Denver community marches for Chicano Moratorium
Denver, CO – On the evening of August 29, over 100 people rallied in front of the Colorado State Capitol building for the 55th anniversary of the Chicano Moratorium.
Chants like “When Chicanos are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” and “¡Se ve, se siente! ¡El pueblo esta presente!” could be heard as the crowd marched downtown to the federal immigration court building.
In 1970, tens of thousands of Chicano’s flooded the streets of Los Angeles to call for an end to the Vietnam War due to the disproportionate number of deaths among Chicanos compared to other soldier demographics. They were met with brutal repression, hundreds of arrests and three murders by the police.
Now, in 2025, Coloradans remember and honor Chicanos, Latinos and the Chicano Moratorium by taking to the streets to demand an end to deportations and private prison contracts with ICE.
“We will continue to fight for our liberation to this very day because we still face many of the same issues that we did back then,” said Brandon Gehrke, a member of Aurora Unidos CSO.
Protesters carried Palestinian flags alongside Mexican and United Farmworkers flags as several speakers from other organizations connected struggles within the United States and across the globe, highlighting the importance of fighting together for collective liberation.
“It goes to show that the strength of our movements together – labor, the fight against the police and the FBI, the Chicano struggle, the students fighting for free speech and expression of opinions, the immigrant rights struggle, and the anti-war struggle – just like in the original Moratorium – are all connected,“ Kyle Burroughs, of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, stated, “When we come together at actions like this, we can win all that we demand!”