The Brown Berets - A Chicano Movement
The Brown Berets (Los Boinas Cafes) are a pro-Chicano organization that emerged during the Chicano Movement in the late 1960s and remains
active to the present day.[1] The group was seen as part of the Third
Movement for Liberation. The Brown Berets focus on returning all United States
territory once held by Mexico to Mexico; they have also organized
against police brutality
and advocate for educational equality. Several groups have been quite active
since the passage of California
Proposition 187.
Predecessors
In 1966, as part of the Annual Chicano Student Conference in Los Angeles County, a team of high school students discussed different issues affecting Mexican Americans in their barrios and schools. Among the students at the conference were Vickie Castro, Jorge Licón, John Ortiz, David Sanchez, Rachel Ochoa, and Moctesuma Esparza.[2] These high school students formed the Young Citizens for
Community Action the same year, and worked
together to support Dr. Julian Nava's campaign as a Los Angeles school board member candidate in 1967.[2] Sanchez and Esparza had trained with Father John B. Luce's Social Action Training center at the Church of the Epiphany
(Episcopal) in Lincoln Heights and with the Community Service Organization.[3]
The organization's name was then changed to Young Chicanos For Community
Action or "YCCA".[4] In 1967, the YCCA founded the Piranya Coffee House. In September 1967, Sal Castro, a Korean War veteran and teacher at Lincoln High School, met with the YCCA at the Piranya Coffee House. The group decided to wear
brown berets as a symbol of unity and resistance against discrimination. As a result, the organization gained the name "Brown Berets".
Their agenda was to fight police harassment, inadequate public schools, inadequate
health care, inadequate job opportunities, minority education issues, the lack of political representation, and the Vietnam War. It set up branches in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, New York, Florida,
Chicago, St. Louis and other metropolitan areas with large "RAZA"
populations.[citation needed]
Actions
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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.[4]
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By September 1968, the Brown Berets became a national organization having
opened chapters California, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Milwaukee,
Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, and Indiana.[5]
In 1969, Brown Berets Cristo Cebada produced
and distributed a newspaper called "La Causa."[2] They also participated in organizing the first free medical clinics and
free breakfast programs. Women held an important role in the writing and
distribution of "La Causa", but even though this was so, the Brown
Berets, as the rest of the Chicano Movement, did not fully take women into
strong leadership positions. The jobs assigned to women in the Brown Berets
consisted of office type jobs and clerical/secretarial jobs.[citation needed] Sexism within the Brown Berets was evident. Brown Berets saw themselves as
liberated men and ignored the women's struggle because they, male Brown Berets,
believed that the feminist movement was a white women's movement and that above all, first came the liberation
of La Raza.[citation needed] One female Brown Beret, Grace Reyes, in charge of writing for La Causa,
constantly wrote articles about women within the Brown Berets/the Chicano
Movement and the sexist attitudes towards them but they were not published and
ignored.[citation needed] Most Brown Beret women believed and insisted that a successful revolution
"must have full involvement from both Chicanas and Chicanos". Carlos Montes, one of the co-founders, in an interview talks about the lessons learned
from the Brown Berets, "Building a mass militant movement to the stop the
US 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."[4]
The Brown Berets also came to be known for their direct action against police brutality.[6] They protested killings and abuses perpetrated by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department at the station in the barrio. They supported the United Farm Workers movement[6] and the Land Grant Movement in New Mexico. In 1969, they participated in the first Rainbow Coalition (Fred Hampton) which originally included the Young Patriots and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez and in the Poor Peoples
Campaign. In 1969, they were invited to be part of the first Chicano Youth
Liberation Movement organized by Corky Gonzales in Denver, Colorado.[citation needed]
The Brown Berets organized the first Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War in
1970,[6] and a few months later the National Chicano Moratorium[6] in which close to 20,000 Chicanos marched and protested the high casualty
rate of Chicanos in Vietnam and the military draft. This peaceful protest
became chaotic when the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department decided to end
the event by attacking attendees.[7] Three Chicano activists were killed (two of them Brown Berets), including
journalist Rubén Salazar.[7]
Also in 1970, The Brown Berets de Aztlan and other community activist
organizations took over a piece of land in Logan Heights (a community of San
Diego) because the city of San Diego wanted to build a California Highway
Patrol Substation and the community didn't want that. That little piece of land
just under the Coronado Bridge, marked by Chicano graffiti-art on the first
bridge pillars, is now called Chicano Park.[8]
In 1972, twenty-six Brown Berets occupied the Santa Catalina Island and claimed it for Mexico. However, by this time, the organization had
been weakened by internal conflicts and police and FBI infiltration.[9]
Activity in other regions
The Brown Berets set up the Benito Juarez Health Clinic (BJHC) in Chicago in 1972. This was a health clinic that provided free medical care to
everyone in the Chicago area. Working in conjunction with Cook County Hospital
and other major hospitals in the Chicago area, BJHC served the needs of the
uninsured and those with no ability to pay for health care services. It was
located at 1831 S. Racine, in the Casa Aztlán Center, the community building
located on the south side of Chicago, just outside downtown Chicago. The Center
Director was Ms. Dorthy Cutler.
The Brown Berets also fought on public education issues. The organization
occupied a middle high school called Frobel Middle 9th Grade School. The Brown
Berets, alongside families, community members and students, took over the
school for a full day. At the end of the day, the Chicago Police arrived to
remove people from the occupied school. That evening, a riot broke out, in
which many rioters and one policeman were injured as the police were trying to
disperse the crowd. Six police cars were also destroyed. The community wanted a
school built in their community, and in 1979 a school was built in the Pilsen
community, now called the Benito Juarez High School.
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. SNCC ran African American
candidates for State offices under the La Raza Unida Party and often supported Mexican
American activists.
In Washington State, the Brown Berets originated in Granger, Washington. The group was then
transplanted to Seattle as students from the Yakima
Valley were recruited to the University of Washington in the late
1960s and early 1970s. The Seattle Chapter worked with the chapter in Yakima,
Washington in attempting to organize various projects including the formation
of a 'La Raza Unida Party' in Washington. It is believed that the group was
initiated first in 1968, with the Seattle chapter emerging in 1969. The
organization would attract over 200 members throughout the state.
Although having a short-lived presence (approximately from 1968 to 1984),
the Brown Berets would be instrumental in organizing youth and college
students. Of note was the organization's partaking in the occupation of the old
Beacon Hill School in Seattle, which led to the founding of El Centro de la Raza, now one of
Seattle's most prominent civil rights organizations. Activism also transcended
the organization's early phase, with many former member establishing various
community institutions to meet the needs of the local community.
April 22, 1970
The San Diego Brown Berets (now known as National Brown Berets de Aztlan)
took over a piece of land in Logan Heights that was supposed to be a highway
patrol sub-station. That piece of land under the Coronado bridge is now known
as Chicano Park.
November 1, 1972
Brown Berets were infiltrated by government employees and subversives
working for outside organizations including but not limited to the FBI, LAPD,
CWP, ATF, and other law enforcement agencies and organizations working to
co-opt the Movimiento Chicano to ensure protection of the United States. The
then Prime Minister David Sanchez tried to disband the organization After a
National meeting held in Albuquerque, NM at the Alianza Headquarters where thousands
of Brown Beret Members voted Sanchez out. Then to save face he called for a
Press Conference to dis-ban the organization. The only chapter who continued
organizing was the San Diego Chapter, later becoming the National Brown Berets
de Aztlan. Also changing the patch from "La Causa" to
"Aztlan".
January 2011
During a session discussing the Development,
Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act
at California State University, Fresno on January 6, 2011, a Brown Beret member spoke out of turn and was taken
out of the building by the police officers and detectives. In agreement, others
in the audience argued that California lands that had previously belonged to
Mexico were acquired by the United States in an unlawful manner.[10]
Brown Berets Watsonville,
California
References
1.
· · "The Brown Berets:
Young Chicano Revolutionaries - Fight Back!". Fight Back! News. Retrieved 12 July 2015. horizontal
tab character in |title= at position 18 (help)
· · "The Battle of
Chicano Park: A Brief History of the Takeover". Chicano Park Steering Committee. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
· · Shino, Enrijeta (2011). "Brown Berets: A Story of
Continuous Surveillance" (PDF). European Journal of Social Sciences 19 (3):
454. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
10. · Thompson, Michael J. (January 6, 2011). "Brown Berets
Verbally Attack U.S. and Tea Party at Fresno State Student Government Debate on
DREAM Act". Campus Reform!. Leadership
Institute. Retrieved November 2, 2011.
External links
- NATIONAL
BROWN BERETS DE AZTLAN WEBSITE
- NATIONAL
BROWN BERETS WEBSITE
- Watsonville
Brown Berets website
- Brown
Berets of Salt Lake website
- Carnalismo
Brown Berets of New Mexico
- Los Brown Berets de Nuevo
Mexico (BBNO)
- Interview with Jesus Rodriguez (Seattle Brown Berets)
- Interview with Rogelio Riojas (Seattle Brown Berets)
- Articles and photos of the Texas Brown Berets,
specifically the Brown Berets of Dallas, Austin, Lubbock, and San Antonio.
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- Chicano
nationalism
- Mexican-American
organizations
- COINTELPRO
targets
- Far-left politics in the United
States
- History
of Latino civil rights
- Secession
in the United States
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