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.

#SanJoseCA #CA #OppressedNationalities #ImmigrantRights #CSO #BrownBerets #BBJ

San Jose, CA – On Saturday, June 22, around 200 people gathered in Saint James Park to celebrate the first San Jose Peoples’ Pride.. The event focused primarily on reclaiming the radical militant origins of Pride.

Drusie Kazanova of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization emceed the event and started the program by saying, “We are here today to take back the radical, militant origins of pride. We do not align with the corporations and politicians who try to co-opt our movement while they enable the genocide that Israel is committing against Palestinians.” She emphasized the importance of calling out mainstream Pride celebrations’ ties with genocidal politicians and corporations, such as Lockheed Martin and Nancy Pelosi.

Kazanova added, “Pride is a commemoration and celebration of the Stonewall uprising of 1969. Stonewall was a response to police violence, state repression, and systemic homophobia and transphobia.”

Kazanova finished by drawing parallels between the struggle against police brutality, for the full equality of LGBTQ people, and for a free Palestine, saying, “The oppressed peoples of this world have a common enemy in U.S. imperialism. Our struggles are interconnected. Every blow against our common enemy weakens U.S. imperialism and brings us closer to our collective liberation.”

Tarentz Charite, Haitian-American and member of Students for a Democratic Society, closed the program by speaking about the similarities between the struggles of Caribbean nations and Palestine in fighting against imperialism and neo-colonial foreign policy. “The Dominican Republic receives military training and violent border technology from the Zionist regime of Israel,” Charite stated, emphasizing the direct role that Israel plays in the national oppression of not only Palestine, but other nations as well.

The event was organized by a coalition made up of Students for a Democratic Society, Freedom Road Socialist Organization and Silicon Valley Immigration Committee, along with other organizations

After the program, San Jose Peoples' Pride continued for several hours with live DJs, bands, resource tables and vendors. Organizations present included the local San Jose Brown Berets Chapter, Food Not Bombs, and Justice for Palestinians. Amigos de Guadalupe, a local immigrant’s rights organization, sold tacos to fundraise for their campaign to update and restore immigration registry (HR 1511).

Organizers plan to hold San Jose Peoples’ Pride annually in order to build the popular movement for LGBTQ liberation and create a people-powered, community-oriented pride that prioritizes LGBTQ liberation over the corporate interests.

#SanJoseCA #CA #LGBTQ #Pride #FRSO #SDS #BrownBerets #FoodNotBombs #AmigosDeGuadalupe

Colorado Springs, CO – On November 5 and 6, the Colorado Springs People’s Coalition organized two days of noise demonstrations that sent a powerful message that Colorado Springs stands in solidarity with all Palestinians in their struggle for freedom. The Colorado Autonomous Brown Berets and Partido Nacional de La Raza Unida also endorsed the event, showcasing the unity between the Palestinian and Chicano people.

The rally held on Sunday, November 5, coincided with a larger march in Denver, a day after the national march on Washington DC. The crowd gathered outside of Senator John Hickenlooper’s downtown office, waving Palestinian flags and holding signs of support for Palestine. Palestinian music played as the crowd proclaimed their demands for an end to U.S. aid to Israel, and a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. Several activists spoke movingly about the history of apartheid in Palestine, as well as the urgency of stopping the rapidly escalating genocide.

The crowd then marched several blocks to Senator Michael Bennet's office. As they walked, they chanted and sang messages of freedom, while distributing educational flyers to counter Zionist misinformation. At the second office, they expressed anger at the ongoing support given to Israel even as that country's military commits atrocities against the Palestinian people. The calls to end lethal aid were joined with demands that the money instead be sent to Gaza, where people are still without food or water while Israel continues its indiscriminate bombing campaign. Sunday’s rally concluded with a moment of silence for the victims of genocide.

On Monday, November 6, the crowd showed their support of the Palestinian cause as they gathered outside the two senators’ offices for a second day. This day was harder for staffers to ignore, as they had to walk past the protesters to enter or leave the building for work. Speakers included Hatem Teirelbar of Students for a Democratic Society, Palestinian-American activist Alex Khoury, and several local people of conscience who expressed solidarity with the people of Palestine, as well as admiration for their courage in the face of unrelenting oppression.

“We say victory to the resistance! Because we believe a return to the norm is a return to occupation and that is unacceptable,” said Paul Nelson of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

The day ended with an expression of optimism as speakers urged the crowd not to give up. Many such struggles have been won against overwhelming odds, and the people of Palestine are sure to win their freedom.

#ColoradoSpringsCO #FreePalestine #BrownBerets #SDS

Dallas, TX – On October 5 at the Oak Cliff Cultural Center in Dallas, Carlos Montes gave a lively talk to a rapt audience of 32 people. A cofounder of the Brown Berets and organizer of the Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War, Montes’ experiences are a rich resource to today’s organizers. The historically Chicano neighborhood of Oak Cliff was a fitting setting for a talk that spanned Montes’ organizing, the origin of the Chicano nation and its right to self-determination, Black/brown unity, and the need for revolutionary organization.

Montes is currently organizing for Chicano and immigrant rights within the Legalization for All Network, and his talk was hosted by a member organization of the network, La Frontera Nos Cruzó, as well as the Dallas chapter of the Brown Berets.

When an attendee asked a question about how to balance the desire to organize with fears of police as undocumented people, La Frontera Nos Cruzó was able to promote their upcoming clinic with a leading Dallas immigration rights lawyer. The clinic will be on October 14 at 2 p.m. at the Grand Prairie Library and is open to anyone with questions about immigration.

#DallasTX #ChicanoLatino #BrownBerets #L4ANetwork #ImmigrantRights

Sacramento, CA — On June 24 La Mesa Nacional de Brown Berets held the annual Brown Berets National Gathering in Sacramento, California. Around 150 community members, organizers and Brown Berets from across the country attended the gathering.

La Mesa Brown Berets is a broad coalition of Brown Berets chapters building a united front of Brown Berets to fight for Chicano self-determination. The event took place at Southside Park, one of the places striking farmworkers marched to during the historic 1965 Delano grape strike and boycott.

A variety of organizations tabled at the event, including the Partido Nacional La Raza Unida, Auburn Hip Hop Congress, the Poor People’s Campaign, the Center for Workers Rights, the Silicon Valley Unemployed Committee, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and more. There were also food trucks, arts activities for families and children, and merchandise vendors.

Michael Ramirez, a descendant of the Konkow Maidu, Wintun, Miwok, Yurok, Hupa, and Nisenan peoples, kicked off the program by acknowledging the park as the ancestral homeland of the Nisenan people. Next came cultural musical and dance performances, followed by Brown Berets speakers from different chapters across the country, from Fresno to Denver to Chicago and Texas.

The speakers called for unity between different national liberation struggles, emphasized the need to protect and uplift Chicana women, and spoke to the importance of developing strong political movements independent of the Democrat and Republican parties.

Carlos Montes, a leader of Freedom Road Socialist Organization and one of the original founders of the Brown Berets, spoke about how the Brown Berets built a mass movement by fighting against police brutality, defending public education by organizing high school walkouts, and protesting the U.S. imperialist war in Vietnam. Montes also emphasized the right of the Chicano nation to self-determination, stating, “Organizing is the key to Chicano power.” He urged people to organize in their neighborhoods, communities, schools and workplaces.

Xochimilco Corona, a member of the Colorado Autonomous Brown Berets, discussed the importance of the Chicano moratorium and how it informed the Brown Berets’ understanding of U.S. imperialism. She also talked about how the Brown Berets were aware of the interconnectedness of all injustices, saying, “We stand up for our communities in numerous ways, anywhere from feeding the homeless, to protesting police brutality, to standing up for labor rights, migrants’ rights, immigration, and all of those things that affect our community.”

Juan Rafael Avita, a member of the Fresno Brown Berets Autonomous Chapter and Chair of La Mesa Brown Berets, highlighted the Brown Berets’ belief in militancy and the right to self-determination. He emphasized how, in addition to this, today’s Brown Berets are developing “a political line that addresses the economic and class struggle that we need to fight,” stating the importance of engaging in class struggle.

Today the Brown Berets carry on the legacy of their predecessors by fighting in many different struggles across the country. They also continue to struggle for unity across social movements, such as by building the 2nd Rainbow Coalition, and as a whole are open to revolutionary socialism.

#SacramentoCA #ChicanoLatino #BrownBerets

Milwaukee, WI – On January 20, the date of Joe Biden’s inauguration as the 46th president of the United States, the Brown Berets of Milwaukee led a rally and car caravan demanding the incoming administration take action to resolve issues regarding immigrants. The three broad demands were: 1) Put an end to the policy of family separation; 2) Close the concentration camps; and 3) Provide an immediate pathway to citizenship for the undocumented. Other demands were put forward that delved into more particular circumstances, but these three formed the thrust of the action.

Nearly 30 cars joined in the car caravan, marked up with messages of “Abolish ICE” and “Full rights for immigrants now!” The rally started at the corner of South 16th Street and National Avenue on Milwaukee’s Southside, home to a majority of the city’s Latino community. From there, the caravan traveled west to South 27th Street, where the cars stopped, and attendees gathered to hear speakers.

“Over the next 100 days, we must be relentless on our demands,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, a prominent immigrant and workers rights non-profit. “And that’s why we stand here in solidarity today, because we’re gonna make sure that [the Biden administration’s proposals] are not just promises but that we actually see some proof of many years of struggle. Sí, se puede!”

After the speeches, the car caravan rolled out once more. The route took the caravan across the bridge on 27th Street that divides the Northside from the Southside. The procession stopped just past the midway point to unfurl a banner with the demands on it. After the banner drop, the caravan made its way back to the starting point where final remarks were shared.

The Brown Berets made clear repeatedly that they look forward to working together with the various mass organizations in Milwaukee to achieve their goals and advancing the struggle of oppressed people in the city. Their message of a united front of progressive organizations is a continuation of the theme that developed over the summer uprisings. The historic narrative of segregation in Milwaukee was challenged by the mass demonstrations that brought together people of all nationalities in the fight for justice.

The continued development of unity between organizations like the Brown Berets, Voces de la Frontera, the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, among others, bodes well for the future of the movements for equality, justice and liberation in the city.

#MilwaukeeWI #PeoplesStruggles #immigrantRights #BrownBerets #VocesDeLaFrontera

Los Angeles, CA – Carlos Montes, a nationally respected leader in the Chicano, immigrant rights and anti-war movements, donated his archive collection to California State University, Los Angeles, Jan. 16.

The Montes Collection will be added to the East Los Angeles Archive, which is housed in the University’s John F. Kennedy Memorial Library.

“I selected Cal State LA Library’s East Archive to donate my personal political files from the Chicano movement because Cal State LA is a local and respected educational institution that will make them available to the community, students, professors and the general public,” said Montes.

Montes was a co-founder of the Brown Berets, a Chicano working-class youth organization in the U.S. in the late 1960s and 1970s. He was also one of the leaders of the Chicano Blowouts, a series of walkouts of East Los Angeles high schools to protest against racism and inequality in Los Angeles-area high schools. He is portrayed by Fidel Gomez in the 2006 HBO movie, Walkout.

His first submissions to the archive included issues of La Causa, the Brown Beret newspaper, flyers of the political trial for the Biltmore case, legal transcripts of the court proceedings from the East LA high school walkouts prosecution, the Los Angeles Magazine with an article featuring Carlos Montes, and the Biltmore case grand jury indictment.

“Both of the cases addressed political repression against the Chicano movement, specifically the Brown Berets and myself,” Montes explained.

The East LA Archive at Cal State – Los Angeles documents the lives and events of an historical community central to the social, political and cultural history of the Chicano and Latino community in the U.S. It collects, preserves, displays and disseminates documents, artifacts and other materials related to the social and political life of the East Los Angeles region.

“The Montes Collection is an important addition to our East LA Archive, which supports the University’s commitment to civic and community engagement and learning,” said University Librarian Alice Kawakami. “Azalea Camacho, archivist, and Romelia Salinas, librarian liaison to the University’s Department of Chicano Studies, were actively involved in helping to bring this collection to our campus.”

The archive currently consists of The Gloria Arellanes Papers, The East Los Angeles Community Union (TELACU) collection, the “Mexican-American Baseball in Los Angeles” Exhibit Collection, the Jose R. Figueroa Collection and the Claudia Baltazar Poster Collection.

#LosAngelesCA #ChicanoLatino #CarlosMontes #BrownBerets #history #ChicanoMovement #CaliforniaStateUniversityLosAngeles

Carlos Montes: La lucha por la legalización es muy importante ahora porque los inmigrantes, sobre todo los mexicanos y centroamericanos, han estado sufriendo tremendas dificultades. Las deportaciones, las detenciones largas y el acoso policial-ICE y las redadas han causado dificultades extremas para las masas de familias que viven con el temor diario. Estos ataques han sido excepcionalmente duro y centrado en los mexicanos y centroamericanos, ya que cuentan con más del 90% de todas las deportaciones, y tienen altas tasas de encarcelamiento y muertes en la frontera. Además de todo esto se enfrentan a condiciones de opresión en las escuelas públicas, la opresión en el lugar de trabajo, con salarios bajos y largas horas y las malas condiciones de trabajo, a menudo sin beneficios o servicios de salud.

Lucha y Resiste: Existe un debate mayor de “Reforma Integral de Inmigración” llamada por los políticos en Washington DC ¿Es esto lo que la comunidad necesita? Si no es así, ¿qué deben exigir?

Montes: La comunidad necesita un cambio fundamental en la situación. La gran concurrencia del voto latino mostró que los votantes latinos quieren que Obama trabaje en el asunto de la inmigración, junto con trabajo y pan y otras cuestiones importantes. El movimiento de los inmigrantes tiene que seguir presentando las demandas más avanzadas y progresistas, como la legalización para todos, no más represión en la frontera y en el trabajo, y que no haya programa de trabajadores huéspedes. No podemos dejar que los políticos hagan la agenda del programa de reformas porque vacilarán y corre el peligro de que la reforma sirva a los intereses de las grandes empresas y no a la comunidad.

Lucha y Resiste: ¿Cuál es la conexión entre la lucha por los derechos de los inmigrantes y la lucha de los chicanos por la autodeterminación y la igualdad completa?

Montes: La lucha por los derechos de los inmigrantes es una parte fundamental de nuestra lucha por la autodeterminación y la igualdad completa. No sólo queremos una tarjeta verde, queremos nuestra libertad! La historia de los EE.UU. es una historia de opresión y la anexión del pueblo chicano / mexicano, nuestra tierra, nuestro trabajo y nuestra cultura! Luchando por los derechos de los inmigrantes es sólo un paso más – nuestra lucha continua por la auto-determinación económica y política y la libertad de las cadenas del imperialismo de los Estados Unidos.

Lucha y Resiste: ¿Cómo el movimiento puede ganar la lucha por los derechos de inmigrantes?

Montes: Organización popular, protestas masivas, desobediencia civil y todas las tácticas y las formas de protesta son válidas. El cambio sólo se producirá si forzamos a los políticos a que cambien. En Los Ángeles, organizamos, protestamos y obligamos al jefe de policía de la ciudad de LA y el alcalde a cambiar la política de confiscación de carros por la policía quienes atacaron a los inmigrantes sin licencias de conducir. Reforma verdadera históricamente ha ocurrido sólo cuando el pueblo lo exigía y toma acción. Al igual que en el histórico movimiento chicano cuando organizamos los paros en East LA exigiendo la educación pública de calidad, el fin del racismo en las escuelas, la creación de los Estudios Chicanos, y las protestas masivas contra la guerra en Vietnam con la Moratoria Chicana.

Más recientemente, los jóvenes indocumentados, los soñadores, tomaron acciones militantes que impulsaron al gobierno de Obama que otorgue la residencia temporal conocido como DACA (Acción Diferida para Llegadas Infancia). Ahora es el momento de unirse y pasar a la acción. Muchas fuerzas están ya moviendo y pasando a la acción, todos deberían hacer algo en sus comunidades. Pero tenemos que basar nuestro trabajo entre los pobres y la clase trabajadora, ya que son los que van a mantenerse firme. Ellos deben liderar este movimiento y no los políticos, las organizaciones no-gubernamentales, o los intelectuales. Los pobres y los trabajadores van a unirse y luchar por la legalización total para todos y no una medida que pone barreras a la legalización mientras que aumenta la represión de los inmigrantes.

#California #CarlosMontes #BrownBerets

Chicago, IL – Veterans of the Chicano movement gathered in Casa Aztlan, Feb. 26, to welcome Carlos Montes to the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. The event was hosted by Magda Castaneda, an activist who participated in many of the struggles of Pilsen, including the fight in the 1970s to open the famous political space.

Aztec dancers gave a traditional blessing to Montes, a founder of the Brown Berets, and said that his activism in East Los Angeles demanding Chicano Studies and quality high schools had helped to make the establishment Casa Aztlan possible.

Montes was also welcomed with spoken word poetry by La Pixie, which linked the Puerto Rican struggle for independence with the Chicano struggle for liberation.

In the welcome, Occupy El Barrio activist Crystal Vance Guerra spoke about how the Occupy movement has taken inspiration from veteran activists like Carlos Montes. She said they have tried to make connections to issues of racist political repression and immigrant rights to the latest Occupy upsurge.

Hatem Abudayyeh gave an update of the FBI raids and the 23 activists who all refused to participate in a grand jury about supposed ‘material support for foreign terrorist organizations.’ He said that the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (stopfbi.net) has been told to expect indictments . Particularly chilling was when Hatem explained that the current prosecutor on the case is Jonas Barry, the same man who headed up the FBI's case against the Holy Land 5. That case is an example of the unjust targeting of the Arab and Muslim community – made more unbelievable by the 65-year prison sentences some of the people are currently serving.

Montes’ presentation added more details to what people already knew about his upcoming trial. He explained how the FBI was claiming that a charge from a 1969 demonstration and strike at East L.A. College was being used as the pretext to claim that he somehow had a current firearm code violation for several guns he had bought at a local sporting goods store over the past decade. The legal record does not support the FBI claim that the 1969 charge was a felony. In fact both sides agree that no prison time whatsoever was served in that incident.

Montes described how violently the SWAT team entered his home in the 5:00 a.m. raid. He talked about how an FBI agent attempted to question him about Freedom Road Socialist Organization while he was in the back of the police car. Many in the audience had been to the Republican National Convention protests in Minnesota in 2008 along with Montes and immediately recognized his case as a political witch hunt.

The event raised hundreds of dollars and gathered many new people who want to help make buttons, shirts, collect solidarity statements and plan more support events for Montes, and to the efforts of the Chicago-area Committee Against Political Repression.

#ChicagoIL #HatemAbudayyeh #CarlosMontes #BrownBerets #CommitteeAgainstPoliticalRepression #CasaAztlan #PoliticalRepression

Los Angeles, CA – Today, Aug. 29, 2009, shows that our people are continuing the fight for equality and self-determination. It was demonstrated by the many groups that were present today at Salazar Park, including the student group MECHA and the new Brown Berets, to commemorate the historic day in 1970 when over 20,000 Chicanos marched down historic Whittier Boulevard in East L.A. to protest the war in Vietnam and the high casualty rate of Chicanos. The mass peaceful rally in 1970 was attacked by the Los Angeles Police Department and the sheriffs. Ruben Salazar, news director for KMEX, was killed, along with Angel Diaz and Lynn Ward. A similar example of repression took place on May 1, 2007 when the LAPD attacked a pro-immigrant rights rally at MacArthur Park.

This year’s event was organized by the local Chicano Moratorium Committee and had the backing of the East L.A.-based Latinos Against War. In Latinos Against War, we organize against the war in Afghanistan and against the military recruiters in our high schools. We support self-determination for Chicanos in the Southwest, the Chicano nation of Aztlan. Our strategy is working with community-based groups like the CSO to organize poor and working class Chicanos in our community to fight for our rights. This means fighting for better education, living conditions, for the rights of our people displaced by poverty in Mexico and Central America now living here and for full legalization.

The campaign “Escuelas Si, Guerra No,” (Schools Yes, No War) of CSO recently won the opening of a new high school in Boyle Heights. The Mendez Learning Complex had an open house today, and will open September 2009. The new school is a concrete victory won after years of struggle to relieve overcrowding at Roosevelt High School and to stop the U.S. military recruiters on high school campuses in East L.A. This is the way to build the annual Chicano Moratorium event that recently has had less participation, especially from the community.

Latinos against War also condemns and exposes the long history of U.S. military and political intervention in Mexico, Central and Latin America. For example many people do not know that U.S. Army General Pershing led an intervention during the Mexican Revolution to attack the forces of our famous hero General Francisco Villa; of course the U.S. failed.

In Central America the U.S. supported the brutal military regimes that killed many of their own people, who were struggling for democracy and self-determination. Now we have the example of Venezuela and Bolivia whose people have supported and elected leaders who defend sovereignty and work to improve the lives of the many poor in their countries. But U.S. intervention continues to sneak in – like in Colombia, which will allow the U.S. military to use several bases under the guise of fighting the war on drugs. But we all know it’s a war against the revolutionary forces in Colombia like the FARC, and to attack the independent and sovereign nations like Venezuela. The U.S. is also giving billions to the Mexican army under the Plan Merida to fight the drug war, but the army commits many human rights violations against the Mexican people.

So on this anniversary of the Chicano Moratorium, we commemorate a proud past of struggle and stand committed to a future where our people achieve liberation and self-determination.

Carlos Montes is a veteran fighter in the Chicano Liberation movement. He was a founder of the Brown Berets and the Chicano Moratorium. Montes is currently active in the Southern California Immigration Coalition, the East L.A.-based Latinos against War and with CSO, which organizes parents in the East Los Angeles area to fight against the privatization of public education in Los Angeles Unified School District.

#LosAngelesCA #ChicanoLatino #LatinosAgainstWar #MECHA #BrownBerets #ChicanMoratorium

Walkout is the new HBO film about the famous East Los Angeles school walkouts in March, 1968. Thousands of Chicano students stayed away from school over two weeks to protest the racist school conditions, high dropout rate, overcrowded conditions, lack of books etc. The demands were for bilingual education, Chicano studies, hiring of Chicano teachers and administrators, better facilities, new schools, an end to the high dropout rate, an end to tracking students into the manual arts and in support of more college prep classes. The walkouts resulted in many victories and reforms to the Los Angeles school district.

Among others, actors in Walkout will portray Carlos Montes and David Sanchez, leaders of the Brown Berets who helped lead the East L.A. walkouts. Both became part of the legal case known as the East L.A. 13, who were indicted by a secret grand jury for conspiracy to disrupt the school system. The famous attorney Oscar Acosta challenged the indictment on the basis of the grand jury being discriminatory, since it excluded Chicanos, and that the indictment was a violation of the right to protest.

The movie’s director is James Edward Olmos, a Chicano actor who played El Pachuco in Luis Valdez’s play Zoot Suit, Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver and the lead role in American Me, which was about the Mexican mafia. Moctezuma Esparza, also one of the East L.A. 13, is the executive producer. He produced the movies Selena, Milagro Bean Field War and The Ballad of Gregoria Cortez.

The HBO movie will be released in February of 2006. It has created a lot of excitement in the East Los Angeles Chicano community, with many student and parents playing extras in the mass demonstrations. Many of the original East L.A. 13 will also be in the movie playing the role of parents, since they are now older.

#California #CA #News #ChicanoLatino #walkout #CarlosMontes #BrownBerets #EastLA13

Fight Back! interviewed Carlos Montes, one of the founders and former Minister of Information of the Brown Berets National Office in East Los Angeles from 1967 to 1970. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Brown Berets emerged as one of the most powerful and militant organizations in the Chicano liberation movement. Like the Black Panther Party, the Brown Berets were hit hard by government repression. This interview brings out a part of our history that is rarely taught in schools and some lessons for today’s activists from our movement’s past.

Fight Back!: Who were the Brown Berets?

Carlos Montes: We were a group of young Chicano revolutionaries from the barrios of the Southwest fighting for the self-determination of our people. We organized in our barrios, published the newspaper La Causa, ran a free clinic and fought against police brutality as well as against the U.S. war in Vietnam.

We evolved from a youth group – from Young Citizens for Community Action, to Young Chicanos for Community Action to the Brown Berets. We evolved from civic participation and assimilation to revolutionary nationalism. The brown beret was a symbol of the pride in our culture, race and history. It also symbolized our anger and militancy and fight against the long history of injustice against the Chican@ people in the U.S., especially the Southwest. We claimed the Southwest as Aztlan, the original homeland of the indigenous Aztec ancestors and founders of Mexico City, Tenochtitlan. We were from poor working class families growing up with the racism and police abuse.

Fight Back!: Why did you join?

Carlos Montes: My family came to L.A. from Juarez, Mexico in 1956. I grew up in the barrios of South L.A. and East L.A. and experienced the racist conditions in the schools, police abuse, drugs, and the poor living conditions. This led me to get involved in the first Chicano student group, the Mexican American Student Association (MASA), at East L.A. College in 1967 which saw using education as the solution to injustice. I was also working as a youth center director and came across Young Chicanos for Community Action and La Raza newspaper, which were starting to voice opposition to the racist conditions in the barrio. I was drawn to the more active and direct action approach of Young Chicanos for Community Action, which became the Brown Berets in late 1967.

Fight Back!: What kind of community organizing did you do?

Carlos Montes: We first took on the issue of police brutality. The East L.A. sheriffs were notorious for their brutality, especially against Chicano youth, which I experienced cruising Whittier Boulevard on the weekends with hundreds of other youth. We were the first to lead a protest at the East L.A. sheriffs station to protest the killing of youth at the station in 1967. We also started working with the car clubs in East L.A. to defend them against police abuse. We opened a local cultural center in East L.A., The Piranya Coffee House, where we held youth meetings and cultural programs. It became one of the meeting places for the Brown Berets.

We also started working on the problems of the bad school conditions and the racist educational system. Our schools were old and in bad condition, with high drop out, or push out, rates and racist administrators and teachers. Over time, we started agitating for bilingual education, better school conditions, Chicano studies and more Chicano teachers. We attended community, school and youth meetings to raise demands for better educational and school conditions. This finally led to the historic East L.A. Blowouts in March of 1968, where thousands of high school Chicano youth walked out of the four predominantly Chicano high schools in the Eastside over a two week period.

The Brown Berets were the first to run in to the high schools, yelling, “Walk out! Walk out!” To get the blowouts started, me and James Vigil (a k a Mangas Coloradas) ran into Lincoln High School on the first day to kick off the walkouts. We then went on to Roosevelt High School and the other schools.

We also supported the land movement in New Mexico of the Chicano small farmers and ranchers. They fought to recover the land stolen by the rich Anglo ranchers and the U.S. federal government. We supported the United Farm Workers’ struggle for union recognition and better working conditions. We marched with the first Rainbow Coalition in the Poor Peoples Campaign in Washington D.C. in the summer of 1968. We were at the first historic Chicano Youth Liberation conference, where the Plan Espiritaul de Aztlan was formulated in Denver, Colorado. We also organized the first Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War in December 1969. This led to the historic national Chicano Moratorium march and rally against the Vietnam war on Aug. 29, 1970, where over 20,000 Chicanos protested the high casualty rate of Chicanos in Vietnam and demanded self-determination at home in the Southwest. ‘Raza si! Guerra no!’

Fight Back!: What were major successes?

Carlos Montes: We exposed police brutality. Back then, some people tried to deny it existed. We were part of building the Chicano movement for self-determination, which raised the slogan of Chicano Power. It also started the movement for cultural awareness and pride in our Chicano history in the Southwest and Mexico, and our culture and language.

The blowouts were historic because it was the fist wave of mass actions by Chicanos in the urban barrios of the late 1960s. We eventually won bilingual education, Chicano studies, better school conditions and Chicano teachers and administrators. The mass anti-war demonstrations were part of the movement that eventually forced Nixon to pull out of Vietnam. We also opened the doors for affirmative action in higher education and political representation.

Fight Back!: How did the political views of the Brown Berets develop?

Carlos Montes: We started out with civic involvement and education as the road to equality, but soon learned that only real revolutionary change and political power by poor working people would gain real equality and freedom. We evolved from civic duty, work within the system, to self-determination, revolutionary nationalism and international solidarity with the liberation movements of Latin America, Africa and Asia – like the Vietnamese, the Congolese and Cubans fighting for freedom from U.S. domination.

Fight Back!: How did they see the world?

Carlos Montes: We believed in self-determination for Chicanos. The Brown Berets’ thirteen-point political program talked about self-determination as having political and economic control over our lives. It called for a return of our land, release of prisoners, jobs, education, housing, an end to the destruction of the environment by the capitalists, open borders, solidarity with all revolutionary peoples engaged in the struggle for self-determination. And we denounced the U.S. system of capitalism and imperialism.

Fight Back!: Did they work with groups in the Black community?

Carlos Montes: Yes, we supported and formed alliances with Black groups such as the Black Panther Party. We supported them when the police attacked them. We also set up similar programs like the East L.A. Free Clinic and free breakfast programs. We also were part of the first Rainbow Coalition when we joined the Poor Peoples Campaign in the summer of 1968. The Rev. Martin Luther King had struggled within the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to include the Chicano militant groups in the march on Washington, such as the Crusade for Justice, from Colorado; Alliance of Free City States, from New Mexico and the Brown Berets.

Fight Back!: What happened to the Brown Berets?

Carlos Montes: The Brown Berets grew to have about fourteen chapters throughout the Southwest, with East L.A. being the National Office. After the initial organizing efforts, the Los Angeles Police Department and sheriffs sent undercover officers to infiltrate the Brown Berets. The police infiltrators spied and acted as agent provocateurs, with the purpose of arresting the leadership and disrupting the organization. The police used secret grand jury indictments to try to jail and tie up the leadership in court trials. The top-down military structure of the group did not allow for the development of new leadership, or the leadership and development of the women who did a lot of the internal work. The Brown Berets continued ‘till about 1972, when they were disbanded. By then, the Prime Minister David Sanchez had degenerated into staging publicity stunts and running a one-man egomaniac undemocratic group.

Fight Back!: What are the lessons for today?

Carlos Montes: Building a mass militant movement to the stop the U.S. war drive, for social change and for revolution is key. Also rebuilding grassroots militant organizations in the community that fight for self-determination, social justice and liberation – not just for reforms. We need an organization that includes the participation of the entire family and that values and promotes the leadership of women.

To talk with Carlos Montes contact him at the Centro CSO (323) 221-4000

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Unite to Struggle

We must unite all progressive forces in a united front to beat back these attacks and again take back the offensive to win complete legalization for all immigrants and end the war in Iraq. We call on all pro-immigrant rights and progressive organizations to join us for a national unity conference on Feb. 22-23, 2008 in Detroit, Michigan.

Plan of Action

At this conference we will unite on a plan of action for mass national mobilizations in major cities for May 1, 2008. Without struggle there will be no victories. We will not wait for a change in politicians; our people demand an end to the attacks now and legalization! We do not have the luxury of waiting for another administration while families are being torn apart by deportations.

We know that the masses are the real makers of history and by uniting and mobilizing the masses we will change history. We are living in a time of crisis, with wars, recessions and racist attacks and it is during critical times that major changes take place. Lets all be part of making history and join us in Detroit, to build unity and a plan of action on Feb. 22-23, 2008. The conference is organized by the National May 1st Movement for Worker and Immigrant Rights.

Carlos Montes is a veteran fighter in the Chicano Liberation movement, a founder of the Brown Berets and the Chicano Moratorium. He is a leader in the March 25th Coalition and Latinos Against War, both based in East Los Angeles, California. For more information contact: www.latinoscontralaguerra.org

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