, class and race. The efforts these women made to claim public space through their characteristic style was not well seen in society at the time, especially due to the repercussions WWII had on society. Prior and during the WWII era, Mexican American women had excluded from cultural categories such as “American,” “lady,” and “patriot” despite their attempts to belong to such categories, the Pachuca style was another attempt to fit into society, but in their own way, they took conventional clothing styles and added their own touch.^[16][17] Their style consisted of zoot suits, which consisted of an oversized coat with shoulder pads, and an option between oversized pants or fitted skirts; as for their makeup and hair, it consisted of the heavy use of mascara and lipstick, they also liked wearing high pompadour and flowers on their hair.^[16][17] During this time, it was expected for everyone to present a united front as the country was faced with the crisis brought upon by WWII. Pachucas were considered individualistic figures based their use of fashion; their extravagant outfits caused them to stand out and call attention to themselves and show that they too had class and that they were also able to afford expensive clothing as were the zoot suits.^[16] Unfortunately for the Pachucas, Zoot suits did not have the response they were expecting, society was quick to deem zoot suits as non-normative and a wrongful way of gender expression; Zoot suits were considered to be masculine clothing and went against the feminine ideals of the time, which is why Pachucas were often considered queer or homosexual.^[16]

Chicanas arose around the time of the Civil rights movement and the Women's rights movement. Their Style was still strongly influenced by the American movie industry, during this time Mexican American women began to further break off of their conservative clothing style that was a part of their cultural norm, they started wearing jeans and rather tight clothing. This period of time was of great significance for Mexican American women because they started to speak up and express their opinions and desires, they started demanding their rights as a part of the American society. During this time Mexican American women were part of multiple protests and organizations such as the Brown Berets, the Chicano movement and Chicana feminism.^[18][17]

The Chola style was a combination of styles and it was heavily influenced by the hip-hop culture, the Pachuca style and the gang culture. Cholas were characterized by their oversized clothing and flannel shirts as well as by the use of dark lip liners, dramatic eyeliner and thin eyebrows, and to top it off, an excessive use of hair spray. Overall, cholas had a tough girl look that resulted from all the hardships they had to face as minority group. Through their style they inspired fear, but their style was more than that, the chola style gave them a sense of belonging within their cultural environment which was heavily influenced by gang activity.^[19] In one of the interviews conducted by M.G. Harris, one of the interviewees answered, “If you live where I live, you want to be a gang member”.^[19] In order to become part of the gang, women had to adopt the manners and style of the other gang members.^[19]

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