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.”
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File Photo by Jesús Manuel Mena Garza
Click photo to enlarge |
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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