1960-1970
El Movimiento
- La Causa
- La Cultura
- La Raza
- La Comunidad
- La Política
- La Guerra
EL MOVIMIENTO
The Chicano Years 1960 to 1980
This period is marked by decisive shifts–political, cultural, economic and aspirational. The Latino civil rights movement ascends to prominence nationally, punctuated locally with the election of the first Mexican American to the Fresno County board of supervisors in 1972. Diversification of the Mexican origin labor force multiples as more and more women and men move into non-agricultural jobs and increasingly into professional positions. Social differentiation among those of Mexican origin expands further as the second generation matures, the middling sector grows, and educational success advances among Mexican descent youth. The so-called great society programs provide critical support for Latino students to pursue a higher education. At the same time, Latino-based organizations and activities multiply to promote the improvement of opportunities and conditions for the Latino community. Cultural life reaches new heights of expression and diversity and encompasses a discernible pride and effervescence in Mexican heritage in spite of the deepening of acculturation. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the renaissance of Mexican-themed artistic production, dance, art, theater and music groups, and the appearance of Mexican cultural expression in mainstream venues.
Agriculture undergoes important changes: land distribution patterns move away from the small and medium size farm toward larger holdings; markets for agricultural products change, pushing farmers to develop new crops while others lessen. Innovative technology and mechanization reduce the need for manual labor. Nonetheless, Mexicans remain the mainstay of agricultural employment.
The Immigration Act of 1965 established for the first time quotas on the number of visas granted to Mexican immigrants. Meanwhile, economic conditions in Mexico worsen, pushing many of them to supplement their income by migrating to the U.S., California and the valley. Another surge of migration begins therefore by the late 1960s, where many enter the U.S. undocumented. As a growing number of Mexican Americans enter the non-farm sector, the newcomers will frequently take the agricultural jobs that remain. And not unlike the era of the bracero program some of stay in the valley. As a result of the growing population and aspirations, many move from the barrios and spread out in the valley. Women gain more significance through education as community activists and form organizations.
Yet these changes would not go unchallenged by those not inclined to accept the shift in the “place” of the Mexican community, and other minorities in the previous hierarchies of status. The strenuous opposition to a farmworkers union, the heated criticism of affirmative action, the condemnation of ethnic studies programs, and the critique of bilingual education were just a few aspects of the opposition to the tectonic changes that characterized this period of time in the relationship between the Mexican community and the non-minority population of the valley. But the Mexican community remained undeterred in its concerted drive to advance beyond the implicit and explicit boundaries of the past to employment, education, and civil rights. The military service of Mexican origin women and men during the Vietnam War clearly held a significant meaning: if they were expected to fight for the ideals of American society, again, there would be no turning back to the “old days” of second-class citizenship for those of Mexican descent.
By Dr. Alex Saragoza
La Causa
¡YA BASTA! 1955-1962
No example of organizing in the 1960s and 1970s can equal that of César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, Gilbert Padilla, and the many leaders and members of the Farmworkers Union, the UFW.
Fighting for the rights of farmworkers didn’t start in the 1960s. The conditions of farm work, especially with the largest growers, were intolerable by most standards. Yet they had been tolerated by generations of Mexicans without other means to support their families. Farmworkers in Mexico could not make a living. Exploitation in the US paid more. There were strikes by Mexican workers in the Valley as early as the 1920s and throughout the decades. The lives of the campesinos were hard and passed on to their children. Their goal, beyond survival, was to get their children out of the fields. Many did in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Bracero Program had been the stumbling block to organizing. When growers could bring in more workers legally, or even resort to undocumented workers, there was no incentive to negotiate. Farmworkers had tried organizing before. The Pixley cotton strike in 1933, ten years before the Bracero Program, succeeded to some extent, but left several dead and gains that were soon lost.
The Braceros at least had some guarantee of work and–for what it was worth– food and housing. In the agreements they had social security taken from their wages and some form of health care. Domestic farmworkers saw this. The end of the Bracero Program opened the gates and at least with the larger growers a union could have leverage in the limited time that perishable crops needed to be picked.
FIGHTING FOR OUR LIVES 1970
The Union turned to other crops, with the most bitter battles against Gallo wine and the lettuce industry. Efforts in other states caught on in Arizona, Texas and even Florida as La Causa spread and resources stretched. Florida college student Nan Freeman was killed on a picket line.
In the 1970s, violence broke out with the Teamsters, “goons,’ as the strike moved north from Coachella. Farmworkers Nagi Daifullah and Rufino Contreras were shot and killed and Juan de la Cruz was shot on the picket line. Luis Valdez said that César changed after those killings and responsibility weighed on him. To protest the violence and injustice in 1972 Cesar began his second public fast.
IT WAS MY MOTHER THAT TAUGHT ME ABOUT NON-VIOLENCE.
IT TAKES TWO TO MAKE A FIGHT, SHE WOULD SAY. THAT WAS HER FAVORITE LINE.
DURNG THE FIVE-YEAR GRAPE STRIKE WHEN THE UNION WAS DISCOURAGED AND BATTERED,
THEY WANTED TO FIGHT BACK BY USING THE SAME VIOLENCE THAT THE GROWERS USED.
SO INSTEAD, I WENT ON A TWENTY-FOUR DAY, WATER ONLY FAST.BECAUSE I AM CONVINCED THAT THE TRUEST ACT OF COURAGE AND THE STRONGEST ACT OF HUMANITY
IS TO SACRIFICE OURSELVES FOR OTHERS IN A TOTALLY NON-VIOLENT STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE
TO BE HUMAN IS TO SUFFER FOR OTHERS. GOD HELP US TO BE HUMAN. Chávez
SPOTLIGHT: LEA YBARRA
Student activist describes her experience on a picket line, facing hatred.
With many of the first grape contracts expired, the powerful Teamsters began to sign “sweetheart” deals with the growers. In response, a second grape boycott. By 1973 they had lost 90% of their contracts and few funds were left to support the Union. Nevertheless, the UFW continued to fight for farmworkers’ rights.
The Agricultural Labor Relations Act, ALRA
César had approached Governor Jerry Brown for his support when Brown was elected in 1974. Brown remembered that César thought the route of the boycott was better, because politicians could change laws and he knew that the growers essentially controlled immigration for their needs. Brown was able to pass the California Labor Relations Act and the UFW won hundreds of elections over the Teamsters. Later, the growers did succeed in blocking funding for the Act, proving Chávez right. Subsequent appointments to the Board increased the growers’ influence. They stonewalled Union elections and charges against the growers were dismissed. Many refused to bargain in good faith.
SPOTLIGHT: GRACE SOLIS
Student activist at Fresno State College, went to work on the ALRA.
¡Si Se Puede!
1978 ended boycotts of lettuce and grapes, but once again, the fields turned brutal. Rufino Contreras was shot to death taking to strikebreakers in the fields. Cesar fasts in Arizona against restrictive farm labor law. The slogan ¡Si se Puede! catches on, ascribed by some to Dolores Huerta to counter a feeling of no se puede.
CHAVEZ CHANGES THE FIGHT 1983
By the early 1980s, the lack of successes and a change from organizing in the fields to loyalty issues led many of the original members to exit, voluntarily and involuntarily, including Gilbert Padilla. The 1980s saw setbacks, wages dropping and no enforcement of the ALRA. In 1983 Rene Lopez was killed attempting to organize workers at Sikkema Dairy near Fresno. Most of the workers in the fields were undocumented and knew little of Chávez.
In 1984 the Union returned to its most successful organizing tool, the International Table Grape Boycott. Urgency was added as cancer clusters in farming towns were revealed across the San Joaquin Valley. Pesticides sprayed on fields, water contaminated by runoff from agriculture, dairy, and animal farms became priorities for La Causa.
Fast for Life 1988
In 1988, César began his final fast in Delano to protest pesticides and energize the union. It had to be stopped after 35 days for the sake of his health. Others took it up, three days at a time. The growers didn’t call.
1990-1992
1991 César began a college speaking tour to support the boycott of grapes, became a Visiting Lecturer on Farm Labor History at U C Santa Monica, and traveled to the Orient to speak. With growers refusing to negotiate new contracts, the Union responded with La Union del Pueblo Entero associate membership program, offering benefits to all workers. In summer 1992 a series of successful work stoppages and walk outs across the Coachella and San Joaquin Valleys with a new generation of farmworkers found some success.
¡Viva La Causa!
In 1993 César was in Arizona, working to fight an injunction, when Radio Campesina broadcast that he had died. Cesar’s funeral was a valley celebration of his life, held in Delano and attended by 50,000, then a private burial at La Paz in Keene.
SPOTLIGHT: SUSAN DRAKE
César’s personal secretary until dismissed, writes her memoirs in poetry form as a “love letter to César.”
Cada Trabajador es un Organizador
In 1994, Cesár’s son in law Arturo Rodriguez took on the head of the UFW and marked the first anniversary of Cesar’s passing with another Peregrinacion from Delano to Sacramento, retracing the 340 mile walk Cesar had taken in 1966. It launched Freedom Summer, a season of intense organizing activity that culminated in a series of contracts, including the first table grape contract in over 8 years. Despite 35,000 marchers, rallies each evening, and representatives from Washington, Oregon and Florida, in California the Union could not get contracts because growers wouldn’t bargain, and Governor Wilson’s administration wouldn’t enforce. The Boycott continued and the UFW was a conscience of the nation on pesticides. In 1994 the Union finally won the appeal with Bruce Church and three union contracts, ending a 17-year fight begun in 1977.
The UFW César Chávez built was continued by César’s son in law, Arturo Rodríguez as its president, Dolores Huerta, and others in key roles. With some successes, the work continued, and a César Chávez Foundation was formed. In the 2000s Dolores left to move on and found her own Foundation to address many issues. In 2018, Arturo stepped down and handed the UFW over to Teresa Romero, the Union’s Board Secretary. What these farmworkers did and continue to do has been a monumental effort and story of our Valley.
SPOTLIGHT: DOLORES HUERTA, SURVIVOR
The feminist face of the Union, a twice divorced mother of seven, Dolores left Stockton to work with Cesar at CSO and then to Delano to cofound the UFW and take on key roles, She fought sexism in society and the Union, and when leadership passed her over, she left to continue work on her priority issues through her own Dolores Huerta Foundation.
Community Service Organization, CSO
The timing was ripe for César Chávez, the farmworker who would break through and inspire an effort that would organize the almost un-organizable. Born in Yuma Arizona in 1927, his family had experienced a relatively stable life until they lost their land during the Depression and joined the migrant labor of the southwest. César joined the Navy. There is even a picture of him in a Zoot Suit.
In San Jose, César married Helen Favela and joined the Community Service Organization, CSO, to work in community organizing with Fred Ross. Dolores Huerta, a teacher from the Stockton region was also there. Gilbert Padilla, a migrant who experienced the inequities during his service in WWII and after, was fed up. Larry Itiliong had already begun organizing Filipino workers in Coachella and Delano. Luis Valdez, a former migrant from Delano, was studying theater at San Jose State and an activist. They and others would play key roles in setting off a community organizing effort that went beyond the fields to campuses and churches and attracted support across the nation, from liberal East Coast college students to West Coast Hollywood celebrities who magnified La Causa.
IF YOU TALKED ABOUT CIVIL RIGHTS, YOU WERE A COMMUNIST…
ORGANIZING, YOU WERE A COMMUNIST. POLICE BRUTALITY, YOU WERE A COMMUNIST…
IMAGINE LETTING US DO SOME REAL BLATANT RED-BLOODED AMERICAN WORK
LIKE REGISTERING PEOPLE TO VOTE. César Chávez
SPOTLIGHT: GILBERT PADILLA
A migrant born in Merced County, with a sense of injustice and service in the military, gravitated to CSO and became one of the key organizers of the Union throughout the Valley.
THE UNION IS BORN, NATIONAL FARM WORKERS ASSOCIATION 1962-1970
CSO’s priorities did not sufficiently address problems and solutions for farmworkers. At age 35 Cesar resigned from the CSO after 10 years, the last ones as National Director. He and his family moved to Delano to begin recruiting for a union. Dolores and Gilbert and some of their family members followed. They held a first convention in 1962 in a vacant cinema in Fresno. Cesar was elected President, Dolores Huerta, Vice President. The UFWOC eventually merges with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee of mostly Filipino workers to become the United Farmworkers Organizing Committee, later the UFW.
I TOLD THE CAMPESINOS I WAS GOING TO START A UNION.
SHAKING MY HAND, THEY SAID IT’S A GOOD IDEA, MR CHAVEZ. WE WISH YOU LUCK.
THE PROBLEM IS IT’S JUST NOT GOING TO WORK …
I WAS FRIGHTENED, VERY FRIGHTENED. SO WAS MY WIFE HELEN, MOSTLY FOR OUR CHILDREN.
I EITHER KEPT MY JOB OR I ORGANIZE THE FARM WORKERS. THE CHOICE WAS HERS.
“I’M WILLING TO STICK IT OUT FOR TEN YEARS AND REALLY GIVE IT A TRY,” SHE SAID.
IF IT DOESN’T WORK WELL, WE CAN ALWAYS FIGURE SOMETHING ELSE OUT.’
HELEN, MY GREATEST BLESSING. César
SPOTLIGHT: ALFREDO VAZQUEZ
One of the first to be recruited was Alfredo Vázquez in Goshen. César and others held an early house meeting at his home and Alfredo became involved along with his family.
Registering farmworkers for the union was not the easiest part, but the basic one. Some were attracted, ripe for the cause, and others took more coaxing. César was often in the difficult position of trying to convince his Mexican brothers to join, those most desperate and deportable. Dolores and many of the women were sometimes better at it, but she admitted she had a hard time asking for the $3.50 monthly dues from people so poor. Yet they did it, getting others to cross to their side through an appeal that felt like they were taking you in as family. She is credited with the slogan Si Se Puede.
¡Huelga! Delano Grape Strike 1965
Cesar and other groups had been lobbying Washington to end the Bracero Program. When it finally happened in 1964, it unleashed the organizing potential in our Valley. The Filipino workers were already organized and pushed Chávez in 1965 to join forces and begin the grape strike.
In 1965 the Delano Grape Strike began the union, what one campesina called un camino muy largo. The strike itself lasted five years. César himself did not believe the goals would be achieved in his lifetime. Some were and some weren’t. They started with basic human requests like water and toilets in the fields, rest times and decent housing. Gilbert Padilla noted that it brought everyone together, the Filipinos and others, as brothers.
ALL MY STAFF, MYSELF, EVEN MY ATTORNEYS,
RECEIVE COMPENSATION OF ROOM AND BORD AND TEN DOLLARS A WEEK.
YOU REALLY CAN’T HELP POOR PEOPLE
UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO LIVE AT THEIR LEVEL AND FEEL THEIR PAIN. César
Art and Celebrity Join La Causa
In 1966, when spirits sagged, Luis Valdez joined in and initiated Teatro Campesino with workers on flatbed trucks. Farmworker musician Agustin Lira joined him and created music that became the soundtrack of the movement. Artists and writers, poets and dancers created a new Chicano arts movement in support of the union, from posters to events raising funds for La Causa.
In a time when television was beginning to play an increasing role in national life, when images of civil rights protests in the South and the 1961 documentary Harvest of Shame shocked the nation, Robert Kennedy came to Delano as a senator on the Congressional Committee for hearings on Arbitration. He famously asked in a televised hearing: How can you arrest them if they haven’t violated the law yet?” And then he met and walked with César. It was not his last visit to Delano, nor the last of his family’s support of the Union.
March to Sacramento 1966
Energized by the visibility they were gaining, Cesar organized a march to Sacramento in 1966, beginning in Delano along Highway 99 with 67 farmworkers, led by “El Capitan Roberto Bustos. Along the way they were fed and housed and joined by others until the peregrinación swelled to 10,000 upon their arrival at the Capitol. Music accompanied them, Guadalupe Gutiérrez and Las Mujeres Valientes, Agustín Lira and Luis Valdez. César and Dolores spoke against the background of the Capitol. Governor Pat Brown was not available, and Sacramento did not respond with legislation. Nevertheless, the March advertised and created growing support for the Union in its struggle for human dignity and better wages–and its first contract with Schenley.
Boycott Grapes 1967
In 1967, when efforts to get legislative support failed, César started a Boycott, a nationwide campaign against purchasing California table grapes to grab the public’s attention. Thousands joined in picketing grocery stores in states across the nation. César’s insistence always on nonviolence made this technique acceptable and he kept reading Gandhi for inspiration. Governor Reagan ate grapes on television and Nixon ordered the Defense Department to procure grapes for the military. But it did have some effect on the growers and some signed contracts with the UFW.
César Fasts 1968
In 1968 César fasted to call attention to the cause. After two weeks he was called into court for accusations of violence and 3,000 farmworkers protested at the courthouse. César returned to the Union’s location at 40 Acres in Delano and ended the fast on the 25th day, with Robert Kennedy and the media attending. Shortly after, the Union was a factor in winning Kennedy’s California primary for President. Dolores Huerta accompanied Kennedy at the Los Angeles hotel where they had planned a victory reception for him with mariachis. Tragically this is where Robert Kennedy was shot.
Boycott Grapes Ends, Boycott Lettuce Begins 1970
With the combined strategies of the Strike, the Boycott, the Fast and media attention, the first victory came in 1970 with a contract with Steinberg Growers and others that followed. It left an embittered Delano and violent threats causing César to accept bodyguards and to move headquarters to La Paz in the Tehachipi mountains.
VISUALS AND CAPTIONS
MARCH TO SACRAMENTO
(George Ballis’ Photo, Roberto Bustos’ snapshot)
The iconic picture of the 1966 March to Sacramento that many identify was one in a series of documentary photos, and later an exhibit, by George Ballis, an activist and journalist who joined the movement to capture its early years. Those times, conditions and the people were also captured in photos and video, newspapers, poster art, documentaries, UFW promotional materials, and Hollywood movies. They were recorded in the memories of many in our Valley.
CESAR PORTRAIT
Larger than Life (Painting by Maxine Olson, Arte Américas collection)
César Librador Chávez was born in Yuma Arizona March 31, 1927 and died 1993 at age 66 in Arizona, but he was a man our valley claims as its hero. He was described as humble, a dictador, as the most Christ-like person I knew, a pachuco and Chicano, a savior, an icon, a communist, a people person, funny, sad, with a limited education and an avid reader, a leader and a follower, a ticket into the heart of the poor. . . “not a saint nor a miracle worker, just a man. “That’s why his impact on history is so remarkable.” Luis Valdez
ALL MY LIFE I HAVE BEEN DRIVEN BY ONE DREAM, ONE GOAL, ONE VISION:
TO IMPROVE THE CONDITIONS OF FARMWORKERS
AND CREATE A LASTING ENVIRONMENT OF JUSTICE.
THAT DREAM, THAT VISION, GREW OUT OF MY OWN LIFE.
IT GREW FROM THE FRUSTRATION AND HUMILIATION
I FELT AS A TEN-YEAR OLD BOY WORKING IN THE FIELDS
WHO COULDN’T UNDERSTAND HOW THE GROWERS COULD EXPLOIT AND ABUSE US.
THESE MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN WHO ARE FACELESS AND NUMBERLESS,
SO MANY TIMES ARE THE ONES WHO PRODUCE THE FOOD, AND YET GO HOME HUNGRY.
PORTRAIT OF A MOVEMENT AND A MAN
(Ocampo print commissioned by Fonda)
Perhaps his great legacy was what he inspired in people and those people, once empowered, found themselves. No artwork perhaps so defines his story. From a distance recognize the man. Look closely and see of what he was made. He left an indelible print on our valley and the people he inspired or repelled. He did not do it alone.
THE INDESCRUCTIBLE SPIRIT OF THE CAUSA, ITS ENTHUSIASM
HAS HELPED THE FARM WORKERS SUCCEED IN THE MOST IMPOSSIBLE CIRCUMSTANCES.
NO, NO, I’M NOT REALLY A UNION LEADER.
I’M AN ORGNIZER OF GENTLE SPIRITS AND WILLING HEARTS.
LALO GARCIA’S COMMEMORATIVE POSTER/PRINT
(Collection Arte Américas)
Grandparents Estrada and Liberado Chavez came to the US in the 1800s from Chihuahua. They homesteaded 160 acres in Arizona before they lost the family farm for non-payment of taxes and joined the migrant stream. Cesar finished 8th grade after attendance in 30 schools. He joined the Navy in 1944 and married Helen in 1948. From 1952-1962 he worked for the CSO, from an organizer to national director. The rest of his story is inseparable from the UFW he led.
IF THERE’S ONE THING I’VE LEFT BEHIND, IT IS THE SPIRIT OF LA CAUSA.
LA CAUSA IS THE STANDARD BY WHICH FARM WORKERS
CAN MEASURE DIGNITY IN THEIR WORK AND IN THEIR LIVES AND CLAIM IT AS THEIR OWN
BECAUSE THEY FOUGHT FOR IT.
OBSERVATIONS
South Valley Focus
The action was in the Valley, spread to Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Florida–but the financial and media support was in Los Angeles and San Francisco, East Coast liberals, lawyers, students. Our valley supplied the work, the in-kind. As you move up the Valley from Kern to Merced counties, there was less involvement in UFW. One reason was that the targets were the large agribusiness farms, mostly in the South valley, not small or family farms.
Support was a Family Affair
Support came from memberships, more importantly volunteers, from religious leaders, artists and celebrities, politicians and public servants, corporations, environmentalists, students and in solidarity with black, native and women’s groups. It involved entire families, women, and children. Often children didn’t understand or see their early years in the fields with their activist parents in a positive light, more abandonment. Cesar’s, Dolores’ and Gilbert’s children alone numbered 8, 11, and 6=25.
I AM ALWAYS ORGANIZING, GOING TO MEETINGS.
SOMETIMES I AM NOT AT HOME FOR WEEKS AT A TIME.
AND WHEN I GET HOME IT’S SO LATE, ALL EIGHT KIDS ARE ASLEEP.
NOT LONG AGO WHEN I WENT TO BED, I LAY LOOKING UP AT THE CEILING.
I DON’T KNOW HOW HE REACHED UP THERE,
BUT RIGHT ABOVE MY BED WHERE I COULDN’T MISS IT,
MY TWELVE YEARS-OLD SON WROTE HIS NAME “PAUL.”
IT WAS A STRONG MESSAGE. César
Education of the Fields
In a prior exhibit at Arte Américas, the issue of Child Labor in the fields revealed not only the problems and the then current efforts at legislation, it created a discussion among viewers and served as a great example of visual vs text incongruence. The photos were from a Fresno Bee article, children in fields that could be taken at first and second glance as playing. Many women visitors recalled their younger days when they were with their families in labor camps as a positive experience, a rationale that many in the public saw as character-building. I often thought that their parents, the women especially, would have a different, negative recollection. For the child laborers it was often a romantic memory of being with parents. There are some interviews expressing that opinion: Theresa Perez, Helen Rael, Charles Mariano.
The text told a different story, of young children used to fetch things for their parents, older children having to watch the younger, and some dangerous aspects of the work, in addition to missing out on schooling and being kept back or not graduating. Most of it was emphasized in the journalistic revelations such as Ron Taylor’s in the Fresno Bee and in his expose Sweatshops in the Sun. It also boiled down to an economic issue, more money for the families and a subsidized benefit for the growers. Charles Mariano’s poem about his father expresses this.
CESAR ESTRADA CHAVEZ
Cesar’s biography illustrates much of Mexican American history in the Valley and is the biography of the union he founded. Although he was not a Valley native, he became a Valley icon.
The Chavez family were second generation Mexican Americans in Arizona, owning a ranch near Yuma, where Cesar was born in 1927, one of 7 children. His parents Librado and Juana struggled to hold on to the ranch during the Depression but were finally forced off for non-payment of taxes in 1937. Like others, the family became migrant workers.
César was in and out of schools and only made it to 8th grade, but he was a reader and was attracted by the nonviolence protest movements of Martin Luther King and Gandhi. He was determined to lead a non-violent movement and was tested by the growers and the Teamsters, who were much quicker to resort to violence or to have allies in law enforcement who would step in and round up the protesters. To the end, he kept to the idea of nonviolence and his leadership was punctuated twice by fasts which gained national attention and earned him the local title “Gandhi of the Grapes.”
César only claimed to be leader of the farmworkers, but he was the inspiration for at least a generation of campesinos, students and community activists who were seeking to improve the condition and the image of the Mexican American in US society and develop pride in La Raza by knowing their history. La Causa sought a better life, a fair treatment, dignity, and RESPECT.
Yet many, while admiring this passion, determination, and leadership, had disagreements and at times found his tactics disagreeable or outdated.
There was a yearning for that larger-than-life hero, and he filled those shoes. He became a nationally recognized figure in 1993 when he succumbed to a life of hard work, stress, and fasts. His funeral in Delano was a huge event, attracting media and masses, fitting for a hero. He was buried privately in a pine coffin at La Paz in Keene, California, where he had established his headquarters for the Union, now made into a contemplative memorial and museum. Larry Itlong said he had made them “first class citizens with dignity.”
His work is examined in books and documentaries and school curricula. His name is on schools and streets and parks, his figure in statues. We asked for a holiday–which we never got. His birthday March 31 is declared as a “Day of Service,” in California and his image was on a US postage stamp. In Fresno we almost had a street named after him until it was taken down. Then we got the César Chávez Adult School. Not bad for the life’s work of a campesino with an 8th grade education, making and inspiring a union and living on wages for at $10 a week, room, and board.
LA CULTURA CURA
Art and culture were expressions of El Movimiento, an artistic outpour that was the Chicano Art Movement in our valley, led by artists from Los Angeles to Sacramento.
ARTE VISUAL
Images and silk screen posters of the Movement, now collector items, advertised events and fundraisers and captured the spirit of the Movimiento in works of printmakers like “Louie the Foot,” and “Sapo” to artists José Montoya, Esteban Villa, and the Sacramento based collective of the “Royal Chicano Air Force.” Some of their central valley compadres and comadres identified themselves as the “Royal Chicano Navy.” Ernesto Palomino, Fernando Hernández, Lee Orona, Juan Ybarra and the women of the Mujeres Muralistas took to outdoor murals as their canvas. John Sierra and crew created the five story “Planting of Cultures” on the State Building in downtown Fresno at the end of this period and the first Chicano arts center in Fresno—La Brocha del Valle–was initiated by Ernesto Palomino.
TEATRO
Chicano theater grew from the fields on flatbed trucks, motivating farmworkers with political entertainment. Luis Valdez, a farmworker from Delano who had followed the crop circuit, teamed with César Chávez for a while, first involving striking workers through skits in the fields, then creating acts for audiences on stages. Valdez occupied a space on Van Ness near Fresno City College before leaving to establish Teatro Campesino in San Juan Bautista. Musician Stanley Lucero was recruited into the group from New Mexico and met his future wife Yolanda at Teatro Campesino when it was in Fresno. Agustín Lira was there from the beginning as a farmworker and musician. He went on to form Teatro de la Tierra and achieve national recognition for his music. Chicano theater groups like Willie Lopez’ Teatro Cucarachas formed on campus and in communities.
MÚSICA
Along with teatro, the soundtrack of the times was the protest songs of the movement, mixed with traditional Mexican songs, mariachi, corridos and the Chicano anthem De Colores. Journalism student Al Reyes composed and recorded an album of songs. At Roosevelt High School, music teacher Argero Fenton and students Tony Manjárrez and Steve Alcala initiated marimba classes that would expand into mariachi and folklórico dance classes. Steve Alcala would go on to teach at Roosevelt, direct the program and nurture many Roosevelt alums pursuing their own music careers in mariachi and latin jazz.
DANZANTES
The deep connection with Mexico through dance has flourished in the valley through community and school groups, many tracing their roots to the initiation of Danzantes de Aztlán by Ernesto Martínez in the flourishing time of Chicano Studies at Fresno State. Ernesto was first involved as a dancer with Hector Rangel’s Los Mixlatecos, started the Selma High School Los Paisanos, then Danzantes de Atzlán at Fresno State where he went to teach and later assume Chair of La Raza Studies. Since these times, many folklórico groups can trace their roots to dancers from Fresno State College, as they started their own school-sponsored and community groups throughout the valley.
PALABRA
From Omas Salinas’ “Crazy Gypsy” to the prolific award-winning production of poetry and fiction by Fresno native Gary Soto, writers in this period began establishing the Valley as a creative source that produces poets and writers, establishing national recognition for our area. Fowler resident Juan Felipe Herrera was developing his reputation as the ultimate Chicano, migrant, border-crosser writer who became California, then U.S., Poet Laureate.
La Raza
The organizing in the fields paralleled and inspired those few Mexican Americans in the colleges and high schools, as leaders began to emerge and encourage education as the path—camino–forward. César Chávez’ words, the spirit of the artists and activists, the support of community and business leaders helped produce a generation that was educated and motivated to enter new fields: the Chicanos.
FRESNO STATE COLLEGE
In the late 1950s and early 1960s there were few Mexican American college students, less than 1%, and no supporting organizations or programs. Those graduating then at the campus, which had recently developed to the north of Fresno, were the first in their families to go to college. Others were also “firsts,” but left directly for other colleges and universities, applying on their own or recruited through affirmative action efforts. Of those who left, many came back to the Valley and became community leaders in their chosen fields.
The “First Crops”
For Pinedale native Phil Sánchez, his family scraped together the finances to send him to college. He became a Fresno County Administrator and later appointed Ambassador to Honduras and Columbia. For Armando Rodríguez and Jerry Márquez, the GI bill helped motivate and support college careers in law and education. Mario Olmos, Hugo Morales, Alex Saragoza, Lea Ybarra, Robert Arroyo, Juan Arambula and future Valley leaders followed paths at colleges like Harvard, Berkeley, Illinois to later take on leadership roles in the Valley.
The First Activists at Fresno State College
Rudy Gallardo tells his personal story of struggling through the education system and landing at FSU with a group of Chicanos who confronted the student body and college president to support and increase the small number of Chicano students. Their efforts helped to result in 1969 with EOPS and La Raza Studies programs. Katherine Panas was the first head of EOPS and Eliser Risco Losada the first to head La Raza Studies. Angie Cisneros, a FSC student and secretary at the time, recalled these times and her own path at the college that lead to an eventual degree in counseling and head of the Re-entry Program.
Second Wave of Activists
La Raza studies brought in and up through the ranks those who taught the first classes. Alex Saragoza, Hugo Morales, Luis Valdez, Lea Ybarra, Theresa Pérez. EOPS recruited more students and La Raza studies worked to motivate them. Joaquín Patiño of Shafter was recruited by a FSC professor.
La Raza Studies
La Raza Studies itself struggled for survival and identity, as its many name changes document–Ethnic Studies, La Raza Studies, Chicano Studies, Chicano and Latin American Studies.
The fragile program of La Raza Studies struggled to find its place in the college system and was dismantled for a short time before being reinstated. Backlash and resistance motivated those students who organized to keep the programs. In the early 1970s the student organizations of MeCHA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán) and the young women’s Adelitas took up the campus causa and used tactics of sit-ins, blocking registration, and confrontations, labeled “unrest” at the time.
These efforts were well documented and supported through the efforts of journalism students, who started their own publications of “La Pluma Morada”, special La Voz editions of the Collegian newspaper, and the Sentimientos journals. They produced essays, articles, poetry and art as a vehicle that documented the times and motivated the students. The efforts of Tomás Uribes, Al Reyes, Alicia Maldonado, Félix Contreras also led these early students to careers in journalism. The support of EOP (Educational Opportunity Program) and the leadership of faculty that guided and supported them, like Manuel Pérez, who assumed leadership of EOP until his retirement, was cited byinterviewees like Cecilia Aranyado and Yolanda Lucero for their introduction and support to attend college.
When needed, there was always the support of Adelitas and the “Rent a Crowd” group. Not only MeCHA, but also specialized groups formed to support their own fields of interests: Trabajadores de la Raza in social studies, CHE (Chicanos in Higher Education).
The Chicano Youth Conference
Several college students began their activism at Fresno City College before transferring to Fresno State and continuing it there. At Fresno City College Latino students were making demands of the administration to hire more Chicano teachers and counselors. Venancio Gaona and Robert Arroyo were hired in 1969, counselors Frank Quintana and Carlos González in 1970. Students then demanded a Chicana counselor, and Celia Maldonado was hired in 1971.
One of the assignments for the new counselors was to develop new ways for reaching out to the Latino community to encourage students to attend college. They initiated the first Chicano Youth Conference in 1972 for high school students to learn about educational opportunities. Many of the students who were active in MeCHA and other organizations then transferred to CSU Fresno and were instrumental in starting the Chicano Youth Conference there. The Mexican American Educators then followed with the Si Se Puede conferences aimed at Latino males and the League of Mexican American Women with the Adelante Mujer conferences for females.
Chicano Commencement
Inspired by a similar effort to celebrate the graduation from college of many first-in-their families, Manuel Olgin, Frances Peña, and others initiated the CSUF graduation programs that were at first small and family-oriented celebrations to–fast forward– today filling the Save Mart Center with 1200 graduates and their families. The Destinos Programs celebrate and document these graduations.
Chicano Alumni Association
Today the student enrollment at both Fresno City College and CSU Fresno has increased dramatically. Fifty-five percent of the students at Fresno City College are Latino, as are half of the students at CSU, Fresno. Along the way, a growing group of Chicano Alumni has developed to support each other and students in the system now. Joined with the many scholarship programs of groups like the Association of Mexican American Educators and the League of Mexican American Women, there is community financial support augmenting more educational resources.
Chicano Power through Organizing
In the 1960s we began with the seeds of rebellion and protest and a new young president in John F Kennedy. He inspired us to shoot for the moon and ask what we can do for our country. But we got challenged in Cuba and involved in Vietnam and he was shot. As war threatened our ambitions, across the nation protests stirred for civil rights, an overarching appeal to African Americans, Native Americans and Women–and in our valley with el movimiento. The spirit of dissent and protest was added to the national debate in 1965 with the grape boycotts. Cesar Chavez became our iconic leader from the fields and Dolores Huerta a symbol of the role women played.
The spirit of the 60s inspired rebellion and revolt–or dropping out. Acid music and rock and psychedelic drugs were rebellion, and many burned their draft cads. Those that didn’t went to Vietnam and returned—or didn’t—messed up or bitter with the protesters. Valley Mexican Americans have many examples of those and also of the “veterans” who fought in the movimiento at home for opportunities and respect. They called themselves Chicanos. Their battlefields were the fields and the colleges. Some were led by those who participated in the last war in Korea or Vietnam.
It was a time of turbulence, of a nation divided, with the mantra “make love, not war.” We made both. We lost many national leaders—Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy—but slowly achieved some of our goals of participation—the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and the public social programs. We also asked ourselves what we could do for our community and organized, organized, organized. And the US did make it to the moon. We all watched and cheered.
In the 1970s Americans turned inward from public and social concerns to private and personal.
It was labeled the “me decade,” self-improvement, health foods, running. Watergate and Vietnam made people more cynical and bitter. Skyjacking, hostages in Olympics and Iran, and the Jonestown mass suicide gave us a darker side of our world, even when not at war.
In 10 years, 1967-1977, many former extremist positions became mainstream. Examination through television and movies helped us understand and cope with the changes, All in the Family, Deer Hunter, Coming Home, Apocalypse. Sports heroes were women, black, or gay–and sometimes Latino. Still almost no recognition except Chico and the Man. María in West Side Story was played by Natalie Wood–but it gave us Rita Moreno.
All this was noted in the Chicano community.
Association of Mexican American Educators, AMAE
AMAE, began as one of the first state-wide chapters in 1965 in Fresno, followed by other chapters in the Valley, as the number of Mexican American educators increased. At the time they formed, the issues were primarily lack of Mexican American teachers, a high dropout rate, and rules against Speaking Spanish at school. AMAE members confronted school boards in rural communities at the request of fledgling parent organizations. Bilingual Education soon became an early issue, along with desegregation and year-round schools. AMAE had study groups and published papers on these subjects. AMAE also supported its own bilingual experimental preschool in Calwa Park, Los Amigüitos, and classes in SuperSpanish for adults and children during the summer. They hosted statewide conferences in Fresno and Visalia, sponsored a state meeting in Guadalajara, and later in Morelia, and created in California a Day of the Teacher, based on the Mexican El Día del Maestro.
The local chapter led the state through several state presidents from the Valley: Robert Aguilar in 1972, Jerry Márquez in 1985, Robert Arroyo in 1999, Celia Arroyo in 2006, and Johnny Baltierra in 2015. The group, along with others in the community, also supported the naming of schools: Hidalgo, Balderas, Terrónez, Olmos, Philip Patiño, and Matilde Torres (in Madera). They have held a Sí Se Puede Conference on the CSUF campus for young Latino men since 1995. With improving statistics on education of Latino students, the group’s focus now is primarily on fundraising and scholarships. In 2018 AMAE gave out $40,000 in scholarships to 40 students. That amount is compounded by the efforts of other chapters of AMAE and the sister organization of CABE (California Association of Bilingual Education).
League of Mexican American Women, Fresno and Tulare County Chapters
The women activists of the Mexican American community, after years of supporting mainstream organizations such as the League of Women Voters, Volunteer Bureau, Women for Peace and Freedom, Junior League, and others, felt the Mexican American community needed them more. Yet they were often relegated to auxiliary roles in male driven Mexican American organizations such as MAPA. In 1973 the founders Dolly Arredondo, Betty Rodríguez, Merci Bencomo and Rachel Torres organized the League to be a community service, not a political organization. They focused efforts on conferences for Chicana young women that dealt with health, economic, education, and social justice issues. Several Chicana students at Fresno State College joined them.
In 1975 the Fresno League affiliated with the newly formed statewide Comisión Feminil Mexicana National. In 1980 members participated in the ERA March in Washington DC and attended the Governor’s Chicana Conference, where subsequently many of them were appointed to advisory councils and commissions, both locally and statewide. In 1982 Angie Cisneros was elected National President. By 1983 the League decided to become independent and became a valley leader in assisting women from Madera, Visalia, Modesto, Bakersfield and Sacramento to form their own organizations.
Many Women of the League included the college students who went on to degrees and became professional leaders, joining boards of other non-profit organizations, raising funds for other groups and taking on all roles from auxiliary to leadership. A grant to League in 1978 established WOW, a training program for women in non-traditional jobs. Jane Mejía was Director of that Program. In 1992 Young League was established by Alicia Natal, and in 1994 the Mariposa Project of Suzanne Moreno to work with high school girls. In 1985, the League established its local version of the Adelante Mujer Conference, led for 25 years by Carlotta Curti.
League’s signature event, the Fiesta Navideña Fashion Show, initiated in 1975 by Betty Rodriguez (now dedicated to her memory), became the League’s signature annual social event for Latinos, raising to today an estimated $500,000 in scholarships for college bound students.
El Concilio de Fresno
In 1974 the original charter members developed articles of incorporation for an organization that had the mission of social justice and advocacy for the Mexican American community by being an organization of organizations—a Concilio (council). Founders included Hector Abeytia, Henry García, Venancio Gaona, Gilbert López, Mario Olmos, Philip Patiño, Edward Varela, and Emilio Velez. Their early recognition of leaders at Noche de Hechos y Unidad began in 1978. Their support of the César Chávez community celebrations and the project of histories and presentations of “Chicano History Revisited” conferences are among current achievements. They formed originally to support the students at Fresno State and continue today in their own facility at the Chicano Youth Center on Divisadero. Currently Eddie Varela, Jose Luis Barraza, Guillermo “Willie Lopez, and others carry on the work.
Mexican American Political Association, MAPA
Fresno MAPA was formed in 1960, a chapter of the state organization that was formed to better the conditions of the Chicano community in housing, employment, and other areas by working through the political process. The local chapter involved itself in national, state, and local elections, working in campaigns and raising funds to support candidates. Their goal: to create an awareness in the Chicano community of the political process and demonstrate that it can work for them. It did finally work in the early 70s, when four Mexican American candidates were successful in Fresno. Names we associate with the development of MAPA are Judge Rodríguez, Angie Cisneros, Josie Mena, Dave Arredondo, and Ben Benavídez. MAPA split in two. Although not as important in politics as it once was, many candidates now have succeeded with mainstream party support and individual endorsements.
Torreon Sister Cities Committee
Torreon was chosen as the sister city of Fresno by the community under Mayor Floyd Hyde in the 1970s. For years it was kept alive through all volunteer efforts and local leaders, including Judge Armando Rodríguez. From inception to dissolution in 2010, the Committee sponsored many city-to-city events, transporting donations for schools and fire stations and organizing cultural events. A ceramic tile mural, gift from the City of Torreon to Fresno in one of the early 1990s exchanges, features the two towers (torres) of the sister cities.
SOCIAL PROGRAMS OF THE ERA
From the Community Service Organization (CSO) to the many programs developed in this time frame to support the needs of the Mexican American Community, the Valley added SER Jobs for Progress, PROTEUS vocational training and employment for farmworkers, California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), Economic Opportunities Commission, EOC and its Head Start centers throughout the county. This public support achieved what many community organizations could do.
SELF HELP VISIONS
Yet other groups were started community based and gained traction over the years with fundraising and grants. Centro La Familia started as a student project at Fresno City College. Barrios Unidos grew, along with the dream of a Chicano Youth Center and now they are housed at the Center on Divisadero.
Los Amiguitos, a coop bilingual preschool was hosted by Calwa Park in South Fresno and run by parents and teachers from 1970 to 1980 through AMAE. It was a participant in the early efforts to hold workshops and create bilingual materials for classrooms.
Colegio de la Tierra was started by Fresno State College graduates who became instructors in Del Rey. It was led by Tomás Martinez and later moved to Goshen, where several participants obtained a two year degree.
LA POLITICA
The achievements of the Mexican American, Hispanic, Chicano community could not advance without representation and political clout. The election of John F. Kennedy, with its Kennedy Clubs, inspired many to add his image in their homes, along with family photos. Judge Armando Rodriguez kept a photo of Robert Kennedy in his chamber. It was not until the 1970s that our first elected officials in Fresno were successful.
Al Villa was elected to the Fresno City Council in 1971, followed by Armando Rodriguez to the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, Robert Arroyo to the Fresno Unified School Board and Michael Cardenas to the State Center Community College District Board of Trustees. They made Mexican American candidates “acceptable.” Others were successful in the rural towns.
MAPA (Mexican American Political Association) was instrumental in supporting candidates, as were the women of the League of Mexican American Women, local businesses and community activists. With the election of Governor Jerry Brown, local political activist Leo Gallegos was appointed to work in his office and brought some clout to the Valley’s Mexican American population. Armando Rodriguez and Mario Olmos were appointed to judgeships.