Before I continue reading on this subject I want to express my own ideas on this word "pocho". I have often heard "pocho" as a derogatory remark. If you go to Mexico and don't know Spanish well, you are pocho. If you live in the U.S and do not know Spanish well, you are pocho. It seems to hinder on the ability to speak Spanish as the Mexicano, not someone from Spain. If you speak Castellano, then you could be something else, but not a pocho.
So, what is pocho to me? Gueros don't speak Spanish, but they are not expected to like Chicanos. A Mexican-American can be a pocho...he is the ancestor of the pocho, first created when blood was mixed. Some will say between European and Indigenous people, but I believer there is more to it. To be pocho, you must have the blood of both in the land of neither. Los Estados Unidos makes me pocho, the border makes me pocho.
Unfortunately, pocho is knowing too much and to little of either. If a Mexican-American knew nothing of heritage, at least the name
coco would fit. Pero un pocho? Ese esta fregado de todos lados.
I realized I have more to say when another blogger mentioned the word lost. Pocho is usually related with lost, but what about found? Can a pocho be more than a person of half cultures. Can the pocho create their own, and be respected? I think my search is for that culture. I don't cringe as much when I overhear the word pocho, and I think I am being talked about. I believe there is more positive to being pocho. I am realizing I must not be ashamed of this duality, and perhaps trinity. La frontera es pocha, no? Tal vez otras culturas han aceptado lo que nosotros odiamos.
