Chicano Movement Icon, José Angel Gutierrez: ‘Stop the ignorance mañana’

Courtesy of the Salinas Californian

Roberto M. Robledo

A U.S. Supreme Court justice slipping out the back door to avoid being served a warrant. The citizen’s arrest of national park rangers in New Mexico. The jailing of scores of farmworkers in California protesting poor wages and working conditions. Student walkouts across Texas to demand a change in the education system.

Those in attendance at Thursday’s Latino Network Luncheon at Sherwood Hall in Salinas got a crash course in Chicano history from one of the moguls of that civil rights movement.

José Angel Gutierrez, one of the four horsemen of the Chicano Movement in the 1960s and ’70s delivered the keynote address at the Network’s 26th Celebration of Culture and Language. At age 71, Gutierrez’s firebrand speaking skills are still keenly honed. Now a university professor, the aging leader of a social movement also showed that he hasn’t lost his lust for “la causa.”

File Photo by Jesús Manuel Mena Garza
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Gutierrez founded the La Raza Unida Political Party in the 1970s. It lasted about 15 years. LRUP had success in registering Chicanos to vote and get elected in local communities but hit political roadblocks to organize at the state and national levels. The party formed a chapter in the Salinas Valley that was active through the early 1980s.

One of the local leaders was Salinas Valley native Juan Martinez, who was honored at the luncheon for his decades of work and social and cultural contributions on behalf of Chicanos and farm workers. Martinez received plaques and resolutions from state and local elected officials.

A capacity crowd at Sherwood Hall ate a catered lunch and enjoyed mariachi music before Gutierrez took the stage.

Gutierrez is known for not pulling any punches. He contends that contractually and geographically the southwestern U.S. still belongs to Mexico.

He advocated that those who want social and political change to seek it.

“When we get that corraje (anger/frustration) and we decide to do something about it — we have a movement,” he said.

He blamed Chicanos themselves and the public schools for failing to promote an understanding of Chicanos and acknowledgment of their contributions to American society.

“It’s our fault and that of public education that our story has not been told,” said Gutierrez, who as a young man picked crops in Hollister and Gilroy.

Gutierrez is the last horseman standing between Cesar Chavez, Reies Tijerina and Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales.

“You probably never heard about Reis Tijerina or Corky Gonzales, much less me. So it is to an extent our fault as it is the public school system.”

Chávez was leading the farmworkers in California, Tijerina fought to restore the land grants in New Mexico, Gonzales organized youth in Colorado and Gutierrez founded La Raza Unida Political Party in Texas.

Tijerina tried to use the US Constitution and American law in his attempted citizens arrest of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Warren Berger, for failing to enforce the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. He also tried to arrest a nuclear scientist for crimes against humanity for building nuclear bombs. And he confronted national park rangers who he claimed illegally blocked his entry into a national park that was actually Mexican land grant property.

However, these four leaders did not make changes by themselves, he said.

“There are a lot of people just like you in Salinas and Gonzales and King City, Watsonville that have contributed to make a social movement and make change.”

Among the dignitaries were state Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel; Salinas Mayor Joe Gunter, Alisal Union School District board President Noemi Armenta and a host of city and county officials.

Gunter said he enjoyed Gutierrez’s speech and message: “It was very good. He talks about the history and things that went on. Some of the young people don’t know this.

“I’ve known Juan Martinez for many years ... through the farmworker strikes when I was a patrol policeman. He always had that smile and always did it for the cause of his people. Sometimes people forget what these two gentlemen are talking about. Voices that aren’t heard. We hear that in every community from all races. People should listen. There’s a message. Get out and vote. Get out and get involved. It’s your community.”

Gutierrez spoke of a disconnect between the generations of Chicanos, including the latest arrivals of “our cousins from Michoacan.”

“We can’t blame younger generations for not knowing our story. That is our fault because we haven’t spent Saturdays teaching them at home,” he said.

“For some reason we seem to run away from out civil rights struggle, like it’s an era of verguenza (embarrassment).”

“Yet every other group you meet it doesn’t take them a nanosecond before they’re telling you about the holicaust, about Martin Luther King. You know more about Malcolm X than you do about César Chávez.”

Gutierrez said the U.S. Senate removed two articles from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that prevented Mexicans from fighting for return of their land under that contract. That’s called theft, he said.

“We are not the illegal aliens, others are. We’re the hosts. Welcome to America,” said Gutierrez to applause.

On explaining the term “Chicano,” Gutierrez said it’s a gender neutral term to describe oneself, just as any other. “We chose it as a personal and group name. No further explanation necessary. You don’t have to apologize for who or what you are. What you do have to do is demand respect.”

“If you don’t like the word or the movement you’ve got a problem,” he said.

All Chicanos want is for America to live up to its promises.

“This is not about making anglos out of all of us. It’s about equal opportunity, equal access, the Fourteenth Amendment.”

“We need group ascendency. Our job is to equalize the playing field so all of us have an opportunity to finish the race. That’s chicanismo, carnalismo — caring for others, not just ourselves.”

“It’s a way of life, social activism, civic engagement, showing you care, that you are a doer. You make things happen, you don’t watch things happen,” he said.

Gutierrez organized 39 school walkouts. In Texas there were more than 300.

“We are a very diverse population across the nation. We all have a history and we all have contributed. That’s the kind of education we want. Our heritage, our history and our contributions noted. That’s respect,” he said.

“Let’s stop the ignorance manaña,” he said.

Follow Roberto M. Robledo on Twitter @robledo_salnews #salinas. On Facebook, visit: Roberto Robledo community journalist. On Instagram: rrobledo69

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