Chicano
adjective
of or relating to Mexican Americans or their culture.
Chicano
American
[chi-kah-noh, -kan-oh]
/ tʃɪˈkɑ noʊ, -ˈkæn oʊ /
Or
chicano
adjective
noun
-
Chicanos
plural
chicano
British
/ tʃɪˈkɑːnəʊ /
noun
Usage
What does Chicano mean? A Chicano is a person who is Mexican American. In other words, it’s someone of Mexican descent who was born in or now lives in the United States, as in Although Jorge loves living in the United States, he remains a proud Chicano, frequently visiting his Mexican hometown. Chicano is also used as an adjective to describe Mexican American people or things involving them or their culture, as in Rosa loved Chicano food so much that she became a chef and opened a popular Chicano restaurant. Chicano comes from Mexican Spanish, a language that uses gendered nouns. Chicano is the masculine form, while Chicana is the feminine form. Chican@ and Chicanx are sometimes used as gender-neutral forms. As with any term that refers to a person’s identity, it is best to ask the person what term they prefer to identify themselves with. Even if a person fits the dictionary definition of Chicano, they might prefer to be identified by another term, such as Mexican American, American, Mexican, Hispanic, or Latino. Example: The ad campaign was targeted at the city’s large Chicano population, who were proud of their Mexican heritage.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Chicano
First recorded in 1960–65; from Mexican Spanish, by shortening and alteration of mexicano Mexican ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Becerra finally unlocked the inner cholo so many of us have been waiting to see, instead of the Chicano Ned Flanders he’s been projecting for decades.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
County Museum of Art with their names and claimed the space as Chicano art.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
The same agent, who spoke with a Chicano accent, later sped off in a vehicle while asking in Spanglish, “¿Alguien arresto un tonk, güey?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
At the site, AltaMed plans to build “El Corazón Art Park,” featuring an art gallery to showcase Mexican and Chicano works, 30 boxed trees and a health center — along with a 20-foot video screen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
Bloom had been in the state five years and was presently married to a young Chicano woman, Linda, maiden name of Romero, whose hometown was in the San Luis Valley of Colorado.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
Anti-gentrification activists in the United States and Europe have studied Boyle Heights, a cradle of the chicano movement, as a potential model.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 18, 2017
Paying 250 to chicano children," says he, "is an insult to the chicano community.
From Time Magazine Archive
At one chicano fund-raising cocktail party, guests anted up $20,000 for Jerry Brown's re-election campaign.
From Time Magazine Archive
Rousselot, a Congressman for 14 years and member of the John Birch Society for 21 years until 1979, was artfully gerrymandered into a heavily chicano district near Los Angeles already represented by Democrat Mathew Martinez.
From Time Magazine Archive
A chicano, Mario Obledo, 46, is Brown's secretary of health and welfare, the highest ranking Mexican-American official in the state government.
From Time Magazine Archive
One of the core themes within the documentary is how we as Chicanos view the American Dream: Can we achieve it by being ourselves, or do we have to assimilate?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 21, 2026
Liem has more than 680,000 followers on TikTok, where he posts about Chicanos in Vietnam.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2025
With their guerilla approach to performance art, Asco founders Harry Gamboa Jr., Glugio “Gronk” Nicandro, Willie Herrón and Patssi Valdez built a legacy around expanding the possibilities for Chicanos in the art world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2025
When I first talked with Asco, they spoke a lot about the entire enterprise of Asco and wanting to shift how Chicanos are seen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2025
When, for example, Mexican-American students began to proclaim themselves Chicanos, they taught many persons in the barrios of southwestern America to imagine themselves in a new context.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
