Tacoma, WA – On Friday, August 30, about 20 people gathered in person and online to celebrate the 54th anniversary of the historic Chicano Moratorium, at an event hosted by Freedom Road Socialist Organization. The commemoration was held in a community organizing space shared by the Black Panther Party of Washington, 350 Tacoma, La Resistencia and other local groups.

The event kicked off with a presentation by local organizer Jami Cortez. During the presentation, the history of the events that led up to the moratorium where highlighted.

Cortez stated, “By the late 1960s, the people’s movements were mobilizing in masses to stop the 1955-1975 U.S. war of aggression in socialist Vietnam. There was a common anti-war sentiment growing among the Mexican American community that was made evident by a multitude of demonstrators chanting, ‘Our struggle is not in Vietnam but in the movement for social justice at home,’ which was a key slogan of the movement.”

The Chicano Moratorium is celebrated every year on August 29 to commemorate 30,000 Chicanos taking to the streets to demand an end to the Vietnam War. Another presenter, Talison Crosby, said “The National Chicano Moratorium Committee demanded that the funds for the Vietnam war be directed to social services, especially because Chicanos were disproportionately represented in the military draft and military deaths.”

Throughout the presentation, speakers highlighted the similarities between the struggle that oppressed Chicanos faced due to the Vietnam War and the struggle people face due to the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

“The U.S. always invades for the same reason: profit and power,” said Gemini Gnull, a local organizer with Freedom Road Socialist Organization. “I'm Osage, and the U.S. stole and invaded our land for profit, just like they annexed Aztlan for profit, and how they enable Israel to steal Palestinian land for profit. Always the working people who live on and care for the land are thrown into the proverbial meat-grinder whether that be reservations, drafts, or outright carpet-bombing.”

Gnull was part of the March on the DNC, which happened earlier last month to protest the genocide in Gaza, among other things. “Just like the Chicanos took to the streets to demand their tax dollars be used to help them, not to murder them through needless war, we took to the streets to demand an end to US aid to Israel. These bogus wars don't serve us – Chicanos knew that in the 70s and we know that today too.”

The event was closed out by many people mingling, laughing and eating while making plans for future action in Tacoma around immigration justice and Chicano liberation.

“I feel so immensely proud and lucky that I get to introduce today’s event being a mixed race Mexican and African American person myself,” emcee Xanat Romo explained. Romo is a local student organizer, member of FRSO, and founder of School of the Arts (SOTA) Students for a Democratic Society chapter, at that high school. “It is my sincerest hope that by celebrating the Chicano Moratorium, we can preserve this important history both for the future generations ahead of us and for ourselves, so that we may continue to fight the good fight, carry on the work of activists from that time, and remember what it is and who it is we’re fighting for.”

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