In this passage Peña highlights creative agency in response to the socio-economic structure that constrains Tejana/o life. Peña in this work also utilizes Paredes’s term “Chicanoized” polka to address the distinctive character of the Tejano experience. While not directly addressing the erasure of the hop and the loop as decisive to what characterizes a “Chicanoized” polka dance, Peña’s work does emphasize the pachuco restylization of dance as a uniquely Chicano expression of resistance. As I have noted earlier, the erasure of the hop and loop characterizes él taquachito. Therefore the erasure—the break from the conventional, or traditional, polka—signifies an all class response to the experience of the Texas border region.
This study of dancing