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The History of Racial Discrimination Against Mexican Americans | PBS LearningMedia

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Learn about the challenges and discrimination faced by Mexican Americans in Texas from the time of its annexation in the 1840s through the first half of the 20th century, in this video excerpt from the documentary, A Class Apart. Although they were among the original inhabitants of Texas when it bec…

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How the Chicano Movement Championed Mexican-American Identity and Fought for Change | HISTORY

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Chicano activists took on a name that had long been a racial slur—and wore it with pride.

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Archives of Women's Political Communication

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Following is a partial transcript of a speech by Dolores Huerta from a KQED news report on the National Farm Workers Association march and rally in Sacramento on April 10, 1966.
...the organizing efforts of the National Farm Workers Association, and today our farm workers have come to Sacramento. To the governor and the legislature of California we say you cannot close your eyes and your ears to us any longer. You cannot pretend that we do not exist. You cannot plead ignorance to our problems because we are here and we embody our needs for you. And we are not alone. We are accompanied by many friends. The religious leaders of the state, spear-headed by the migrant ministry, the student groups, the civil rights groups that make up the movement that has been successful in securing civil rights for Negroes in this country, right-thinking citizens and our staunchest ally, organized labor, are all in the revolution of the farm worker.

...the day has ended when the farm worker will let himself be used as a pawn by employers, government, and others who would exploit them for their own ends. La huelga and la causa is our cry, and everyone must listen. Viva la huelga! Viva Cesar Chavez!

...giving them the confidence they needed through inspiration and hard work. Educating them for months to realize that no one was going to win their battle for them. That their conditions could be changed by only one group of people, themselves.

...and he did not solicit money from any area, this was prior to the strike of course. Cesar felt that outside money for organization of farm workers was no good and it would not do the trick. And that the workers had to pay for their own organization, and this was accomplished. Prior to the strike the National Farm Workers Association was supported entirely by its own membership through the dues that they paid. Furthermore...

...support has been highlighted by people who have joined us here today. Furthermore, these groups are committing themselves to help us until total victory is achieved. The developments of the past seven months are only a slight indication of what is to come. The workers are on the rise. There will be strikes all over the state and throughout the country because Delano has shown what can be done and the workers know that they are no longer alone. [applause] The agricultural workers are not going to remain static. The towns that have been reached by the pilgrimage will never be the same. On behalf of the National Farm Workers Association, its officers, and its members, on behalf of all of the farm workers of this state, we unconditionally demand that the governor of this state, Edmund Brown, call a special session of the legislature to enact a collective bargaining law for the farmer workers of the state of California. [applause] We will be satisfied with nothing less. The governor cannot and the legislature cannot shrug off its responsibilities to the Congress of the United States. We are citizens and we are residents of the state of California, and we want the rules set up to protect us in this state, right here. If the rules to settle our economic problems are not forthcoming, we will call a general strike to paralyze the state's agricultural economy. [applause] We will call a general strike to let the legislators and the employers know that we mean business. We will take economic pressure, strikes, boycotts, to force recognition and obtain collective bargaining rights. The social and economic revolution of the farm workers is well underway and it will not be stopped until we receive equality. The farm workers are moving. Nothing is going to stop them. The workers are crying for organization, and we are going to organize them. We may act in strange and unusual ways in our organizing, but we're willing to try new and unused methods to achieve justice for the farm workers.
Transcript from https://libraries.ucsd.edu/farmworkermovement/media/oral_history/ParadigmArchive/arc%2029.pdf. Videos at https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/185999 and https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/189795.

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April 10, 1966 | Sacramento, California] Following is a partial transcript of a speech by Dolores Huerta from a KQED news report on the National Farm Workers Association march and rally in Sacramento on April 10, 1966.

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Staff in the Hispanic Reading Room can provide access to these books at the Library of Congress. If you cannot visit the Library in person, please contact us using Ask a Librarian for assistance. In many cases, you can also find these materials at your local library.

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

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Research Guides: A Latinx Resource Guide: Civil Rights Cases and Events in the United States: 1967: Tierra Amarilla Land Grant & Courthouse Raid

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This Hispanic Reading Room research guide focuses on 20th and 21st century American court cases, legislation, and events that had important impacts on civil rights in Chicana/o/x, Hispanic, Latina/o/x, Mexican-American and Puerto Rican communities

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Continuing Cesar Chavez's Legacy in Supporting Farmworkers

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Cesar Chavez Day allows us to recommit ourselves to honoring farmworkers and their many indispensable contributions to our nation.

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Rodolpho Corky Gonzales speaks at Metro State, 1973

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"Denver Activist Gonzales Explains Chicano Struggle" speech by Corky Gonzales at Metro State, 1973

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A Chicano Leader's Statement to His Followers, Excerpt from "A Letter from the Santa Fe Jail," by Reies López Tijerina. Modeled on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from the Birmingham Jail," this letter lays out the charges and complaints of a Mexican-American political activist against his country.
From my cell block in this jail I am writing these reflections. I write them to my people, the Indo-Hispanos, to my friends among the Anglos, to the agents of the Federal government, the state of New Mexico, the Southwest, and the entire Indo-Hispano world--''Latin America.''

I write to you as one of the dearest victims of the madness and racism in the hearts of our present-day politicians and rulers.

At this time, August 17, I have been in jail for 65 days--since June 11, 1969, when my appeal bond from another case was revoked by a federal judge. I am here today because I resisted an assassination attempt led by an agent of the federal government--an agent of all those who do not want anybody to speak out for poor, all those who do not want Reies Lopez Tijerina to stand in their way as they continue to rob the poor people, all those many rich people from outside the state with their summer homes and ranches here whose pursuit of happiness depends on thievery, all those who have robbed the people of their land and culture for 120 years. . . .

What is my real crime? As I and the poor people see it, especially the Indo-Hispanos, my only crime is Upholding Our Rights as Protected by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended the so-called Mexican-American War of 1846-48. My only crime is demanding the respect and protection of our property, which has been confiscated illegally by the federal government. Ever since the treaty was signed in 1848, our people have been asking every elected president of the United States for a redress of grievances. Like the Black people, we too have been criminally ignored. Our right to the Spanish land grant pueblos is the real reason why I am in prison at this moment.

Our cause and our claim and our methods are legitimate. Yet even after a jury in a court of law acquitted me last December, they still call me a violent man. But the right to make a citizen's arrest, as I attempted to make that day on Evans, is not a violent right. On the contrary, it is law and order--unless the arrested son resists or flees to avoid prosecution. No honest citizen should avoid a citizen's arrest.

This truth is denied by the conspirators against the poor and by the press which they control. There are also the Silent Contributors. The Jewish people accused the Pope of Rome for keeping silent while Hitler and machine persecuted the Jews in Germany and other countries. I support the Jews in their right to accuse those who contributed to Hitler's acts by their Silence. By the same token, I denounce those in New Mexico who have never opened their mouths at any time to defend or support the thousands who have been killed, robbed raped of their culture. I don't know of any church or Establishment organization or group of elite intellectuals that has stood up for the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. We condemn the silence of these groups and individuals and I am sure that, like the Jewish people, the poor of New Mexico are keeping a record of the Silence which contributes to the criminal conspiracy against the Indo-Hispano in New Mexico.

As I sit in my jail cell in Santa Fe, capitol of New Mexico, I pray that all the poor people will unite to bring justice to New Mexico. My cell block has no day light, no ventilation of any kind, no light of any kind. After 9 P.M., we are left in a dungeon of total darkness. Visiting rules allow only 15 minutes per week on Thursdays from 1 to 4 p.m. so that parents who work cannot visit their sons in jail. Yesterday a 22-year-old boy cut his throat. Today, Aug. 17, two young boys cut their wrists with razor blades and were taken unconscious to the hospital. My cell is dirty and there is nothing to clean it with. The whole cell block is hot and suffocating. All my prison mates complain and show a daily state of anger. But these uncomfortable conditions do not bother me, for I have a divine dream to give me strength: the happiness of my people.

I pray to God that all the Indo-Hispano people will awake to the need for unity, and to our heavenly and constitutional responsibility for fighting peacefully to win our rights. Already the rest of the Indo-Hispano world--Latin America--knows of our struggle. It is too late to keep the story of our land struggle from reaching the ears of the Indo-Hispano world. All the universities of Latin America knew about our problems when Rockefeller went there last summer. Will Latin America ignore our cry from here in New Mexico and the Southwest? Times have changed and the spirit of the blood is no longer limited by national or continental boundaries.

The Indo-Hispano world will never trust the United States as long as this government occupies our land illegally. The honest policy of the United States will have to begin at home, before Rockefeller can go to Latin America again to sell good relations and friendship. Our property, freedom and culture must be respected in New Mexico, in the whole Southwest, before the Anglo can expect to be trusted in South America, Mexico and Canada.

This government must show its good faith to the Indo-Hispano in respect to the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo and the land question by forming a presidential committee to investigate and hold open hearings on the land question in the northern part of New Mexico. We challenge our own government to bring forth and put all the facts on the conference table. We have the evidence to prove our claims to property as well as to the cultural rights of which we have been deprived. We are Right--and therefore ready and willing to discuss our problems and rights under the Treaty with the Anglo federal government in New Mexico or Washington, D.C., directly or through agents.

This government must also reform the whole educational structure in the Southwest before it is too late. It should begin in the northern part of New Mexico, where 80% of the population are Indo-Hispanos, as a pilot center. If it works here, then a plan can be developed based on that experience in the rest of the state and wherever the Indo-Hispano population requires it.

Because I know We Are Right, I have no regrets as I sit in my jail cell. I feel very, very proud and happy, to be in jail for the reason that I am. June 8 in Coyote could have been my last day on earth. My life was spared by God, and to be honored by that miracle at Coyote will keep me happy for many years to come. I am sure that not one of my prison days is lost. Not one day has been in vain. While others are free, building their personal empires, I am in jail for defending and fighting for the rights of my people. Only my Indo-Hispano people have influenced me to be what I am. I am what I am, for my brothers.

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A Chicano Leader's Statement to His Followers, Excerpt from "A Letter from the Santa Fe Jail," by Reies López Tijerina. Modeled on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from the Birmingham Jail," this letter lays out the charges and complaints of a Mexican-American political activist against his country.

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CSUSM Library Guides: César Chávez Day of Service: Primary Sources

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CSUSM Library Guides: César Chávez Day of Service: Primary Sources