Macho . The image of a manly, tough and assertive male figure comes to mind. He has an overly exaggerated masculinity. He's strong, well-built, and walks with a swagger. Perhaps dressed in a shirt opened down to "there", gold chains swinging.
"Machista culture", where the balance of power within a group is tilted towards overt displays of masculinity, has readily been linked to Latin America and, by extension, into Hispanic communities in the U.S.
But this simplistic view of what 'macho' connotes, while grounded in historical truth and fact, fails to recognize a second important -- and complimentary -- element: caballerismo.
Macho men aren't all swagger and bluster, they are also inheritors what Arciniega et al referred to "a code of masculine chivalry" in a paper titled "Toward a Fuller Conception of Machismo: Development of a Traditional Machismo and Caballerismo Scale", which was published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology in 2008.
Macho people do indeed act like the proverbial 'macho man', but they often also value "strong community leadership, defending family and family honor, personal responsibility, emotional connectedness, and spirituality."
And so machos are everywhere, and American culture certainly has its share of personalities which embody the best elements of machismo. From former hip hop singers to gun-toting ladies (yes, they can be that tough too), from politicians to business leaders, machos are found all across the U.S.
Here are some of the most macho Americans around. Tell us, who else do you think should be on this list?:
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