East Los Angeles, CA – On Saturday, August 24, around 200 Chicano activists and community members came out to Rúben Salazar Park to commemorate the 54th anniversary of the Chicano Moratorium.

The coalition united under the demands of Chicano self-determination, free Palestine, no U.S./NATO wars, community control of the police, and no to charter schools. The organizations involved had been working together all summer using public planning meetings and broad outreach to unite and bring the community out for these demands.

At the original Chicano Moratorium on August 29, 1970, tens of thousands of Chicanos marched through the streets of East LA to protest the Vietnam War and the disproportionally high rate of Chicano deaths during the war. When the protesters arrived at Laguna Park (now Salazar Park), the East LA Sheriffs and other law enforcement tear gassed and brutally attacked them. They killed Lyn Ward, Angel Díaz and Rúben Salazar, a civil rights activist and Los Angeles Times journalist who covered the Chicano movement and reported on police crimes.

Saturday’s event was led by Centro CSO with the support of Union del Barrio, Los Rucos, La Raza Unida Party, and other allied organizations. Food Not Bombs supplied free food to the event and vendors sold Chicano books, art, and merchandise.

One attendee, Michael Zarni, is a 73-year-old veteran and resident of Boyle Heights who was sent to Vietnam to fight from 1969 to 1973. Zarni reflected on how his 19-year-old brother was killed in the war, “My brother paid the highest price for going to the war – his life. He lost his life for nothing.”

“Our fight is not just about the past but about the present and for a better future for liberation,” said Karina Lopez, one of the lead organizers from Centro CSO and co-emcee of the event. “The struggle for Chicanx self-determination continues.”

Emily Ordaz, whose father was killed by the East LA Sheriffs in 2021 while he was experiencing a mental health crisis, connected past and present struggles for Chicanos in her speech. “The Chicano Moratorium, particularly the strength and unrelenting fight against the oppression Chicanos were facing in East LA remains,” said Ordaz, co-chair of Centro CSO’s police accountability committee. “We must highlight the sheer similarity of the violence, harassment and intimidation that was faced then, continuing through today.”

Diana Terreros from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) summarized what it means to be Chicana: “We have our own culture, a shared economy, and language distinct from that of Mexico and the rest of the United States, making us our own nation.”

A central theme of the protest was the ongoing U.S.-funded genocide in Palestine, which has killed over 40,000 Palestinians since October. Kareem Youssef from the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) drew the connections between reporters in Palestine being killed and Rúben Salazar being killed. Youssef said, “Ruben Salazar was a journalist who called for government and police accountability, and they say he was not intentionally targeted. With full impunity and material support from the U.S., Israel has killed at last 160 journalists and media workers in the last ten months, the largest number in history. And it is intentional – to suppress the truth, to kill our journalists, our activists, our medics, and anyone with a vision of uniting against injustice.”

Lopez emphasized that, “From Aztlán to Palestine, we are fighting a common enemy which is U.S. imperialism. We are in solidarity with Palestinians fighting to live freely from oppression as we fight our own oppressors at home, like the sheriffs and LAPD.”

Carlos Montes, co-chair of Centro CSO’s education committee and a founding member of the Brown Berets, spoke about the struggles against the privatization of public education in East LA. A participant in the original Moratoriums, Montes highlighted how the 1968 East LA Walkouts helped inspire more Chicano activism.

Other speakers at the 54th Chicano Moratorium included Desiree Gaytan and Adriana Jasso of Union del Barrio, Ernesto Ayala and Vanessa Bustamente from La Raza Unida Party, and Rafael Avitia of La Mesa Brown Berets, who spoke on different aspects of Chicano identity and political movements. Lupe Carrasco of the Association of Raza Educators gave a speech about how Zionists are attacking Chicano teachers for their solidarity with Palestine.

After these speeches, two Chicano hip hop groups – Kozmik Force and Los Magos – performed a series of songs that highlighted the struggles of Chicanos today and called for solidarity with Palestine.

The event then ended with chants for Chicano, Chicana and Chicanx power and “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes!”

#LosAngelesCA #ChicanoLatino #ChicanoMoratorium #OppressedNationalities #CentroCSO #UniondelBarrio #LosRucos #LaRazaUnida #LaMesaBrownBerets #USPCN #FRSO