Chicano Moratorium
Led by activists from local colleges and members of the Brown Berets, a group with roots in the high school student movement that staged walkouts in 1968, the coalition peaked with an August 29, 1970 march in East Los Angeles that drew 30,000 demonstrators.
The event was reportedly watched by the Los Angeles FBI office, who later "refused to release the entire contents" of their documentation and activity.
[5] Muñoz was the leader of the Chicano Moratorium Committee until November 1970, when he was ousted by Eustacio (Frank) Martinez, a police informer and agent provocateur for the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Enforcement Division (ATF) of the U.S. Treasury Department, who committed illegal acts to allow the police to raid the headquarters of the committee and make arrests.
and of drafting their laws so that many more Chicanos are sent to Vietnam, in proportion to the total population, then they send off their own white youth..."[10] Corky Gonzales wrote in an address, "My feelings and emotions are aroused by the complete disregard of our present society for the rights, dignity and lives of not only people of other nations but of our own unfortunate young men who die for an abstract cause in a war that cannot be honestly justified by any of our present leaders".
A conference of anti-war and anti-draft Chicano and Latino activists from communities in the Southwest and the city of Chicago was held at the Crusade headquarters in early December 1969.
[16][17] A Chicano program on the local public television station produced a documentary of that march, used nationally by the committee to popularize its efforts.
As protest organizer Rosalinda Montez Palacios recounts, "I was sitting on the lawn directly in front of the stage resting after a long and peaceful march when out of nowhere appeared a helicopter overhead and started dropping canisters of tear gas on the marchers as we were enjoying the program.
Though the bus was stopped by San Bernardino police, the group dodged further confrontation and continued to the protest by telling them they were headed to the beach.
), and Rubén Salazar, an award-winning journalist, news director of the local Spanish-language television station, and columnist for the Los Angeles Times.
[2] The Moratorium became notable for the death of Ruben Salazar, a prominent investigative reporter known for his writings on civil rights and police brutality.
Deputy Thomas Wilson of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department fired a tear gas canister into the Silver Dollar Café at the conclusion of the August 29 rally, killing Salazar.
Montag, according to his sister-in-law, went to the January 31 demonstration hoping to witness a riot, where a ricocheted buckshot pellet fired by police stuck him in the heart and killed him.
Many community leaders, politicians, clergy, businessmen, judges, teachers, and trade unionists participated in the many Chicano Moratoria.
There is evidence that the National Chicano Moratorium Committee was infiltrated by an agent from The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), which led to the ousting of leader Rosalio Muñoz.
Martinez told the press that he had been an informer and agent provocateur for the ATF under instructions from his supervisors so they would be able to make arrests and raid NCMC headquarters.
[28] In 1971, the Moratorium Committee underwent a shift in their organizational focus from protesting the Vietnam War and police brutality against Chicanos to building support for La Raza Unida Party.
[29] The Moratorium Committee, along with activist groups from the Coachella and Imperial Valleys as well as members from the East L.A. Brown Berets, began organizing a march that would span over 800 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border to Sacramento.
Not only would this march serve as a protest against Reagan and his discriminatory views against Chicanos, but also to garner support for La Raza Unida Party to be on the ballot.
Student activist, María Elena Gaitán, was a featured speaker at this rally and throughout the march, rousing audiences with impassioned speeches in English and Spanish.
Along with this theme NCMC commemorated the life of Sal Castro who died earlier that year after his distinguished career in education, most notably supporting the East Los Angeles high school walkouts.
An October 11, 1968 Los Angeles Freep article was headlined "Education, Not Eradication", began "Sal Castro won his teaching job back at Lincoln High School because the new militant Mexican American movement here demanded it and fought for it….”[33]
