Chicano/Latino Civil Rights Movement

Latino Equality

• Just as we have looked at the African-American and Native American fight for equality so to did the Latino population in the US– They were fighting for greater representation in

government; better treatment; and a respect for their culture and heritage.

• Many Latinos upon moving into the US worked on fruit and vegetable farms doing backbreaking work.

UFWOC Two individuals stepped forward to fight for rights for these workers

César Chávez Dolores Huerta

•Together they established the National Farm Workers Association•Four years later the NFWA merged with a Filipino group and were renamed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC)

UFWOC

• Chávez and others insisted that the farms accept the union as the bargaining agent for the farm workers.– Upon the refusal to accept the union (1965),

Chávez led the people in a boycott the grapes grown at the farms.

• There were many supermarkets and shoppers who heeded the boycott. (Mrs. Craig-Salmon remembers the boycott.)

UFWOC

– Chávez Believed in Dr. King’s nonviolence concept.

• During the boycott, Chávez also went on a hunger strike for 3 weeks where he lost 35 pounds.

– In 1970, Huerta negotiated a contract between the grape growers and the UFWOC

• Union workers gained higher wages and other benefits long denied them

UFWOC

• The UFWOC victory inspired others to get involved around the country– Puerto Ricans in New York demanded that

schools offer Spanish speaking children classes taught in Spanish and that the curriculum should include culture

– 1968: Bilingual Education Act provided funds for schools to offer bilingual and cultural heritage programs for non-English speakers

Chicano and “Brown Power”• Chicanos (Mexicanos): is a term to describe

Mexican-Americans which expressed pride in their ethnic heritage

• 1968: David Sanchez forms a group called the “Brown Berets”, a community action group– The “Brown Berets” organized walkouts at East LA

high schools demanding smaller class sizes; more Chicano teachers and administrators; and programs designed to reduce the Latino dropout rate

– At colleges and universities more militant Mexican-American students won the establishment of Chicano studies programs

political power

• Many Latinos also organized politically by forming some groups to work in the two party system– Mexican American Political Association

(MAPA)• Helped LA politician Edward Roybel to the House• In the 1960’s 8 Hispanic Americans served in the

House, and one served in the Senate (Joseph Montoya of New Mexico)

political power

– The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)

• Formed in 1929 to fight segregation and discrimination

• In the 1940’s and 50’s fought to desegregate schools in the southwest

• 1954: helped Mexican-Americans gain right to serve on juries

• 1960’s: some LULAC programs were funded under LBJ’s “Great Society”

political power

• La Raza Unida (Mexican-Americans United)– 1970; created to make an independent Latino political

movement• Some groups became more militant

– 1963: Alianza Federal de Mercedes (Federal Alliance of Land Grants) was formed to help reclaim US land taken from Mexican landholders in the 19th century

– Formed by one-time evangelical preacher Reies Tijerina