INTRODUCTION recognize farmavorker union leader César Chavez because the United Farm Workers Continues to organize workers into the present day and because his untimely death raised the farmworker leader's stature. In addition, the mes sage and goals af the farm-warker movement transcended those of the other Chicana leaders whose appeal was wiclespread mainly within the historical contest of that petiod. Bul the Chicano Movement indeed ushered in a new era. Iwas a time when young people from ‘nic and mainstreany groups in vatiows parts of the country sought to express their hopes for the country. In the history of the US., no other era ‘embodies the rise af youthful self-conscious ideale ism, The period produced « generation thal ques ioned the premises and values sacred to their parents, te fac ay is unclear, was “don't trust anyone over thirty Young, white Americans, usually miellle class and living. in large urban concentrations, partiei- pated in a counterculture which they expressed! in art and in pabitics, The most visible representatives ‘the counterculture were known as “hippies But the counterculture contained more peace proclaiming “iower children” whose mecca was the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco, For the frst time, young Americans fel Cconticlent in themselves and liberated fram the ideological constiaints which had hamstrung ree discourse since the end of World War la periog dominated by the Cold War. In their liberation, many turned to a unique brand pf Amencan radi- cal polities, The seeds of this phenomenon were partially sown by the "beatniks” of the 1950s, such as Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassidy and Allen Ginsherg, These intellectual rebels detined a uniquely American anti-eslablishment critique. They had indicted a silent generation” of Americans whose race for the “good lie" resulted in banality: and unques. joning conformity: They believed that Cold War politics silenced iree expression ancl stile! lifestyles which did not conform to all-American models, This 1950s phenomenon mushroomed into a huge movement in the subsequent decade, One (the first indications of this mavement emerged al the Unversity of Calitornia Berkeley in a tery pest called the “Tree Speech Movement.” Led by Mario Savio, an undergraduate student at the time, this activity questioned the premises of the conventional curriculury in mainstream institu tions of higher education, Savio and his associates attracted hundreds of Berkeley stuclents to teach ins designed to raise consciousness and stimulate free thinkin} Indeed, the Cold War mentality of the 1950s had sliled academic learning. Few professors many’ of swhony sere products of the postwar world, dared ar wanted %0 question the American system, Nonetheless, some academics, such asSHIGANO! Marxist scholar Herbert Marcuse at the University 1 Calffarnia-Sari Diego, wwelcanted the burgeon: ing intellectual ferment and served as its mentor The restless young, hoxwever, die not study or apply a strict Marxist prescription to the ills they protested against. Rather, they chose an eclectic and vague but strident vision of reform, The Black civil rights movement alse chal- lenged the system. served as a catalyst to the arest of young people who wondered how the ideals of democracy and equality, or which the nation supposedly stood, could exist alongside the repression of racial minorities. In the universi« ty environment, ights movement encountered a more comfortable environment in which to conduct its work Such a heady mix was hound to inspire Mexi= ‘can American youth, who in high-sehoo! and col lege mall o discussed *he condition af their people, whom they knaw had been repressed, They rellected the new cansciousness in the common language of the time: the enemy became the Establishment and! ils Supposed minions were the oker Mexican, American political leaders, But lor many future activists, the path ta politicization did not directly result irom the jelentitication of their own people as an appresset! minarity to the degree that was. current among African-American activists, Three reasons accounted far this, One, the media and white liberals were not as interested in Mexica American issues as they were in the abhortent treatment of Blacks, especially in the South. Two, in the Mexican American era of civil rights strug fe, the extent of racism and oppression was either denied or masked over by an overly opt mistic appraisal of access te the U.S. opportunity structure. Three, a common notion was that Mexi ‘can Americans did not suffer fram the same racism to which Black Americans were subjected, Thus, for many future Chicano activists, the Black civil rights steugale was crucial in persuad- neighborhood rap sessions exciteslly ing them to pur tue the path that eventually ledl then to the movinniento. Many made the decision lo help Blacks as if Mexican Americans did not need to engage in a similar struggle, ln the early 1960s, hallmark years for the Airican American civil rights movement, Maria Varela, who became aan active Chicana Movement paxticipant in New Mexico during the late 1960s, joined the National Stuclent Association, which worked hand in hand with the Student Non-violent Coordinating Com miiee (SNCC1. [tas not until she met Rekes Lopez Tijerina in 1966 that she stared to turn her energies to Chicano activism. Carlos Mufioz, now 4 professor al Berkeley and a founder oF the 19605 United Mexican American Students IUMAS) af California State College Los Ar remembers, "When lavas at Cal Slate LA and working with SNC and other civil rights organizations, all of a sudden in my mind i saiel Wail, what am I doing?. .. We've got our awn revolution, . We don't have civil rights... Thats when we started organizing. The Black civil rights movement served also to teach strategies to Mexic Farmavorker leader Cé the Chicano Movement feader who came the Closest to projecting 4 Martin Luther King image, acknowledges the iniluence of that monumental American figure, In an interview taken just be‘arc he passed away, he was asked how much intlue fence King, had on hin, smericans activists, Chavez, for example, lol... Although he wasn't known around the meutsarios ard svikces, They dint see aimed & ft irom hin th what he Git. | $9 | nO what he wes ugh... got ta know him and we ne Fiend. Art| bagan to se=—1 got 1 goane of the things he was was an organiz Ise looked to hie Nat the was doing icans recognizing the hasking,oppression of Black Americans looked al their ‘own condition, they fst attended to those who. appeared the most repressed—the poverty-sitick en farm workers who had been completely bypassed by the good life of the 1930s and 1960s, Lionel Steinberg, a farmer in the Coachel la Valley in California, acknowledged this in a recent interview: Inthe 1 tunaraly wer 3 and 19606, ‘arn workers u 2 considered just tern like fertilizers gow raors with ary eegres so there there] were legit ‘natura by workers Moreover, youthtul discontent rose with the ‘escalation af American invalwement in the Viet ram conflict, As the U.S, committed resources and humao lives to the was, which had been unpopular étom the beginning, American youth ecame disenchanted, World War Il lesser degree the Korean conflict, hae brought out {general patriotic fervor among Americans: Vie nam diel not, Many Chicano youths shared the Jing antiwar sentiment that permeated the country, As it became evident that war casualties came trom the working class, Chicanos began to view this bias from a nationalistic-racial perspec live: Chicanos and minorities carried the burden of the war, The antiwar effort became 3 crucial issue that gave the movimiento impetus. Cultural cenewal and the search for identity became pivotal parts of the overall 196Us amb tence, The flower childeen, young, people who committed themselves fo canmmunal living and sharing everything from food to sex, were the most ardent representatives of this cultural tans formation. While a minority, these “hippies” had {an impact an the rest af society. Chicano culture ikewise was becaming transformed, and main: stream Mexican Anterican society was aitected— consciously andl unc In essence, challenges to racial conformity Introduction Uvived. African-American civil right leaders and their white liberal allies softened much of the American public to a tolerant positic aging a more aggressive stance on the part of those who wanted to protest everything racism to the war, Bul the youth movement also niluenced the cullural clieection Americans were taking, Fulltime professionals, callege students sand even working-class adulis whe continued to lead conformist lives sported longer hair, mus taches, beards and an exuberant slower laden mod” dress. This does not mean there was no resistance to change. As happened in the American Souths when Blacks escalated their demands tor desegre gation and wating rights, government oificials resorted fo repression when antiestablishnient activities seemed to threaten the status quo. In the ‘test, police, the national guard, the FBL and other enforcers were employed to suppress mnanifestatians of discontent. They oiten acted violently, Chicano activists, especially in Las Angeles, where the head of the classical man. ilestations of the spavinvienta resided, were treat ed likewise. The white counterculture was suppressed as well. albeit not as violently. It was undoubtedly more difficult to use violence on micklle-class white youngsters than on brown and black protesters, Still, as was seen at Berkeley and at Kent State times. Throughout the sixties and in the early sev centies, denouncement af youthful radicals was constant, and even President Nixon averreacted to the perceived threat. In 1968 Congressman Joe Pool, a member of the House Committee on Un American Activities, spoke for many Americans who disapproved of the undeground newspapers that had mushroomed among dissident youth: initial years c whites met with fierce repression at Thase smut sheets are today’s W rabilty and ity and inesponsility, and they nutunSHIGANO! 9 the of the ontinued capaci ‘coneluct an orlerly anc con How white and African-American protest fits into this era of social ur known to) most Americans because it has been documented time and time again in both the print and elec st is fia. However, the story ol the Mewican American civil rights strugale in the 1960s and the 1970s is practically untold, That the Chicano Movement did not leave the same legacy as the Black civil rights movement and its Promethean Martin Luther King is not because of ils relative lack af importance, Perhaps the Chicana Move- ment was nol as central to Anveriean conscious plight of Mexican Americans ss recognized as the sin of slavery, Per ness because the was not haps it was too fragmented and diel not coalesce around the figure of a dynamic religious leader Pechaps it was not as well covered by the media because so much ofits ideas and grassroots orga: nizing, was expressed in the Spanish language. Or perhaps if was because Mexican Americans were still viewed as foreigners In the throes 10 activity, while participants agreed on the need for militancy ithe main unifying variable), they were in constant dis agreement on ideology, long.term stra choice of representative movement symbols, [9 many ways this internal intellectual struggle is what made the movement attractive and exciting Just as ef movimiento did not follow a strate- « ple ignated leaders, In fact, César Chavez, who led the United Farm Workers (UPW'r Rees Lopez Tijerina, foundler of the movement to reclaim land grants, the Alianza Federal de las Mercedes: and Rodlalto “Corky” Gonzales, leader of the Crusade for Justice, did not have the slightest premonition They would become leading symbols of the Chi ano Movement, av coherent ideology, it diel not have des The issues addressed by the movimiento were nol as broadly defined as the integration strugale for Blacks, For example, even thou fh activists used walkouts to bring, attention to educationa’ inequities, the unclerlying nature of these prob= Jems dltferee! irony region to region as did the solutions that were sought. In the inner city schools of East Los Angeles, where de facto segre: zation created an almost exelusive Mexican American stuslent body activists compared the poorly lunded barrio schools with eelucational institutions in afi areas of the city and its suburban communities The walkout ip Crystal City, Texas, where all stuc dents regardless af race, attended the same high school, stemmed from blatant unequal treatment of Anglos and Mexicans within the school itself These, Mexican American participation in lexttacucricular symbols af success, such as cheer was limited through quotas, In Phoenis, ‘walked oul of Phoenix Union High School to protest de facta segregation and inade quate funding. But here the constant racial ten= sion between Mexican Americans and Black stu dlents had provided the impetus for action, Besides a lamentable educational system, the Chicano Movement was stimulated by many other issues such as racism, economic deprivation ality. A crucial part of mobilization revolved around the issue of identity and racial pride, These had been important in Mexico, where European racial asthotics had predominat fed among a population where the majority was oi Indian ancestry, Aiter the Mexican Revolution of 1410, official policy tended to molity racial denial, Class affiliation and cultural homogeneity regardless of race although itis stil a significant problem in that country Mexicans in the U.S., however, have hadl 10 deal with a more acute sense of what is racially acceptable than in Mexico because of more intense and qualitatively different Anglo-American racism, Adelitionally, extreme ethnic differences Mexicans front Anglo- Americans exe- eshated prejudice. The Chicano Movement cor onted «acism and racial self-hate heacl on, using, somewhat softened racismthe slagan *brenwn is beautiful” and promoting an allegiance and affection to Indian-mestizo physi cal features, A virulent culty to be an integral part af the movioriento although its expression differed depending on regian, Spurring the Chicano Moxement was a per ception that Mexicans living in the United States encountered repressive conditions that needed rectification, Indeed, the raison detre of the movement was the conviction that mainstream, society was prejucliced against Mexicans because ff cultural antipathy and because they were This notion paralleled the pos ture af the contemporary Black civil rights move ment, which in large part movement activists emulated. While the analysis was correct that Mexicans suffered irom racist appression, the causes and manifestations of this unfortunate con: dition dilfered frat those of Blacks in many respects, The legal and moral justification for demanding an end to unequal treatment resided in the founding principles oF the United States. In essence, while both Blacks ane Chicanos charged these guarantees were violated or hypoctitically never meant to include them, the specities of the violations were disparate THE FOUNDATION FOR EQUAL RIGHTS In 1776 Thomas Jefferson wrote one of the most quoted passages ever set on paper whee hu authored the document which declared indepen- dence for the thirteen calonies irom Great Britain. 10.be salt event, that ai, that they are all their Crestor wth certain Lnalienable Rights, that znong these are Lite, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. These worels hecame the foundation of a rev lution which resulted in removing the yoke of irom an ‘emerging Furopean enclave in the Americas. In the 1788 Constitution, the dacument which char tered the nes course af rernment that is still in existence today, the spirit of equality was insttu- tionalized. Phe Bill of Righls, ten amendments added alter the Constitution’ ratification, further provided basic freedoms suci as the right 10 a uty tial, protection from illegal search ane seizure aed the right to form militias and bear Jems. AS inspiring. as these intial guarantees swore, the equality they established was for a select groupt white males of property. Women, for example, were still not allowed to vote ar awn property while married. The situation was for Atrican Americans, who at the time these doc uments were created, were enslaved as private property and had no tights under the Constitution, whatsoever: These consti denied to Native Americans, whose tribes treated as separate nations while living within the borders of the emerging United States. Mesicans who lived in what became part of the United States were stil subjects of Spain in the early years of independence, The questions af what rights they would merit under equality guarantees would have to wait until the U.S. takeover of the Southwest or what was Mexico's extreme north, But even if the Founding Fathers had nat wanted to include nomshite males in this sup: posed democratic Eden, the very steucture of the Constitution and its Bill of Rights provieled the: mechanisms to include other groups. Alter the conclusion of the Civil War, the thicteenth (1865; and fourteenth (1868) amendments were added to the Bill of Rights. These constitutional changes andl provided citizenship to hundreds of thousands of foemer slaves, Similarly sional rights were also women were given broader freedoms in 1920 will the nineteenti amendment, which forbade the preventing of voting based on sex. In 1964 Congress added the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, This was the latest larreaching attempt to protect the rights af citizens, This amendment, ia essence, provided all citizens with the right to vote, disallowing obstacles such as the poll taxes designed to discourage minori ties and the poor from voting.SHIGANO! While the Bill of Rights provided former shaves white Americans balked at the ides of these man- dltes being fullilled. In an experiment known as Reconstruction, the federal government estab lished the Freedman’ Bureau to assure that for mor slaves would be accorded the freedoms designed by the amended Constitution after 186 However, the president lost their dese to caninue oversce= ing the complex transition which fiberated shaves hdl to make in a ee society. By 1877, the Freed man’s Bureau was dismantled and Reconstruction came to an end. Fierce apposition trom Southern pobticians combined with poor administiation of Reconstevction brought an end to the program. Ate this, former slaves were al the mercy of white dominated state and local governments which lost no time in cismanti sins Aiican Americans had made during Reconstruc tion. A series of Jim Crow laws were established to ascure severe segregation of Blacks in public facilities, transportation and schools, These same laws also prevented Airican Americans fram vole ediom and the righls of citizens, many within a few short years, Congress and ing, Poll taxes, intimidation and grandiathe clauses. to vote, a person had 10 have had a sgranclfather who voted _ kept former slaves from the polls. To assure social compliance, a reign of tettor was unleashed! on Blacks, in which vio. ence became a favorite tactic. The infamous Khu Klux Klan spread throughout the South as the main enforcer, Thousands af Blacks were maimed or lynched for violating the social contract expected by whites, Black leaders were aware that the constitu: tions abrogated, so they resisted as best they could. Airican Americans knew that the nation’s courts could decide i guarantees in the U.S, Constitution were bel honored: so in 1896 a man named Plessy cha. enged thraugh the court the seg Airican-Americans in the New Orleans train sys tem, He won the case in a lower court but sppealed the decision to the highest court, The guarantees were bein Supreme Court in a critical cecision decided seg. regation was as lang as “separate but equal” facilities were provided for Blacks. This provieled the foundation for a system of apartheid, and while facilities provided Blacks were sepa rate, they were far fram heing equal Airican Ameticans aclapted to this system oF apartheid, protesting periodically, In the nventieth rowever, as modernization and urbaniza- tion provoked a massive migration of Blacks from the rural South to the North, the Airican-Amer ‘can aspitations rase, provoking, an i righls movement that challenged and eventually tended “Jim Crow" legal codes. In 1954 Aiican Americans won at landmark decision when lawyers working for the National Association for the Advancement af Colored People (NAACP. won a favorable decision from the Supreme Court in a case where a Topeka, Kansas, student named Linda Brown sued the Board of Education of that city’s school system to desegregate the schools This milestone decision reversed the Plessv vs Furgeson case that had served for more than halt a century to ensure legal segregation and disc rity atian, The caurl, under Chiet justice Fat! War ren, ruled that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal” has nv place Separate educational facilities ace inherently unequal.” Individual states were then called upon by the court to integrate the schools “with deliber ate speed This achievement provoked an intense move. ment by Black to demanc an end to the now unconstitutional seg tioned! denial of equal rights, This movement pro: duced great historical figures, such as Mastin Luther King Jr have properly earned heroic status, Mexican Americans and other minorities in this country new immigrants” eastern and southern Furopeans), Native Americans, Puerta have also hadl to struggle to abtain the lofty ideals af equality that were sotloquently put forth by the Constitution's framers. As will be scen in the beginning chaptess o¥ this text, Mexican Americans have struggled for Civil Fights inthe United States since the micenineteenth century. In recent yeats, Mexican Americans have joined in the struggle to achieve the promises eviclent in the documents discussed above: the Decla- ration of Independence, the founding Constitution and the ensuing Bill of Rights. But as indicated, the pariculaes of denying Mexican Ameri cans these rights difered from those of the Black experience, As shall be seen in the allensing pages, the conditions that fed to the inequality 6 Mexican Americans sre stecped first in « legacy of conquest and then in labor exploitation ith litle regard to their weltace. RACE AND MEXICANS Historians have pointed to numerous examples in which Mexicans were cast as undesitable because of their Indian features. Is also true that eastern ancl southern Europeans and even the Irish were treated with a similar hostility when they first arrived in the U.S, The image of extreme poverty, exacerbated by cultural differences, was what Anglo Americans found mast abjectianahle in the case af the white immigrants The construction of Mexicans as a race apadt by white Americans, however, was very much different itom the projudives held against the European ethnic groups. While rm descendants ‘any new inntigrants and their re loaked upon with racist disdain, as John Higham pointed out in his classic book an immigration, Strangers fa the Land, that designation changed considerably in the post-World War I period. The descendants of the "new immigrants” have largely assim! lated and acquired economic parity while Mexicans —along with Black and Native Americans and most other Latin Americans of colar—have not According to such scholars as Amuldo De Leén, David Weber, Ray und Paredes ane Cecil Robinson, to name but a few, beginning with the initial contacts with Mexicans an the frontier in the nineteenth cen. tury, Anglo-Americans exhibited contempt for the mixed-race Mexicans. During the process of annexation and conquest of what became the U.S, Southwest, this initial contempt turned to full-blowe racism. David Weber indicates thal, when the U.S. acquired Lousiana 1803) and Florida (1821), the Hispai 10m Anglos met there were mainly white. Few Hispanics owned vast tracts of land, and competition and violence were thus minimal in that area, As a consequence, the Anglos diel not viliy the Hispanics of the Southeast, But the Anglos dd Introduction Mexican] rave is per 10 'g conquered, and only new lesson me sha! teach is that 0% victors will evo berry, safety, ane prosperty 19 the vangushed, if they know enough To ‘Iberate by the porter edtoral 26a, nat to castaye anc dlebase is our mission ve ist histerians| ne weason all of annexed hadi to do with the race question. For ‘example, the Richmond hig ectteraized during this perad, "We hawe far re to dread trom the acquisition of a deoasee population whe have een ea summary manutsctured in American etizens than to nope from the exten: sion of our tortorSHICANO! despise the racial mixture of northern Mexicans, deeming it a mongrelizatian of the lenvest arder. And by subordinating northers Mexicans as inte- rior, they buill up a case for appropriating their lands, even through vialence, Since then, Anglos have perceived Hispanie sociely in the Southwest in very negative terms As the nineteenth century progressed, he fr, Anglos and Mexicans learned to live with each other and, in fact, relations improved, but with the rise of large-scale immigration at the turn af the century and the rise of border violence during fhe Mexican Revolution, acrimony towards Mex cans was revived with a ven) The racial animsity that begins early in the sinetcentis century, while showing sume signs af abatement as the century came tan end, was. resurrected as more anid mote Anglos settled slong the long, contiguous border with Mexie. in this century, proximity to Mexico, massive immigration of undocumented poor people frory Mexico, their continued use as cheap labor, drug smuggling across the harder ane! constant reminders of corruption in Mexican polities racialized Mexicans even further Historian Carl Degler, in Neither Black Nor White, compares the experience of Blacks in Brazil with those in the U.S. He concludes that lighter skinned Brazilian Negroes, known as uaa, experienced less racism than their darker neathers. To protect this advantage, anulatos dis- tanced themselves from the blacker African Brazilians with the eitect of muting a potential nationwide eivi rights movement. In contrast light-skinned Aricarn-Americans in the U.S. did not achieve such preterential treakment. This fact nities Atrican-Amerieans to sucls & degree that they’ have launched! one of the most massive ‘ongoing civil rights strugales in the history of the worl in contrast, prior to the ascendancy ofthe movinyiento, the Mexican American civil rights movement hac not succeeded in dramatizing publicizing the plight of Mexican America Facial injustice to the degree that Black activists had throughout this century, The very weight of Black civil rights efforts in the ncidience that, even for future movin rocities against the Negro provided the first pangs of outrage which servce ta raise a consciousness that was necessary hefare iento activists, Chicanos took the first steps into activism, One reason that Mexican Americans did not dramatize their plight as cilectively as Blacks was that they enjayed an escape hate like the one Degler described tor Blacks in Brazil. Those Mex icans who were not directly impacted by extreme doses of racial prejudice e they lived, their class or the colar of their skin—were able to ignore the plight of their more subor dinated brothers, But as members from the mare subordinated Mexican classes in the U.S, became educ became a grassroots effort known as the Chicano Movement This hook is dlesignesl to accompany a televi sion documentary series also called Chicana! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights ovement, which strives to remind not only stu dents hut the natian that, during the turbulent 1960s, Chicanos also struggled for justice ancl equality. A mission of this book, like the docu: mentary, is 1p recansttuct the classical ere of the Chicano Movement the period trom about 1965 10 1975, But this cannot be done without provid ing a historical context. The movimiento did not because of whe ted, the quest for civil rights appear in a vacuum. It wats intricately anchored ina history linked 0.4 past of civil rights struggles, ‘waged by Mexican people in the U.S. since the rch nineteenth century. This is litle known to most Americans, In the early movimiento days, young Chicanos made the mistake of assuming, that the effort 1o end discrimination, prejudice and subordination hegan with the Chicana Move ment. What the movimiento did was to accelerate concerns previously articulated by Mexicans in the US, and it intensified a style of consronta tional protest thal premovement activists w already employing ar had emplayed in the past. Just as important, it ceinvigorated the Mexican American quest to identify and assert @ positive place in American socie's To capture such a history the book designates four episodes af the Mexican civil rights strug in the United States. Chapter One features efforts of the “lostland” generation (Southwest Mexican natives! to stem praperty losses, maintain theculture and assert civil rights given them by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo after the U.S. takeover of the Southwest in the mithnineteenth century: The secand portion, Chaplets Two to Five, studies attempts by Mexican immigrants in the early part of this century to protect themselves, ron a hostile American public. In the etfort to sardl their civil rights, an elaborate Mexico Pretty Mexico’ nationalism emerged that immigrants used to rally araund issues of repres- sion, This process was aided and abetted by the Mexican government, Chapters Sis and Seven look at the optimistic Mexican Ame cf the first generation of children who dic not have ties to Mexico. Not only did this generation demand the civil rights to which they were enti tledl, but they also strove to acculturate to Anglo- American culture without turning toeir backs on their Mexican heritage. In addition, Mexican Americans in this era made the greatest akempts to empower themselves as workers, The final and most lengthy section of the book looks at the most important outgrossd Mexican American generation: the Chicano Movement. While this generation remained com: mitted to the ideals of the Mexican American era, it eealized that the promises which propelled opt Lind ‘an generation made up primarily Introduction mism in the previous generation had evaporated The movimiento is assessed within the context of the previous manifestations because, in the forme andl identity, t bosrowed, some times unconsciously, from past ideals while at the same time reflecting the general discontent that peemeated contemporary America, Its specifica ly these chapters, Fight to Fourteen, which relate rast directly to the dlacumentary film series, Ch Ii 1992 Peter Torres Js, San Antonio-haserd Mexican American legislator and political orga pizee who opposed La Raza Unda Party, was interviewed by the exvcutive coproducer of the Chicano! docunientary series, ilinynaker Jestis Trevino. In the frst question Trevino, obviously interested in gaining information on the move. iment era, asked! Torres for his insig activism of the late sixties and to expound such figures as César Chavez and Reies Lopez Tijerina, Torres immediately shot back, "Yeah, There was certainly a lat of activism that had been going around prior to that” and then cited the Viva Kennedy campaigns, the formation of Political Association of Spanish-Speaking Organi zations (PASO) and the Crystal City Hall takeower prior to the rise of La Raza Unida Party in 1963