Cholo

[choh-loh] /ˈtʃoʊ loʊ/

noun, plural cholos. Chiefly Southwestern U.S.
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.
noun

mestizo or lower-class Mexican or Latin American
Usage Note

derogatory; feminine is chola

“Indian or mixed-race person of Latin America” (fem. Chola), 1851, from American Spanish (c.1600), said to be from Nahuatl (Aztec) xolotl “dog, mutt.” Proposed derivation from Mexican city of Cholula seems too late, if this is the same word. In U.S., used of lower-class Mexican immigrants, but by 1970s the word began to be embraced in Latino gang slang in a positive sense.

adjective

Very virile; macho (1970s+)

noun

A fellow gang member: A cholo (streetwise young Latino male) (1980s+ Prison)

[fr Spanish, literally ”mestizo, half-breed,” used contemptuously of a lower-class Mexican]