*The 46th anniversary of the Chicano Moratorium is a week from Friday, on August 29. VL
By Andrew S. Vargas, Remezcla (2 minute read)
Of all of the massive marches that characterized US opposition to the Vietnam War, perhaps none is more burned into the Mexican-American collective consciousness than the National Chicano Moratorium of 1970. Intended as a peaceful display of ethnic solidarity and anti-war sentiment, the National Chicano Moratorium eventually descended into a brutal display of police repression that left several marchers dead – among them the iconic Chicano journalist Ruben Salazar.
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Filmed almost accidentally in the midst of violence, a short documentary by Tom Myrdahl entitled Chicano Moratorium powerfully captures the chaos of that fateful afternoon. READ MORE
[Screenshot courtesy of Remezcla]
Suggested reading
Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement is the most comprehensive account of the arduous struggle by Mexican Americans to secure and protect their civil rights. It is also a companion volume to the critically acclaimed, four-part documentary series of the same title. This volume is a testament to the Mexican American community’s hard-fought battle for social and legal equality as well as political and cultural identity.
Since the United States-Mexico War in 1846-1848, Mexican Americans have striven to achieve full rights as citizens. From peaceful resistance and violent demonstrations, when their rights were ignored or abused, to the establishment of support organizations to carry on the struggle and the formation of labor unions to provide a united voice, the movement grew in strength and numbers. However, it was during the 1960s and 1970s that the campaign exploded into a nationwide groundswell of Mexican Americans laying claim, once and for all, to their civil rights and asserting their cultural heritage. They took a name that had been used disparagingly against them for years—Chicano—and fashioned it into a battle cry, a term of pride, affirmation and struggle.
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