Los Angeles, CA – On Saturday, February 7, Centro Community Service Organization (CSO) alongside allies like La Mesa Nacional de Brown Berets and La Raza Unida Party held a protest at Mariachi Plaza demanding ICE out of Aztlán.

Called in commemoration of the 178th anniversary signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the protest connected President Trump’s current attacks on immigrants to the long history of oppression that Chicanos have experienced within the United States.

Signed on February 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War and transferred most of Northern Mexico – including the current states of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and California, as well as parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Wyoming – to the United States. Mexico also relinquished all claims to Texas. However, as speakers emphasized, the signing of the treaty also gave birth to the Chicano Nation and its long history of resistance.

Carlos Montes, a founder of the Brown Berets and a member of Centro CSO and Freedom Road Socialist Organization kicked off the rally by describing how he attended the First National Chicano Youth Liberation Conference in 1969 and heard the declaration of the Plan Espiritual de Aztlán. This experience helped him understand how the Chicano people were an oppressed nation within the United States.

Verita Topete, a co-chair of CSO’s immigration committee and one of the rally’s two emcees alongside Liza Peña from the Brown Berets, spoke about how the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo resulted in Latino working-class communities being pushed out, policed, and othered, the same abuse many are facing now, in a different form.

Julie Regalado, a member of Centro CSO’s education committee, spoke about the attacks on students who have been peacefully protesting against the inhumane ICE Raids. Regalado said of the students, “It's their right to come out and march.”

Ernesto Ayala of La Raza Unida Party, whose father Jenaro Ayala designed an Aztlan flag, spoke about growing up within the Chicano movement and rallied the crowd to continue fighting back. Juan Parrino of Los Rucos denounced “Hispanic” ICE agents as traitors unworthy of being deemed Chicano for their attacks on immigrant communities.

Luis Sifuentes of Centro CSO’s Police Accountability Committee spoke about their main demand, which is community control of police due to the brutality, murders and institutions that harm Chicanos in Boyle Heights.

Jag Arreola, a hip hop artist and one of the Justice 8, closed the first part of the program by performing a series of songs denouncing U.S. imperialism and attacks on immigrants.

The protesters then took over First Street, the route connecting the working-class community of Boyle Heights to downtown Los Angeles. Chicanos from Boyle Heights and East LA, whose labor keeps the city running, have historically had to travel across the Los Angeles River to downtown and other more affluent parts of LA to find work.

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