Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement

1. Chicano!History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement Quest for the Homeland

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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