cholo

American  

[choh-loh] / ˈtʃoʊ loʊ /

noun

Chiefly Southwestern U.S.

• cholos
  plural

1. (especially among Mexican Americans) a teenage boy who is a member of a street gang.

2. Usually Disparaging. a term used to refer to a Mexican or Mexican American.

3. a mestizo of Spanish America.

---

Sensitive Note

When used of a Mexican or Mexican American, the term cholo usually refers disparagingly to an immigrant who is considered to be low-class and poorly educated. However, cholo is also a term of self-reference used by Mexican American youths.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cholos
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of cholo

First recorded in 1850–55; from Mexican Spanish: “mestizo, peasant,” possibly a shortening of Cholollán (from Nahuatl Cholōllān, modern Cholula ), a city-state in pre-Columbian Mexico

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cholo cholos

For “Made in L.A.,” for example, Ayala focused on the underground magazine, “Teen Angels,” which documented cholo street culture in the late 20th century, featuring artworks, photographs and essays by gang-affiliated or incarcerated Chicanos.

From New York Times ● May 17, 2022

Surprisingly, Olmos appeared in “full cholo wear,” Trejo writes, including a “blue shirt buttoned up at the top and flying open to the bottom.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2021

Foos Gone Wild, the social-media phenomenon that celebrates cholo culture, declared “Shia is a foo’” on Instagram, leading to a cascade of approving, comical messages from other users.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2020

Luz ties Ecatepec’s hip-hop culture to the cholo culture popularised by Mexican-Americans in early-90s California, Cypress Hill among them.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 22, 2016

And when a cholo got his time and left the line, he showed him the way he was to go.

From Alec Lloyd, Cowpuncher by Eleanor Gates

Her cholos get to be as unpredictable as the rest of us.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

“There were cholos and rockers with crazy hairspray looks. We were all just starting. Everything was new and fresh.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2024

You can track the evolution of these shapes back to the 1940s and ’50s pachuco down to the cholos of the present day.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2023

We talk photography, Frida Kahlo and the cholos of L.A.’s Eastside.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2017

Those guys were the most loved cholos of the barrio.

From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---