Archive for September 3rd, 2010

Friday, September 3, 2010 – Posted by One (PST)

Series 4 / Day 1 of 2
It’s all about…Was Salazar Murdered? And Why Does it Matter?: The death – and maybe the resurrection – of third partys & social movements.

Was Salazar Murdered?
Front Page News, Los Angeles Free Press, 1970

Was Salazar Murdered? Los Angeles Free Press, 1970

Was Salazar Murdered?
Los Angeles Free Press, 1970
Even more than Front Page news

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Was Salazar Murdered? Los Angeles Free Press, 1970 (Item 2 of 3)

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Was Salazar Murdered? Los Angeles Free Press, 1970 (Item 3 of 3)

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Chicano Journalist Ruben Salazar Remembered

More news always at: http://www.democracynow.org/

Chicano Journalist Ruben Salazar Honored

Hundreds Mark Chicano Moratorium Protest 40th anniversary in East LA

Yesterday, it was the Counter Culture. Today… it’s
Friday, September 3, 2010

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Est. 1964 Re-Incarnated by Public Demand

This is the original, 60’s, counter culture, LA Free Press. Today’s Best Alternative View & Our Old Hippie Headlines, Too! A Head Trip for Smart Minds.

(This article refers directly to today’s issue of the Los Angeles Free Press. If you have not yet seen it, please, before reading further, click HERE.)

Yesterday, it was the Counter Culture. Today it’s…

…all about…Was Salazar Murdered?  And Why Does it Matter?: The death – and maybe the resurrection – of third partys & social movements.

by Steven M. Finger

Yes, every Item of today’s Issue is about Ruben Salazar.  Right from the reproduction of our Front Page 40 years(!) ago, to the limited coverage of the Anniversary March honoring his memory.

And right in between them is Amy Goodman’s show, Democracy Now!, with a full report of exactly who Ruben Salazar was, and about the movement that he was participating in.  Let me add a bit to that so you can see what more this Issue has to do with:

The term Chicano originated as a derogatory term for the children of Mexican migrants; they were looked down upon by people on both sides of the border as neither Mexican nor Americans. However, in the 60’s “Chicano” became a term of ethnic pride.

The Chicano Movement that blossomed then makes more sense to many when it is called by its other name: the Chicano Civil Rights Movement (and, in Spanish, El Movimiento).  Even more, when it is understood to have been birthed from the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement of the 1940s (itself, one against massive motions of discrimination from segregation to compulsory sterilization).

El Movimiento was about ending the negative stereo types and moving forward to reclaim land grants, gain farm workers’ rights, and to ensure educational and political rights.

LA was in the thick of it; it has been said that the continuing conflict between Chicanos and the LAPD drew the community together and, at the same time, set it in motion against the status quo – the demand for acknowledgment was sometimes violent, often as legitimate attempts to work through the political process were thwarted.

In ‘68, when the student movement was at its height, the Chicano Movement organized mass walkouts of high school students throughout LA and, again,in 1970 is support of the Chicano Moratorium.

The size and strength of these protests took the mainstream by surprise as most of America had not been aware of the building movement at the college level.  In fact, many had not even thought that immigrants’ children were in college.  But there, Chicano student groups such as United Mexican American Students (UMAS), the Mexican American Youth Association (MAYA), and the Mexican American Youth Organization had been developing.  Then, in April of ‘69, they joined under a new banner:  Movimiento EstudiantilChicano de Aztlan (MECHA).

The components and concerns of these groups – educational issues and political participation, police brutality and the Vietnam War – where, it was said Mexican-Americans were being used as ‘canon fodder’…they were 20% of the War’s casualties though they comprised less than 10% of the Nation.

In November of that year, the National Chicano Moratorium Committee (also known simply as the Chicano Moratorium) was formed to address that situation in Vietnam; it was comprised not only from members of MECHA, but also from the Brown Berets, a more militant, nationalistic group that had organized the high school protests.

The Chicano Moratorium was designed to reach beyond the students of the movement in order to also connect with Mexican-American groups throughout the nation,  It had as its intent, to organize local marches against the War.

A first demonstration was held in East Los Angeles in December, and then others in cities throughout the state (Fresno, Oakland, Oxnard, San Francisco, San Diego, San Fernando, San Pedro), some with as many as 3,000 protesters.  A 1,000 or more marched in major cities of Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, and Texas.

Then a truly major event was set, again in East Los Angeles, for August 29, 1970.  Protesters from the previous demonstrations in America, as well as those from Mexico and Puerto Rico were expected, and the crowd was eventually estimated to be more than 20,000, maybe as many as 30,000 when the LAPD called it to a halt as an illegal gathering, ‘chased’ a suspected robber to the Silver Dollar Bar, and fired in the tear gas canister that killed Mr. Salazar back then.

Today, we present this information on him and the Chicano Movement not only as it is the 40^th Anniversary of this event.  Our purpose here is to show that even a movement of this size can be quickly extinguished. And we will go on to show that there were others that vanished as well. Some, well before they accomplished their goals, though many people’s mind and hearts were committed to them.  How and why is important; lessons of the past will make for a future where group effort actually results in determined change.  And a first thought of which movements to resurrect may be paramount.

It is with this in mind that this Series has been begun.

Here are the keywords to our thinking today: Los Angeles Free Press, Los Angeles Free Press Archives, Ruben Salazar, Art Kunkin, Chicanos, Chicano Movement, Media, Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, Chicano Moratorium Protest, Changing Society, Self-Improvement, Social Change, Society & Culture

Here are links to today’s items:

[1] Was Salazar Murdered? Front Page News, Los Angeles Free Press, 1970

[2] Was Salazar Murdered? Los Angeles Free Press, 1970 Even more than Front Page news

[3] Chicano Journalist Ruben Salazar Remembered

[4] Chicano Journalist Ruben Salazar Honored