San José, CA – On August 31, CSO San José, the Brown Berets and others held the annual Chicano Moratorium commemoration, a historic event when over 30,000 Chicanos marched in 1970 against the war in Vietnam to demand justice for their communities. This significant moment in Chicano history highlighted the disproportionate deaths of Chicano soldiers abroad, as well as the struggle for equality and self-determination at home.

Activists honored this legacy with a march and rally in San Jose, starting at Mexican Heritage Plaza and a march to Amigos de Guadalupe Center. During the rally, speakers touched on the Chicano national identity and movement.

Jessica Aviles, of CSO San José, spoke on what it means to be Chicano. Aviles noted, “Chicanos are a people stuck between two cultures that don’t fit in either place, because a new culture has been created.” As part of the program, Aviles listed the main demands as legalization for all, an end to the deportations, no ICE in San José and freeing Ulises Peña López from Golden State Annex detention center.

“We have our roots in the Chicano Liberation movement,” stated Lyla Salinas of the San José District of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. “Our predecessor, the August 29th movement, a Chicano Marxist-Leninist organization, came out of the Chicano Moratorium.”

Samantha Rojas, of Latinas Contra Cancer stated, “In San José, we have always carried that spirit. From the days of the Chicano student walkouts at Roosevelt and San José High, to the farmworker strikes, to the struggles led by our elders in Mayfair and East San José-our city has been a heartbeat of Chicano organizing.” Rojas continued, “it is our responsibility to carry that flame forward.”

Long time Chicano activist Carlos Padilla, of Black Berets for Justice, connected the acts of police brutality that protesters faced in the Chicano Moratorium with to ongoing police brutality in San José, “We have never been able to rely on SJPD, the reason I'm a Black Beret is because SJPD has harassed me and my community.”

At the Center, Carlos Montes, veteran Chicano activist and co-founder of the Brown Berets did a presentation on the Chicano Moratorium, speaking to the importance of international solidarity against imperialism and calling for Chicano self-determination.

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