1. Mexican American Civil Rights

3. Mexican-Americans
Included descendants of Mexicans living in territories ceded to US
Mexican-American wave of immigration during the revolution in 1910s
Bracero, or temporary workers, in US in 1940s and 1950s
Immigration for economic opportunities and political openness

4. Cesar Chavez (1927-1993) Used non-violent methods
Fought for the rights of migrant farm workers
With his wife, Chavez taught Mexican immigrants to read and organized voter registration drives
Co-Founded the National Farm Workers Association
Used strikes and boycotts (lettuce and grapes) to gain rights for farm workers
Led a nationwide boycott of grapes
Name later changed to United Farm Workers
Motto: “Si, se puede”
Was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously

5. CAESAR CHAVEZ AND THE FARM WORKERS
Farm workers had no labor protections
Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta form the National Farm Workers Association 1962
Non-violence, boycott, and fasting as strategies
Title: United Farm Worker's strike in Delano (Calif.) "Huelga" is Spanish for strike
Creator/Contributor: Los Angeles Times (Firm), Publisher Brown, Frank Q, Photographer Date: October 20, 1965
Contributing Institution: Dept of Special Collections/UCLA Library, A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library, 405 Hilgard Ave, Box , Los Angeles, CA ;
Title: Cesar Chavez, portrait Creator/Contributor: Los Angeles Times (Firm), Publisher Sharkey, Larry, Photographer Date: May 6, 1966
Contributing Institution: Dept of Special Collections/UCLA Library, A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library,

6. SYMBOLS OF UNITY AND PROTEST
Cesar Chavez, The Organizer’s Tale
I thought it would take ten years before we got that first contract. I wanted desperately to get some color into the movement, to give people something they could identify with, like flag. I was reading some books about how various leaders discovered what colors contrasted and stood out the best. The Egyptians had found that a red field with a white circle and a Black emblem in the center crashed into your eyes like nothing else. I wanted to use the Aztec eagle in the center, a on the Mexican flag. So I told my cousin Manuel, “Draw an Aztec Eagle.” Manuel had a little trouble with it, so we modified it to make it easier for people to draw.
Quote in:
F. Arturo Rosales, Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1996).
Image from United Farmworkers Collection:

7. IDENTITY OF AZLAN Mythical homeland Images of Indians and Mestizos
Posters as mass produced representations of identity
Boycotts
Creation of community and public spaces
Title: Boycott Grapes: Support the United Farmworkers Union Creator/Contributor: Viramontes, Xavier, Artist
Date:1973 Contributing Institution: California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives, Dept of Special Collections, Donald Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara

8. Dolores Huerta (1930 -
Worked to improve social and economic conditions of immigrant workers and fought to end discrimination
Created the Agricultural Workers Association and co-founded the United Farm Workers
Lobbied politicians on many issues
Allowing migrant workers w/out U.S. Citizenship to receive public assistance and pensions and creating Spanish- language voting ballots and driver tests
Received the Ellis Island Medal of Freedom Award and the Eleanor Roosevelt Award
Also was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame
Quote: “Walk the street with us into history. Get off the sidewalk”

10. Hector P. Garcia (1914-1996) Served in the Medical Corps during WWII
Fought against discrimination of Mexican Americans
Organized the American G.I. Forum to improve veteran benefits and give them better medical attention
Soon expanded to address educational and vocational training, housing, public education, poll taxation, voter registration, hospitalization, and employment
Awarded the American Medal of Freedom
First Mexican Americans to receive this honor
Motto: “Education is our freedom, and freedom is everybody’s business”

11. League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
Established in Corpus Christi, Texas
Believes in assimilation
Work to advance the economic condition, educational opportunities, political influence, and civil rights for
Hispanics Americans

12. La Raza Unida
Started in Crystal City, Texas and spread to the Southwestern United States
Centered on Chicano Nationalism
Wanted better housing, work, and educational opportunities for Mexican Americans

13. Educational Issues Drop out rates, push-outs
Educational tracking: confining bilingual children in vocational education
Advising: encouraging enrollment in non-college programs
Use of corporal punishment
Anti-Mexican attitudes and prejudice
Reading and graduation rates

14. Mendez v. Westminster
1946 California Supreme Court ruling that outlawed the segregation of Mexican children
Ruling outlawed practice of segregation for “language necessity”
Also based on the notion of Mexicans as members of the caucasion race
1954: Hernandez v. US: Supreme Court ruling that Mexicans had been treated “as a class apart” and entitled to equal rights protections

15. East Los Angeles Walk-Outs
March, 1968, student petitions to improve schools ignored
Student stage massive walk-outs, also called the East Los Angeles blow- outs
12,000 students participate, some arrested for disorderly conduct and failure to disperse

16. The East Los Angeles 13
13 students and community leaders charged with “conspiracy to commit misdemeanors” for conspiracy to disrupt the schools, elevated the complaint to a felony
Faced 66 year prison terms if convicted
Included Sal Castro: major supporter of the student walk-outs
Also included: Moctezuma Esparza, Raul Ruiz, Carlos Munoz Jr. and 10 others
Charges dropped on civil rights issues: right to petition government agencies for grievances, freedom of assembly and free speech
Recognized as the first significant urban struggle of the Chicano Movement

17. Crystal City Walk-Out

18. On December 9, 1969, American students of Mexican ancestry walked out of class in response to the inadequate and antagonistic responses of the Anglo-controlled school board. Mexican-American and proposed remedies. Some of the educational issues were: ·  Employ more Mexican-American teachers that would be more sensitive to Mexican-American students; ·  Create a Mexican-American studies class; ·  Homecoming Queen should be elected by the students and no one else; ·  Change school board policy in regards to selecting the cheerleaders; ·  Eliminate the Dual Sweetheart policy for the baseball team;  ·    Allow students to speak Spanish at school; ·   Install Bilingual Education; ·   Get rid of racist teachers; ·   Student led elections for organizations and clubs, instead of teachers.

19. The walkout lasted until the federal government
Civil Rights Commission mediated a compromise
between the school board and the students. The
duration of the walkout was two weeks.

20. Mexican American Legal Defense Educational Fund (MALDEF)
Founded in San Antonio, Texas
Brought important civil rights cases before the Supreme Court such as:
White v. Regester
Edgewood ISD vs. Kirby
Rodriguez v. San Antonio ISD

21. The Five Battlefronts:
Still exists today
The Five Battlefronts:
Educational
Social
Spiritual
Economical
Political

22. Reies Lopez Tijerina Major New Mexican land grant activist
Traced land loss to violations of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Affirmed Indo- Hispano/Chicano land rights
Affirmed rights to cultural integrity through land base

23. Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez
Chicano activist that founded the Crusade for Justice
Principal organizer of the National Chicano Youth Conference, March, 1969, in Denver
Supported alternative institutions for Chicanos
One of the principal organizers of La Raza Unida Party
Established La Escuela Tlatelolco, a bilingual, bicultural alternative school for Chicano children
Supporter of concept of Aztlan

24. National Chicano Youth Conference
Organized for March, 1969, Denver, Colo
National gathering of Chicano activists
El Plan de Aztlan drafted: 15 point program to create alternative institutions, schools, political party, institutions and cultural affirmation
La Raza Unida proposed

25. Alurista Alberto Baltazar Urista
Chicano poet that rediscovered the notion of Aztlan
Aztlan as the link to the indigenous past
Aztlan as the mythical Chicano homeland
Our ancestral lands: the Chicano place

26. The Chicano Moratorium August 29, 1970
Largest minority anti-Viet Nam war protest in the United States
Attended by up to 50,000 protesters in E.L.A.
Chicanos question the rationale for war, high fatality rates for Latinos, draft deferments, lack of educational opportunities
Considered the apex of the Chicano Movement
Laguna Park rally—deteriorates into a police riot

27. Ruben Salazar Reporter for The Los Angeles Times
News director of KMEX-TV
Preparing an expose on law enforcement in Los Angeles
Killed at the Silver Dollar Café by a tear-gas projectile
His death aroused instant suspicion of a conspiracy to silence Salazar