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Chicano Moratorium March East Los Angeles, August 29, 1970

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

On August 29, 1970, a series of anti-war protests known as The Chicano Moratorium took place along Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles regarding the disproportionate amount of Mexican-American casualties in Vietnam. The over-arching message of the demonstrations was in support of focusing resources and attention on the issues that plagued the under-served Latinx community as leaders of the movement declared, "Our struggle is not in Vietnam but in the movement for social justice at home." Upwards of 30,000 protestors would gather together at what is formerly known as Laguna Park, where a culmination of speakers, musicians, and families peacefully protested the injustices occurring. However, the demonstration would soon be declared an “illegal assembly” leading to Los Angeles Police Department Sheriffs storming the area with tear gas and riot equipment to force the protestors to flee. Violence would escalate as many protestors fought against the unnecessary use of force and blatant infringement of one’s individual right to gather and protest. Amidst the chaos, Ruben Salazar, a Mexican-American journalist, civil rights activist, and reporter responsible for covering the Chicano community for the Los Angeles Times, sought refuge within a bar along Whittier Boulevard. However, LAPD Sheriffs would proceed to fire tear-gas inside the East L.A. bar, striking Salazar in the head and killing him. The Moratoriums would end with 3 killed, multiple people arrested, and the destruction of property along Whittier Boulevard. Salazar’s death, along with the others who unfortunately had a profound effect on the Latinx community as he was the first Mexican-American journalist to document issues of the Latinx community, leading to the eventual renaming of Laguna Park into Salazar Park in his honor.

Images

Photograph, Human, Tree, Black-and-white

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

Whittier Boulevard serves as a landmark strip and as the epicenter of culture and activism for the Mexican-American barrio in East Los Angeles. The Boulevard is a hub for Latinx commerce and culture with its culmination of small markets, family-owned businesses, paleteros, and panaderias all contributing to the strong Latino-American identity present. Therefore, it is no surprise that this would also serve as a major stronghold for the Chicano movement, led by a coalition of Mexican-American activists in East L.A.

This was the soul of the Chicano Moratorium march, which was a culmination of anti-war protests and a call of acknowledgment of the Vietnam War as a civil rights issue for the Chicano community. The Moratorium was organized by a committee headed by former University of California, Los Angeles student body president, and antiwar activist Rosalio Mufloz. Mexican-American casualties in Vietnam were immensely disproportionate with 20% of total war casualties being Mexican-American while they only comprised 10% of the American population, in addition to the underlying issues of the underserved community that were being ignored. Therefore, in 1969 a series of marches and rallies were held in East Los Angeles, primarily along Whittier Blvd, and as they marched they ended in what is now known as Salazar park (formerly Laguna Park) due to the death of Ruben Salazar. As demonstrators gathered in the park and listened to keynote speakers while enjoying music, food, and community, LAPD Sherrif deputies had been ordered to charge upon the peaceful protestors with tear gas and ensued in the beating of demonstrators as they fled. Ruben Salazar was an L.A. Times journalist who was murdered by LAPD officers as one of them fired tear-gas inside Silver Dollar Bar and Cafe, striking Salazar in the head killing him. Salazar’s role as a LA Times columnists, in addition to being the news director of KMEX (a Spanish operating station that covered the protests), was immensely influential in providing a voice and platform against the oppression and injustices the Latinx community faced with rising levels of poverty, high drop-out rates, and segregation. Ultimately, Salazar was a pioneer in bridging the gap between Latino and white media as he covered highly sensitive topics of race-relations, immigration, and police brutality in a white-dominated and censored profession.

Police brutality and violence became a reoccurring theme during these protests, ultimately leading to its end, but the Moratorium would further shape the trajectory of the overarching Chicano movement and inspire the creation of other political organizations. The Moratoriums served as an example of the militant social movements across the country and the ensuing responses by law enforcement agencies to subvert and destroy those movements, leading to the catalyst of oppressed minority groups responding with determination to make more aggressive use of traditional political methods and tactics. 

Sources

Bauman, Robert. Race and the War on Poverty: from Watts to East LA. Vol. 3. University of Oklahoma Press, 2014.

De Anda, Diane. "Chicano Moratorium." Bilingual Review/Revista Bilingüe 33, no. 2 (2016).

Ernesto.Chavez.Colombian.News.https://www.columbian.com/news/2020/sep/07/chavez-the-chi

cano-moratorium-of-1970-still-has-plenty-of-lessons-for-today/

Escobar, Edward J. "The Dialectics of Repression: The Los Angeles Police Department and the Chicano Movement, 

1968-1971." The Journal of American History 79, no. 4 (1993): 1483-514. Accessed February 27, 2021. 

doi:10.2307/2080213.

Frank, Ka. "30 Years After the Chicano Moratorium." Frontlines of Revolutionary Struggle. August 03, 2010. 

https://revolutionaryfrontlines.wordpress.com/2010/03/26/30-years-after-the-chicano-moratorium/.

"Know Your East L.A. History. A Day of Rage and Racist Neglect." Los Angeles Times. August 23, 2020. 

https://www.latimes.com/projects/chicano-moratorium/east-la-protest-gave-voice-chicano-movement/

KPFK (Radio station : Los Angeles, Calif.)https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_28-6t0gt5fp55

Reyes, Raul A. "Prominent Latino Journalist Ruben Salazar, Killed 50 Years Ago, Tackled Racism, Identity." 

NBCNews.com. August 29, 2020.  

Additional Information