Cholo (subculture)

A cholo or chola is a member of a Chicano and Latino subculture or lifestyle associated with a particular set of dress, behavior, and worldview which originated in Los Angeles. A veterano or veterana is an older member of the same subculture. Other terms referring to male members of the subculture may include vato and vato loco. Cholo was first reclaimed by Chicano youth in the 1960s and emerged as a popular identification in the late 1970s. The subculture has historical roots in the Pachuco subculture, but today is largely equated with antisocial or criminal behavior such as gang activity.
Cholo was originally used to denote a racialized individual of lower socioeconomic status. It first emerged in the early 17th century as a term used by Spanish colonizers. "The children of these they call cholos. Cholo is a word from the Windward Islands; it means dog, not of the purebred variety, but of very disreputable origin; and the Spaniards use it for insult and vituperation." In the latter part of the 19th century, it referred to "culturally marginal" mestizos of Native American origin, being applied to "peasant mestizos as a pejorative ethnic label to distinguish the rich, the upwardly mobile, and other aspiring members ... from the working class."
Clearly the origin is complex, Jose Cuellar writes in 1982:
During the 1930s and 1940s, the Chicano look known as pachuco appeared and was associated with the zoot suit and hep cat subcultures. The press at the time accused the pachucos in the U.S. of gang membership, petty criminality, and a lack of patriotism during World War II leading to the Zoot Suit Riots. Continuing until the early 1970s, the typical Chicano hairstyle was a variant of the pompadour, piled high on the head and kept in place with large quantities of wet-look gel.
In the 1960s, the Chicano Movement turned the term cholo into a way to express Chicano pride and identity. Since then, it has been more widely reclaimed among Latinos of mixed heritage.
Cholo style is often associated with wearing some combination of a tartan, flannel, or Pendleton shirt buttoned at the top over a white T-shirt or tanktop, a hair net over short hair combed straight back or a shaved head, a bandana tied around the head and pulled down just above the eyes, reverse baseball caps, dark sunglasses, loose-fitting khaki pants (chinos) or shorts, long chains, long socks, white tennis shoes, and stylized tattoos. The style has been described as both a necessity and a style of empowerment. Cholo style represents a large part of cholo subculture, although it does not represent it in its totality. Cholo style has been identified as combining the loose-fitting comfort of the traditional huipil and baggy draping of the zoot suit donned by the pachuco.
Adopting cholo style has also been identified as a way for youths to assert their Chicano identity, especially for those who are only English-speaking. James Diego Vigil analyzes how some barrios in the United States that were predominately Spanish-speaking in the 1960s became mostly English-speaking by the 1980s. Some use cholo style to deny their anglicization or cultural assimilation as well as to separate themselves from affiliating with Mexican migrants. As stated by Vigil, "much of this interethnic friction revolves around ... competition for scarce job resources, especially between members of the depressed underclass and desperate immigrants." However, it is also cultural, with "Mexicans making fun of a Chicano's inability to speak 'proper' Spanish and conversely" Chicanos and cholos sometimes using interethnic pejoratives against Mexican migrants, such as "chuntaro" and "wetback."
Cholo style graffiti is a unique writing and lettering style. The artist Chaz uses a calligraphic variant in his works. Retna's work is inspired by Cholo letters. This designation may also be associated with black ink tattoos, commonly involving calligraphy and art. A cholo might also stereotypically own a lowrider. Another staple of cholo fashion is long hair tied into braids as depicted by actor Danny Trejo.
The cholo/a subculture has spread to cities in the United States with large Chicano or Latino populations, including New York City. It has also been adopted as a subculture in Thailand as well as in Japan and has been introduced to Mexico (such as in Nogales, Sonora, and Mexico City) in a modified form as documented in the 2015 photo documentary book Cholumbianos by Amanda Watkins.
Chola style is often associated with wearing some combination of a long white T-shirt or tanktops, sometimes worn under plaid shirts, baggy jeans, flat black shoes, long hair, spiked bangs, dark or heavy eyeliner, and dark lipstick and lip liner. Chola style has been identified as exhibiting "a radically criminalized femininity, situating them in the purview of official and unofficial policing as well as legal and extralegal sanctions." Chola style is perceived with less menace than cholo style, although it has been described as more directly challenging to the gendered expectations placed on women.
Chicano/a youth who adopt a cholo or chola culture endure criminalization, with police and other institutions equating cholo style with a 'gang member'. While older residents in barrios initially embraced cholas and cholos as "a larger subculture not necessarily associated with crime and violence (but rather with a youthful temporary identity), law enforcement agents, ignorant or disdainful of barrio life, labeled youth who wore clean white tennis shoes, shaved their heads, or long socks, as deviant."
Gilberto Rosas describes the fashion of cholos as a style which has become criminalized–"a radically conditioned choice to be visibly and self-consciously identified with a criminalized class" Because the way cholo style has been criminalized, it commonly excludes cholos from employment opportunities while opening them up to routine police harassment and arrest.
In a study of cholos in a Southern California community renamed "Riverland" (to protect the confidentiality of the participants), Victor Rios and Patrick Lopez-Aguado discuss how cholos are marked as "human targets" and come to understand their own perceived criminality. Rios and Lopez-Aguado identify that cholos experience routine harassment and arrest by police. As stated by Rios and Lopez-Aguado, cholos remain "steadfast in their stylistic stance because their visible opposition appeared to be the entire point," as it is "intentionally oppositional to the mainstream." Cholos are aware that their style will not grant them social mobility and often maintain their style after having been rejected by multiple institutions, including "family, schools, police, and the labor market." Rios and Lopez-Aguado explain: