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Los Boinas Cafés es una organización paramilitar pro-chicana que surgió durante el Movimiento Chicano a finales de la década de 1960. Los Boinas Cafés formaban parte del Frente de Liberación del Tercer Mundo. Trabajó para la reforma educativa, los derechos de los trabajadores agrícolas y contra la brutalidad policial y la guerra de Vietnam. También buscó separar el suroeste estadounidense del control del gobierno de los Estados Unidos. La alta visibilidad y la postura paramilitar de los Boinas Cafés los convirtieron en un objetivo clave para la infiltración y el acoso de la policía local. En septiembre de 1967, Sal Castro, un veterano de la Guerra de Corea y maestro en la Escuela Secundaria Lincoln, comenzó a reunirse con la YCCA (Young Chicanos For Community Action)(Jovenes chicanos para la acción comunitaria) en La Piranha Coffee House. El enfoque inicial de YCCA estaban en los problemas de las escuelas públicas que afectan a los chicanos, desde libros de texto fechados hasta la falta de opciones de cafetería mexicana. El grupo asumió vestidos paramilitares y Boinas Cafés como el Che Guevara. Como resultado, la organización ganó el nombre de Boinas Cafés. Los Boinas Cafés no tenían ningún requisito oficial para unirse. Su enfoque se centró en la desigualdad escolar y la brutalidad policial, pero se amplió para incluir la guerra de Vietnam y la falta de representación política, atención médica y empleos para los chicanos. En 1969, Los Boinas Cafés era una organización nacional con grupos en California, Colorado, Minnesota, Nuevo México, Nueva York, Oregón, Texas y Washington. Los grupos de Boinas Cafés estaban en 28 ciudades, principalmente en California, pero también en Albuquerque, Denver, Detroit, El Paso, Milwaukee, Washington,Salt Lake City, San Antonio, St. Louis, Saint Paul y Seattle. En 1972, los conflictos internos y los problemas en curso con las fuerzas del orden habían debilitado a los Boinas Cafés. El 1 de noviembre de 1972, el primer ministro de los Boinas Cafés, David Sánchez, anunció la desintagracion de la organización "principalmente para evitar conflictos en el Movimiento Chicano y la violencia entre facciones". En ese momento, había 36 grupos, que se habían dividido en el orden público. la mayoría se estableció cerca de los colegios y campos universitarios.

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El movimiento Antiguerra era una parte de El Chicano Movimiento donde Chicanos lucharon para su derechos de sus vidas. Pusieron los chicanos (Mexicano-Americano) en la frente de línea, cuando pusieron otras personas atrás.  El movimiento comenzó tan tranquilo pero empeorar cuando policía afrontado personas, después comenzó la violencia. La policía dijo el movimiento anti guerra era ilegal y no solo usó gas en personas, pero muchas herido, y tres personas muerto también. El movimiento estaba destinado a mostrar los muertos en hombres de marrón y negro era más que hombres de blanco en la guerra de Vietnam, fue silenciado no solo por policía pero el canal de noticias local y grande. El movimiento mostra que importante Chicanos fue a personas, con guerra y fuera de guerra.

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The Brown Berets ( Spanish: Los Boinas Cafés) is a pro- Chicano paramilitary organization that emerged during the Chicano Movement in the late 1960s. David Sanchez and Carlos Montes co-founded the group modeled after the Black Panther Party. The Brown Berets was part of the Third World Liberation Front. It worked for educational reform, farmworkers' rights, and against police brutality and the Vietnam War. It also sought to separate the American Southwest from the control of the United States government.

The Brown Berets' high visibility and paramilitary stance made it a key target for infiltration and harassment by local police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and other law enforcement agencies. The majority of the Brown Berets' chapters disbanded in 1972. Several groups reformed and became active after the passage of California Proposition 187 in 1994.

Civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, flanked by Brown Berets, at a 1971 rally during the Chicano movement

In 1966, a group of high school students discussed issues affecting Mexican Americans as part of the Annual Chicano Student Conference in Los Angeles County. Vickie Castro, Moctesuma Esparza, Jorge Licón, Rachel Ochoa, John Ortiz, and David Sanchez attended the conference. The students continued meeting after the conference. Later that year, they formed the Young Citizens for Community Action and worked to support Dr. Julian Nava's campaign as a Los Angeles Unified School District board member candidate in 1967. Nava became the first Mexican-American to serve on the school board.

Sanchez and Esparza learned about social action at a class taught by Rev. John B. Luce at the Church of the Epiphany in Lincoln Heights with the Community Service Organization. In 1967, Young Citizens for Community Action changed its name to Young Chicanos For Community Action or YCCA. That same year, Rev. Luce helped Sanchez and the YCCA secure a grant to open La Piranha Coffee House in a former warehouse on Olympic Boulevard.

La Piranha Coffee House became the headquarters of the YCCA. There, Sanchez sponsored activist speakers, including H. Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael, Corky Gonzales, and Reies Tijerina. Because it became a popular place for young Chicanos to socialize and organize, sheriff deputies began arbitrarily stopping individuals coming and going from the coffee house. In one instance, the deputies raided La Piranha illegally and arrested individuals for violating curfews.

Four Brown Berets leaders: Fred Lopez, David Sanchez, Carlos Montes, and Ralph Ramirez in Los Angeles, California, 1968

In September 1967, Sal Castro, a Korean War veteran and teacher at Lincoln High School, began meeting with the YCCA at La Piranha Coffee House. YCCA's initial focus was on public school issues impacting for Chicanos, from dated textbook to a lack of Mexican cafeteria options. The group assumed paramilitary dress and brown berets like Che Guevara. As a result, the organization gained the name Brown Berets. The Brown Berets did not have any official requirements to join, but unofficially, members had to be Chicano men or women. Members were mostly in their teens and early twenties.

Chicanismo was the primary ideology of the Brown Berets. One member recalled, "We were a group of young Chicano revolutionaries from the barrios of the Southwest fighting for the self-determination of our people." Their focus was on school inequality and police brutality but expanded to include the Vietnam War and the lack of political representation, health care, and jobs for Chicanos.

The Brown Berets chose the motto, "To Serve, Observe, and Protect." This motto reflected the Los Angeles Police Department's "To Protect and To Serve" and "indicated that the Berets believed they were, or should have been, the police of the community."

By 1969, the Brown Berets was a national organization with chapters in California, Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. Brown Beret chapters were in 28 cities, primarily in California but also in Albuquerque, Denver, Detroit, El Paso, Milwaukee, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, St. Louis, Saint Paul, and Seattle.

Law enforcement's perception was that Brown Berets was "a violent and/or subversive organization". Representatives from the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms infiltrated every aspect of the Brown Berets. In addition, the FBI closely monitored the Brown Berets' activities. A modern historian notes, "These individuals and departments did not just act as intelligence agents, but as agent provocateurs as well. They created the situations that were used to discredit the Brown Berets and drive rifts between members."

By 1972, internal conflicts and ongoing issues with law enforcement had weakened the Brown Berets. On November 1, 1972, the Brown Berets' prime minister David Sanchez announced the organization's disbandment "chiefly to avoid strife in the Chicano Movement and factional violence." At the time, there were 36 chapters, most established near college and university campuses.

The California Brown Berets were involved in marches, anti-war protests, and student walkouts. The group published the newspaper which included articles on national Brown Beret causes such as the United Farm Workers and the New Mexico Land Grant movement under Reies Tijerina.

The Brown Berets protested killings and abuses perpetrated by the East Los Angeles Sheriff's station in its community. On November 24, 1967, the group held its first protest against police brutality in response to the Santoya family's treatment by the police after a complaint for disturbing the peace. Through January 1968, the Brown Berets coordinated two other protests at the courthouse and sheriff's station.

Founding co-editor of La Raza Ruth Robinson (right) with Margarita Sanchez (left) at the Belmont High School walkout, 1968

In 1968, the Brown Berets planned and supported the East Los Angeles blowouts or school walkouts for some 10,000 youth who protested unequal education over two weeks. Two months after the blowout on May 31, 1968, five Brown Berets were arrested or indicted, becoming part of the East L.A. 13. Hundreds of protestors gathered in front of the Los Angeles Police Department the next day. More protesters assembled before the county jail the following day. When the community struggled to raise bail money for the East L.A. 13, Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy 's political campaigns offered aid. This essentially shamed the court into setting a more affordable bail. However, this type of legal harassment intimidated current and potential Brown Berets members and pulled funds away from other projects.

The Los Angeles Brown Berets opened the East Los Angeles Free Clinic or Barrio Free Clinic in May 1969. The clinic provided full health services and a pharmacy staffed by volunteer nurses and doctors who were mostly White. It was open in the evenings, providing access for working people. The Barrio Free Clinic helped elevate the community's impression of the Brown Berets, helping them see beyond the paramilitary uniforms. Brown Beret Gloria Arellanes became the clinic's director in July 1969. She recalled, "The clinic became my passion because it really addressed a real need in the community."

Also in 1969, the Brown Berets organized the Chicano Moratorium Committee which planned annual protest marches against the Vietnam War. A few months later in 1970, nearly 20,000 Chicanos marched in the National Chicano Moratorium March in Los Angeles which protested the high number of Chicanos in the military draft and Vietnam casualty lists. This peaceful march was one of the largest Vietnam War protests in the United States. The march became chaotic when police responded to a minor incident by attacking peaceful participants. The officers killed three Chicano activists, including two Brown Berets and journalist Rubén Salazar.

On April 22, 1970, the San Diego Brown Berets (also known as the National Brown Berets de Aztlan) and other community activist organizations took over a piece of land in Logan Heights scheduled to become a highway patrol sub-station. This plot of land is now Chicano Park, and Chicano graffiti art on the pillars of the San Diego-Coronado Bridge memorializes the protest.

The Brown Berets organized the March Through Aztlán in 1971, protesting police brutality, racial discrimination, and the Vietnam War by marching one thousand miles from Calexico to the state capital in Sacramento. In August 1972, the Brown Berets staged Occupation of Catalina Island, claiming it for Chicanos and the Brown Berets under the leadership of David Sanchez. The Brown Berets said the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave California to the United States in 1948, did not include the offshore islands. Occupation of Catalina Island attracted significant national media attention to the Brown Berets.

In 1972, the Chicago Brown Berets set up the Benito Juarez People's Health Center at 1831 S. Racine in the Casa Aztlán Center, just outside downtown Chicago. The health center was named after Juarez, the "Abraham Lincoln of Mexico." The clinic's director, Dorthy Cutler, worked with Cook County Hospital and other major hospitals in the Chicago area to provide free medical care in the Chicago area.

The Chicago Brown Berets were activists for public education. The group occupied Frobel Middle School for a day before the Chicago Police removed the protestors from the school. That evening, a riot broke out; several rioters and one policeman were injured as the police tried to disperse the crowd. The rioters also destroyed six police cars.

Brown Berets, Chicanos, and indigenous Mexicans helped establish the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center in Oregon in 1975. They named it after a six-year-old Chicanita who died of blood poisoning from a cut foot while living in a migrant workers' camp Washington County, Oregon.

See main article Brown Berets (Austin).

The Washington Brown Berets formed in Granger, Washington, around 1968. The group expanded to Seattle in 1969 as students from the Yakima Valley enrolled in the University of Washington. Between 1968 and 1984, the Brown Berets organized youth and college students in Washington. Together these chapters formed a La Raza Unida Party in their state.

The Seattle Brown Berets occupied Beacon Hill School in Seattle. This protest led to the founding of El Centro de la Raza, now one of Seattle's most prominent civil rights organizations. In 1970, the Seattle chapter supported the United Farm Workers movement with a Harvest for Peace, gathering food, clothing, and money for Christmas baskets for Yakima Valley's Chicano farm workers. The group also organized a grape boycott.

In 1970, the Yakima Brown Berets chapter brought Cesar Chavez to the lower Yakima Valley. It also coordinated a five-mile march to the welfare office in Yakima to protest the abuse of the Chicanos by officials.

Brown Beret women march in step, 1970.

Although the Brown Berets was a male-dominated organization, women members established and operated essential community institutions such as the Barrio Free Clinic, which TELACU later institutionalized.

One of the internal problems for the Brown Berets was sexism towards the women of the movement, arising from a culture of machismo. Machismo posits a patriarch heading a family, or multiple families for reproductive aims, and does not allow for female-headed families or other variations in family structure except under certain circumstances. These perspectives and practices likewise do not necessarily extend to additional movements, particularly if operating within Fred Hampton's initial variant of a Rainbow Coalition (conflicting iterations include Rainbow/PUSH). It also maintains that a woman's principal purpose is a domestic life taking care of children and cleaning. The gendered consequences of Reconstruction era permutations in homesteading and free soil heteropatriarchy, as well as subsequent Jim Crow economy and Jim Crow laws, particularly for the political economy of the black power movement (see below), paralleled myriad neocolonial contexts of Chicana sexual exploitation and collective conceptions of sexual violation. Black male studies and the concomitant critique of intersectionality, as applied to gender and sexuality, prompted more research into evidence that this history continues to govern black and Chicano masculinity. Chican@ scholars have responded with studies demonstrating that such conceptions underpin Chicano inclusive masculinity as well as intersections between elements of post-feminist machismo and marianismo.

The movement's men tended to view female Brown Berets as subservient and unequal, relegating the women to clerical duties, cooking, and cleaning. In 1968, Gloria Arellanes became the first and only female prime minister of the Brown Berets but recalled being "shut out of decision-making processes." However, Arellanes used her power within her chapter to create support and solidarity between the women of the movement. Eventually, these women left the East Los Angeles Brown Berets; Arellanes believes this contributed to the organization's downfall.

Arellanes, along with the other women in the Brown Bertes wrote a letter of resignation after the machismo the Los Angeles chapter Brown Beret men had shown to them. She mentioned how "Brown Beret men have oppressed us more than the pig system," the same pig system they were against. Because of this, the resignation was something these women found fit as they felt as though they could do much better in terms of organization. This led to the creation of Las Adelitas de Aztlán.

Despite the presence of sexism, the Chicana movement in the Brown Berets did empower women initially. It allowed them to express their anger towards the United States government in a way that could make a positive change. For example, many Mexican female activists took pride in their political agendas. They felt it linked each organization because of their shared common history of the working class and activism.

The Brown Berets brought out women such as the poet and activist Viola Correa. Her bilingual poem titled "La Nueva Chicana" impacted the cultural revolution and empowered the movement's women:

"Hey!
See that lady protesting against injustice, es mi mama
That girl in the brown beret,
The one teaching the children
She's my Hermana
Over there fasting with the migrants
Es mi tía"
...
She knows what hardship is
All about.
The establishment calls her
A radical militant.
The newspapers read she is
A dangerous subversive
They label her name to condemn her.
By the F.B.I. she's called
A big problem.
In Aztlan we call her
La Nueva Chicana.

The Brown Berets took inspiration from the greater Black Power Movement in terms of self-defense and racial-pride.

They were specifically modeled after the Black Panther Party and communicated with the Black Panthers in Los Angeles. That connection directed the Brown Berets toward a position that aligned with the Third World Liberation Front.

In El Monte, California, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Brown Berets often supported each other in marches against the Vietnam War and jail conditions at the Bexar County Jail. In addition, SNCC ran African American candidates for State offices under the La Raza Unida Party and often supported Mexican American activists.

In 1968, the Los Angeles Brown Berets participated in the Poor People's Campaign that was organized by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The Poor People's Campaign's fight to change the conditions for America's poor resonated with the Brown Berets and also connected them with diverse people on a national level. In 1969, the Brown Berets participated in Fred Hampton's first Black power iteration of a Rainbow Coalition, composed of distinct and exclusive movements within a coalition. Other participants included the Young Patriots with William "Preacherman" Fesperman, the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez, and the Lincoln Park Poor People's Coalition.

Before, during, and after the Brown Beret Movement, Black Beret chapters were founded across the United States, especially in the southwest and California. Most chapters shared common purposes and goals with the Brown Berets, to the extent that historians and even a number of past members classified Black Berets as Brown Beret chapters with regional aims. Past Black Beret chapters denounced illegal narcotics and championed for ChicanX peoples, claiming Classic and post-Classic Mesoamerica as "forgotten" ethno-racial "heritage." Present Black Berets support Chican@ peoples with U.S. tribal membership and Mesoamerican "heritage," recognizing Chicanismo as inclusive of multiple ChicanX communities and organizations, from the California Truth & Healing Council to the Intertribal Friendship House. Central Americans, despite marching in the Chicano Movement, have only recently been recognized by ChicanX-Central American academe. Black Beret chapters have further begun to reallocate funds reserved for armed ChicanX militancy to "security." This designation includes, but is not limited to, law enforcement and, presumably, security detail for a variety of employers.

Brown Beret in Fresno, California for No on Prop 187 (1994)

Members of the Brown Berets wore brown military fatigues and a brown beret. The beret is "a symbol of the pride in [their] culture, race, and history. It also symbolizes [their] anger and militancy and fight against the long history of injustice against the Chicana people in the U.S., especially the Southwest."

Members of the Brown Berets who complete training and probation could wear the official patch on their beret. The patch features a cross topped by a brown beret with two crossed rifles on a field of gold, bordered by the color brown and topped by the words "La Causa". The color gold represents the history going back to pre-Columbian times, while the color brown represents the people. The cross symbolizes the member's beliefs, sacrifices, and commitment to the cause. The beret represents the group's organization and structure. The rifles represent the military structure of the Brown Berets. "La Causa" means "the cause" for which the Brown Berets fight.

A variation of the patch was developed in the late 1970s that reads Aztlan instead of La Causa. Aztlan is the Chicanos' historical nation; those who wear this patch are committed to fighting for that nation. Another variation was developed in the late 1990s which says Olin or "movement." Autonomous or independent Brown Beret groups are the primary users of the Olin patch.

Members of the Hillsboro Unit in Oregon developed an insignia that says "Brown Berets", the only such insignia within the national organization. The Hillsboro unit is also known for wearing a Mexica War patch at armed protests or open carry Second Amendment demonstrations.

In response to escalating Chicano homicides, David Sanchez and Jeronimo Blanco reactivated the California Brown Berets in 1992 with a focus on barrio peace. A February 26, 1995 conference in Fresno, California included Brown Beret units from Fresno, Hayward, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Madera, San Diego, Sanger, Santa Rosa, Stockton, and Watsonville. In 2016, Sanchez started the Brown Berets National Party.

During a session discussing the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM) at California State University, Fresno on January 6, 2011, a Brown Beret member spoke out of turn and was removed from the building by the police officers. Others in the audience argued that the United States unlawfully acquired California lands that had previously belonged to Mexico.

Most of the original Oregon Brown Berets either died of old age or moved to other parts of the United States. However, in 2017, during El Grito at Shute Park in Hillsboro, Oregon, an elder Tejano-born Brown Beret was discovered by a younger unit from Portland wanting to reestablish El Movimiento in Oregon. As a result, the Hillsboro Unit has grown and was the first to reestablish militant Chicanismo in Oregon. Lobo Cuetlāchtli became captain of the group. Under his leadership, the Hillsboro Brown Berets co-formed a New Portland Rainbow Coalition, organized Know Your Rights campaigns, offered firearm and self-defense classes for brown women, and held annual day labor jacket drives. In addition, this chapter served as medics for the 50th Annual National Chicano Moratorium in August 2020, where Cuetlāchtli gave a brief speech.

On August 25, 2018, the Brown Berets participated in the march for the 48th Chicano Moratorium in East Los Angeles. Many current Brown Berets organizations participated, including the National Brown Berets, Brown Berets de Aztlan, Los Brown Berets, Brown Berets of Cemanahuac, Brown Berets National Organization, and autonomous Brown Berets. In June 2020, the Salt Lake City-based Rose Park Brown Berets held extensive demonstrations calling for the resignation of the city's district attorney, Sim Gill, following the killing of Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal by the Salt Lake police department a few months prior.

The Los Brown Berets held the first People's Coalition Rally in Chicago on September 24, 2022. The rally included other revolutionary organizations such as the Black Panthers, the Young Lords, the White Panthers, the American Indian Movement, the Poor People's Army, FTP-Chicago (For The People), the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and other Brown Beret groups. More than 100 attendees participated to show unity from all races and solidarity about issues such as caged children.

Aranda, Robert G. (1971). "The Mexican American syndrome". American Journal of Public Health. 61 (1): 104-9. doi:10.2105/AJPH.61.1.104. PMC . PMID 5539835.

Bendón, Armando (1992). "The Chicano Movement and the Treaty". In Griswold del Castillo, Richard (ed.). The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 131-53. ISBN 978-0-8061-2478-0.

Correa, J. G. (2010). "The Targeting of the East Los Angeles Brown Berets by a Racial Patriarchal Capitalist State: Merging Intersectionality and Social Movement Research". Critical Sociology. 37 (1): 83-101. doi:10.1177/0896920510378766. S2CID 143161893.

Espinosa, G. (2007). "'Today We Act, Tomorrow We Vote': Latino Religions, Politics, and Activism in Contemporary U.S. Civil Society". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 612 (1): 152-71. doi:10.1177/0002716207301099. S2CID 145704387.

Kapoor, S. (April 1997). "Brown beret: could this be a Chicano peace brigade?". Social Alternatives. 16 (2): 16-7.

Montejano, David (2012). Sancho's Journal: Exploring the Political Edge with the Brown Berets. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-74241-3.

Sahagún, Louis (March 1, 2018). "East L.A., 1968: Walkout! The day high school students helped ignite the Chicano power movement". LA Times.

Santoro, W. A.; Segura, G. M. (2009). "Generational Status and Mexican American Political Participation: The Benefits and Limitations of Assimilation". Political Research Quarterly. 64 (1): 172-84. doi:10.1177/1065912909346738. S2CID 153853059.

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The Brown Berets ( Spanish: Los Boinas Cafés ) is a pro- Chicano paramilitary organization that emerged during the Chicano Movement in the late 1960s. David Sanchez and Carlos Montes co-founded the group modeled after the Black Panther Party. The Brown Berets was part of the Third World Liberation Front.

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Los estaciones de noticias sólo cubierto un poco sobre el movimiento antiguerra. Durante el tiempo estudiantes (en universidades) fue comienzo hacer investigaciones mostrar que pasó y el impacto de la guerra en los comunidades.  El estudiantes hecho un video llamado "Chicano Moratorium: Una Pregunta de Libertad". El video era mostrar una alternativa punto de vista a el movimiento pero también muestra una importante documentación histórica y visual del uso de violencia policia en la reprimiendo de muchos movimientos juveniles liderados por comunidades de color (específicamente en el Chicano Movimiento). El video se hizo después de ocurriera el evento, pero muchas personas en días ahora puede mirarlo y aprenda del pasado. El video finalmente fue llamado a el Registro Nacional de Cine en 2021 (un producción de UCLA).

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On Aug. 29, 1970, in East Los Angeles, more than 20,000 Chicano people marched in protest against the Vietnam War as part of the National Chicano Moratorium Movement. The aim of the march was to bring attention to the disproportionate percentage of Chicanos being killed daily in the war. The initially peaceful event, which began with a parade on Whittier Boulevard, turned violent when Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies confronted participants gathered in what was then called Laguna Park in East Los Angeles.

The sheriff's department declared the anti-war rally an unlawful assembly and dispatched a large deployment of deputies who brutally attacked participants in the crowd with batons. In an attempt to flee the police violence, the crowd spilled into nearby streets as law enforcement continued pursuit, resulting in numerous clashes and property damage.

UCLA Film & Television Archive

► Ver "Chicano Moratorium" en español

The forcefulness of the police response left dozens injured and resulted in the tragic deaths of three people. Among the dead was highly respected Los Angeles Timesreporter and KMEX-TV news director Ruben Salazar, who was killed under suspicious circumstances by a tear gas projectile fired by a sheriff's deputy. In 1970, East Los Angeles's Laguna Park was renamed in honor of Salazar.

Due to systemic biases against people of color, many local and national news media presented a narrow version of the events and the aftermath that failed to hold the police accountable for the violent response to the peaceful protests.

One example is the NBC Nightly News broadcast of Aug. 30, which framed shoplifting by marchers at a Whittier Boulevard liquor store as a major catalyst for the day's violence. The news program did not raise questions about the police's use of deadly force or the magnitude of the police response, and failed to interview marchers to get their perspectives on what happened.

Fortunately, mainstream news crews weren't the only ones covering the march. Loyola Marymount University student filmmaker Thomas Myrdahl and University of Southern California student producer Nick Sherbin were also on the scene in East Los Angeles that day. The young documentarians had covered previous civil rights marches and sit-ins and considered themselves allies in the social justice movements for equality that were transforming the United States in the 1960s and early 70s.

"Coming home with damning film coverage, I knew I had parts of a story but needed help," recalled Myrdahl. "I turned to Chicano filmmakers from UCLA, who were also bravely covering the march, and we exchanged footage so that a full story could be told. My hope was that in some way, my film would help Chicano leaders tell their story of racial repression in Los Angeles."

The resulting 10-minute documentary, "Chicano Moratorium: A Question of Freedom"(1971), offers an alternative account of the march, cultural festivities and violent police actions of that day.

"What we witness in the film is the vibrancy of the cultural renaissance and youth-led protest against the disproportionate deaths of Brown and Black men in Vietnam," said Maylei Blackwell, associate professor in the UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies.

"The film provides vital historical and visual documentation of the use of police violence in suppressing many youth movements led by communities of color in the late 1960s and 70s, specifically the actions of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in their widespread repression and surveillance of the Chicano Movement in Los Angeles," Blackwell said. "The sheriff's department to this day has yet to account for the death ofLos Angeles Times journalist Ruben Salazar."

In 2020, the UCLA Film & Television Archive reached out to Myrdahl, seeking to acquire his film for inclusion in the Archive's collection. Myrdahl donated two 16mm film prints of the documentary - one narrated in English and the other in Spanish. Both versions of the documentary are available for free online viewing on the Archive's YouTube channel.

"Chicano Moratorium"stands alongside the film "Requiem-29" (1971) - named to the National Film Registry in 2021 and soon to be preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in collaboration with the Library of Congress - as important documentary evidence and community accounts of the events of August 29, 1970.

Reflecting on his film "Chicano Moratorium" and its meaning today, Myrdahl said: "So many in the 1960s and 70s faced danger, even death, to fight against prejudice and injustice. My hope is that people learn from the past and stand up and fight for a better future."

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UCLA Film & Television Archive helps keep full picture of L.A.'s Chicano history alive

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The short documentary "Chicano Moratorium" captures the brutal police response to protests against the Vietnam War.

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Mujeres en movimiento: Aunque las Boinas Cafés era una organización dominada por hombres, las mujeres que eran miembros establecieron y operaron instituciones comunitarias esenciales como la Clínica Barrio Libre, que TELACU institucionalizó más tarde. Uno de los problemas internos de las Boinas Cafés era el sexismo hacia las mujeres del movimiento, derivado de una cultura de machismo. Los hombres del movimiento tendían a ver a las mujeres Boinas Cafés como serviles y desiguales, despreciando a las mujeres a deberes clericales, cocinar y limpiar. En 1968, Gloria Arellanes se convirtió en la primera y única mujer primera ministra de las Boinas Cafés, pero recordó haber sido "excluida de los procesos de toma de decisiones". Arellanes usó su poder dentro de su grupo para crear apoyo y solidaridad entre las mujeres del movimiento. Con el tiempo, estas mujeres abandonaron el Este de Los Angeles Boinas Café. A pesar de la presencia del sexismo, el movimiento chicana en los Boinas Cafés les dio fuerza a las mujeres inicialmente. Les permitió expresar su ira hacia el gobierno de los Estados Unidos de una manera que podría hacer un cambio positivo. Por ejemplo, muchas activistas mexicanas se enorgullecían de sus agendas políticas. Sintieron que vinculaba a cada organización debido a su historia común compartida de la clase obrera y el activismo.

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El dia era 29 de Agosto de 1970, cuándo 20,000+ personas marchó por el movimiento antiguerra . Se llamaban "National Chicano Moratorium" y ellos marcharon a través de Este Los Angeles. Muchos Mexicano-Americanos fueron unidos por grupos de Los Boinas Cafés y activistas estudiantes luchar por las vidas de los unos obligados a participar en la guerra, muertos, y heridos durante el tiempo de guerra de Vietnam. Otros movimientos como educación y trabajar ayudó comienza este movimiento. El número de muertes ayudó también, porque era el doble la cantidad de cualquiera otro grupo en Los Estados Unidos. Personas quien entró en la tienda llamada 'Green Mill Liquor Store' comprar los refrescos fueron llamados por el gerente a la policía porque pienso que iban a robarle. 1,500 personas de policia llegado disparó gas lacrimógeno y dar una paliza a personas en el movimiento. Tres personas murio ese dia, y uno era reportero de Los Angeles Times 'Rubén Salazar'. Todo el movimiento ocurre en uno dia, así que todo ocurre en 29 de agosto de 1970.

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Camilo J. Vergara, photographer. View toward Matthews St. from alley parallel to Whittier Blvd., East Los Angeles, 2013. 2013. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

On August 29, 1970, 20,000 to 30,000 demonstrators formed the National Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War and marched through East Los Angeles, with thousands of individuals organized by local Chicano moratoriums from the Southwest and California. This national coalition was one of the largest Mexican-American anti-war demonstrations-including the Brown Berets and student activists-who expressed lament over the disproportionate number of Mexican American troops drafted and killed or injured during the Vietnam War. Disparities in public education, systematic exclusion from higher education, and high unemployment rates among Mexican Americans also fueled the demonstration because they too contributed to Mexican Americans dying at twice the rate of any other group in Vietnam.

The demonstration commenced as a peaceful march but erupted in violence as the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department arrived at the scene, injuring and even killing three individuals-including Los Angeles Times journalist, Rubén Salazar. Fearful that demonstrators who entered the Green Mill Liquor Store to purchase cold beverages might loot the store, its owner called the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. Brutality ensued as 1,500 police officers arrived at Laguna Park, shooting tear-gas canisters into the crowd and beating protestors. The Mexican American community mourned the death of Salazar. Ultimately, the City of Los Angeles renamed Laguna Park the Rubén Salazar Park to honor the fallen journalist and civil rights activist.

Timeline

November 1955- April 1975

The U.S joins forces with South Vietnam to fight communist North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. An estimated 58,000 U.S. servicemen died during the Vietnam War.

1968

Over 15,000 high school students protest educational disparities and walk out of seven different schools in East Los Angeles.

August 29, 1970

Rosalío Muñoz, UCLA's student government president, forms the National Chicano Moratorium Committee. The Vietnam Moratorium Committee organizes anti-war demonstrations across the country, including protests in San Antonio, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.

August 29, 1970

About 20,000-30,000 participants attend the National Chicano Moratorium. The march ends in violence which many attribute to the arrival of the LA County Sheriff's Department.

Resources

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Research Guides: A Latinx Resource Guide: Civil Rights Cases and Events in the United States: 1970: National Chicano Moratorium

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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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Rubén Salazar era nació en Juarez, México y criado en El Paso, Tejas. Salazar era reportero Mexicano-Americano, quien trajo su punto de vista bicultral a la noticia Los Angeles Times. Salazar era un puente entre blanco y mexicano culturas, podría llegar a ser amigos con personas de escuelas de ivy league, también con trabajadores agrícolas migrantes. Cuando Salazar era reportero fue muchos hombres blanco, asi Salazar fue el descanso y incluyo Mexicanos como personas y no objetos o animales. Salazar era el reportero en el Chicano Movimiento y estaba allí por el movimiento antiguerra. Como otras personas estaba allí luchar para su derechos de sus vidas de Chicanos en la guerra Vietnam. Pero porque una tienda gerente llamó la policía, y se volvieron violento a las personas en el movimiento. Rubén Salazar era uno de tres personas muerto por la policía. Para honrar su memoria Salazar familia donó su trabajo así todo personas lo conozca y pueda aprender de él.  Rubén Salazar era el perfecto reportero por la comunidad de Chicanos porque él era uno, y murió escrito, coleccionó evidencia para escribir para ellos. Él era su voz por escrito.

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In the 1960s, long before people started using the word Latinx and calls grew loud for Latino representation in news media — Ruben Salazar was el mero mero.

The real deal. The one and only.

Born in Juarez, Mexico, and raised across the U.S. border in El Paso, Salazar was a Mexican American journalist who brought his bicultural perspective to the mainstream. He used his platform with the Los Angeles Times to tell stories about people of color with depth, compassion and nuance seldom seen at that time.

"He was a role model," said Félix Gutiérrez, professor emeritus of journalism at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. "He was a bilingual, bicultural, binational journalist, which one can only do when they know more than one language, are familiar with more than one culture and have lived in more than one country."

Today, more than 50 years after his death, Salazar's personal papers are housed at USC Libraries. They offer a wealth of insight for scholars on communication, society and Chicano history. But more on his death in a moment. First, begin with how he lived life.

Ruben Salazar: a journalism trailblazer

Salazar was a bridge between white and Mexican cultures, Gutiérrez said. He had the ability to easily build rapport with both Ivy League-educated politicians and migrant farmworkers.

He broke the mold at a time when most reporters were white men. Now, generations of Latinx reporters benefit from Salazar's legacy.

"I think now we have a lot of Ruben Salazars," Gutiérrez said. "Now we have many people who can fulfill that role."

Gutiérrez remembers reading some of Salazar's stories in the Los Angeles Times when he was a college journalism student. Salazar's six-part series on Mexican American identity in Los Angeles, published in 1963, was particularly impactful to a young Gutiérrez. Nobody had written anything like that before. Salazar's writings captured Gutiérrez's own experiences.

This, thought Gutiérrez, is the kind of stuff I want to do someday.

Journalists usually covered the Mexican community in what Gutiérrez calls "zoo stories." They portrayed Mexicans and Mexican Americans as others. Their perspective, as Gutiérrez describes it, was, "Look at these people over here." But Salazar removed the novelty and tokenism and reported on Mexicans as part of the fabric of Southern California.

Famed L.A. journalist had his life cut short

In 1970, society simmered as protestors called for an end to the Vietnam War. Some 30,000 demonstrators from a swath of Mexican American organizations descended on East Los Angeles on Aug. 29. Called the Chicano Moratorium, it is believed to be the largest U.S. anti-war protest by an ethnic group.

By this time, Salazar was news director of Spanish-language KMEX-TV and a columnist for the Times. He and a KMEX reporter and camera operator went to cover the protest.

But Salazar never got to file his column. He died after being struck in the head by a tear gas projectile fired by a Los Angeles Sheriff's deputy at the Silver Dollar bar, where Salazar was taking a break after covering the demonstration. He was 42 years old.

To this day, his killing causes significant controversy: Salazar himself believed that law enforcement targeted him because of his critical pieces.

Salazar's legacy lives on at USC

Gutiérrez knew Salazar personally because he pitched stories and talked about the Chicano Movement to him. Salazar's family remains close to Gutiérrez. So in 2011, the family donated many of the journalist's writings, photographs and other possessions to USC. Some of it is digitized and can be viewed online. The documents are part of USC Libraries' Boeckmann Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies.

The family's main motivation was to ensure that his legacy is available to people who want to see it, including Salazar's grandchildren who never met him.

"I wanted them in Los Angeles so my kids, my brother's kids and my sister's kids could all have a place to go and see them and look through them," said Lisa Johnson, Salazar's oldest daughter.

The collection includes documents like Salazar's birth certificate from Juarez and personal letters he wrote to friends and family. In one of those letters, Salazar wrote in Spanish to his parents to say that he fell in love with a woman in Los Angeles and planned to marry her.

It also includes Salazar's briefcase, a copy of his employment contract and letters he received from supportive and critical readers.

There are also seven boxes filled with sympathy cards delivered after Salazar's death to his family, written by friends, relatives, colleagues and fans from around the world.

The collection also has files from the L.A. County Sheriff's Department's investigation into his death.

Johnson was 9 when her father was killed covering the Chicano Moratorium. Her maternal grandfather had died unexpectedly earlier that week, so Johnson remembers being at her grandmother's house with her little sister when she heard the news.

Her grandmother, still mourning her husband's death, couldn't bring herself to say what happened.

"She ended up putting the front page of the Daily Pilot on the table," said Johnson. "The headline read, 'Newsman Salazar Slain.' I didn't know what the word slain meant."

When Johnson and her sister returned home, they noticed their front lawn filled with reporters and cameras. Inside, the house was crowded with family and friends paying their respects.

Ruben Salazar collection serves as a source of history

As Johnson and her siblings grew up, she got to know her father through stories from family and friends.

She remembers reading his old clips — the same ones available in the archives — and even watching some of his old interviews. She particularly remembers an interview Salazar did with Bob Navarro titled " The Siesta is Over."

"Hearing his voice was huge," she said. "Seeing the way he conducted himself and answered questions so eloquently and with such passion; you could see the passion in his eyes when he talked. I was so proud of him, like, 'Wow, that's my dad, look at that man.'"

You could see the passion in his eyes when he talked.

Lisa Johnson

Since the family donated the collection to USC, researchers have used the materials to produce a documentary and create digital archives. Journalists also have used text and images to tell Salazar's story.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Salazar's death last year, USC Libraries organized an online screening of the documentary Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle, which drew from many of the pieces in the collection. USC Libraries also offers an online guide to resources about Salazar.

In addition, students of Gutiérrez and Robert Hernandez, professor of professional practice at USC Annenberg, created a digital experience of Salazar's life. It contains links to original documents that put his life and work in context.

Earlier this year, Salazar was highlighted on his birthday, March 3, through a special virtual event supported through a Visions and Voices grant. Special Collections Librarian Barbara Robinson and Tyson Gaskill, executive director of exhibitions and programming at USC Libraries, collaborated with USC School of Dramatic Arts Professor Oliver Mayer to present Inflammatory Literature: The Legacy of American Journalist Ruben Salazar. It featured a short play by Mayer based on Salazar's writings found in his archive in the USC Libraries' Special Collections.

Robinson says research requests for access to the Ruben Salazar collection come in monthly.

"Those people who want to know more about him come to use these primary sources," she said. "It's important to have primary sources, not just secondary, because you can find evidence about things that you can't find in a history book. The history book is based on original materials. You can see it from the voice or the view of the person who you are researching."

Salazar's collection at USC has helped maintain the slain journalist's life in the public view. This is particularly important to Gutiérrez, who believes his tragic and controversial death should not distract people from what Salazar accomplished while he was still alive.

"I think there's been more emphasis on his death than his life," he said. "I want more people to focus on what his life was and what he represented. Is he important because of the way he died or the way he lived? I think it's because of the way he lived."

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Ruben Salazar paved the way for a new generation of reporters

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USC Libraries has a collection of writings and photographs by Ruben Salazar, which researchers use to keep the late journalist's legacy alive.

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algunos beneficios del movimiento Anti Guerra son, Dio a los chicanos confedinencia aluchar por la igualdad de derechos, un sistema educativo igualitario y el fin de la estructura social racista de Estados Unidos. Esto cambió la perspectiva chicana de las expectativas tradicionales, estableciendo así un nuevo conjunto de valores chicanos. Todavia hoy los trabajadores agrícolas en California siguen trabajando bajo condiciones de explotación con poco pago y con limitada representación en los sindicatos.