The name tells a big story, the Mexican-American (Chicano) musical artist brings the best of those two worlds when they write or perform their music, sometimes keeping those two distinctive cultures separated in their numbers and other times mixing them just as they do their music. It goes deeper for the Chicano though, because on the Mexican side of things there are at least two genres working at the same time, that which comes from South of the border and then that spinoff that was born on this side of the border and exclusively from the experiences of the Chicano culture. Carlos Santana and the flavor of his guitar sound and that of his entire music comes to mind.
The Chris Perez Project does the same with their rock music, adding just the right sabor of pure Mexican and Chicano feeling into the music and lyrics to create what is basically its’ own genre of music and not capable of being duplicated by someone who has not truly lived the Chicano experience. A.B. Quintanilla for years has been doing it with cumbias and other dance music, sometimes transforming Mexican into more Chicano jams and then also injecting Latino into American music. Everything is better with some Chicano in it and music is not the exception. There are many artists, too many to mention here, that are creating and transforming music like only they can and we know they will keep doing it and bringing it to us.
Chicano Channel Magazine