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Blaxicans are Americans who are of both Black and Mexican American descent. Some may prefer to identify as Afro-Chicano or Black Chicana/o and embrace Chicano identity, culture, and political consciousness. Most Blaxicans have origins in working class community interactions between African Americans and Mexican Americans. Los Angeles has been cited as the hub for Blaxican culture. In 2010, it was recorded that 42,000 people in Los Angeles County identified as both Black and Latino, most of whom are believed to be both Black and Mexican American.
Many Blaxicans experience erasure due to racial constructs in the United States, such as the "one-drop rule," high levels of anti-Blackness in Mexican American communities, as well as Prejudice and rejection within Black American communities. In both communities, their authenticity is frequently policed. Scholars describe Blaxicans as "dual minorities" because of their origins from two communities which have historically been socially, politically, and economically disadvantaged and targeted under white supremacy.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Black and Chicano communities engaged in close political interactions "around civil rights struggles, Union activist, and demographic changes," especially during the Black Power and Chicano Movement struggles for liberation. Tensions between Blacks and Chicanos also "increased because competition for scarce resources," which has been described as "too often positioning workers of different races in opposition to each other."
Scholars have noted that there have been historical tensions between Mexican American and African American communities that have caused challenges for people of both experiences. Blaxican scholar Walter Thompson-Hernandez states that "Blacks and Mexicans are two of the most aggrieved groups in our nation's history" and notes that anti-black racism among Mexican Americans is a major cause of tension and division between both communities.
In the 1980s and 1990s there was an influx of Mexican immigrants moving into Black neighborhoods in South Los Angeles, which caused an increase in the Blaxican population.
Similarly, Blaxicans are often judged as not authentically Black. Scholar Rebecca Romo states that "for African Americans, the stakes are higher when determining racial/ethnic authenticity" because of the ways in which "Black people are relegated to the lowest position on the racial structure and authenticity is equated to loyalty to Black liberation." Some markers of authenticity cited by Blaxicans include "dress, talk, hip-hop culture, knowledge of African American history, dancing, 'kinky,' 'afro,' or 'crinkly' hair, darker skin, and working-class status."
Blaxican men reported feeling they had "to conform to masculine expectations of Mexican men in the form of machismo."
Recording artists include Miguel, Kemo The Blaxican of Delinquent Habits, and Afro-Chicano rapper Choosey. Kemo The Blaxican states that Black and Latino hip hop artists have been coexisting since the days of early hip-hop. Choosey states "there’s a stigma that Black and Mexican cultures don’t get along, but I wanted to show the beauty in being a product of both.”
The Blaxican is a food truck owned by Will Turner in Atlanta that serves "Mexican Soul Food" and has been operating for over ten years. A brick and mortar location opened up in 2016, but closed under economic pressure from the coronavirus outbreak in 2020. The food truck was saved after a campaign from Alexis Akarolo and Ze Clark, who started a fund to help Black businesses during the pandemic.
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