In the United States and Mexico, Cholo is a fairly offensive term implying a typically Mexican mestizo gangster. A cholo is stereotypically depicted as wearing baggy chinos (khaki pants) or khaki shorts with white knee-high socks, so-called wifebeater sleeveless t-shirts, flannel shirts buttoned all the way to the top or unbuttoned except for the top button, and a shaved head or slicked-back hair. A popular "cholo" brand is Dickies. This same designation may also be associated with black ink tattoos, commonly involving gang calligraphy, or family names and art. A cholo might also stereotypically own a lowrider, like music like Zapp and Roger's "More Bounce To The Ounce" and "Doo Wa Ditty", and use the Chicano term of "Ese" (which in Spanish means "that one" or "that guy"), in a way to call someone dude, like "What's up ese?" or "Órale ese!". Another term with essentially the same meaning is "Vato" and can be used in the same way. Chicanos are said to be the first in starting the lowrider trend, as well as being the oldest established gangs of California.
It is this particular image that Cheech Marin drew on in the Cheech and Chong films. There is also a reference to "the cholo" in Assault on Precinct 13. In the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite, Nano and Arturo De Silva play characters simply referred to as "Cholo No. 1" and "Cholo No. 2".The usage was more prevalent in the 1970s and 1980s than today, though the usage was still fairly widespread in some areas in the 1990s.
In South Texas, cholos are sometimes referred to as chongers.
In North America or the English-speaking world of the United States, the word is most primarily and heavily used in Caló slang, but it in turn has infiltrated into mainstream American English use. Most specifically, the term "cholo" when used in American English is likely to be done so by persons associated with American youth movements such as the Chicano/Mexican-American/white & black lowrider subcultures, African-American gangsters of the Western United States, or the hip hop scene in general.
