The Chicano Movement

Transcription

1 The Chicano Movement

2 2 Chicano A Mexican American A term of ethnic pride Developed out of the Hispanic Civil Rights Movement.

3 COLD CALL 3

4 4 THINK-PAIR-SHARE THINK What are 2 ways that the employers may have exploited the Mexican workers? PAIR with someone close to you SHARE what you came up with

5 Chicano 5 Movement Focused on 3 main Points: Farm Workers Educational Rights Voting and Political Rights

6 6 United Farm Workers During the 1940 s and 1950 s landowners in the West, especially California exploited their workers. The U.S. had allowed Mexicans to work in the U.S. during WWII. However, after the war employers were suppose to give preference to U.S. citizens.

7 7 United Farm Workers Most employers continued to use Mexican workers, because they could pay them very low wages, make them work long hours without a break, and mistreat them. They were also denied the ability to become citizens.

8 United Farm Workers 8

9 9 United Farm Workers Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta joined their two organizations to create the United Farm Workers. The goal was to unionize for better wages, working conditions, benefits.

10 10

11 11 United Farm Workers The group staged peaceful protests and boycotts. They organized workers which forced the employers to meet their demands. Filipinos also joined the workers.

12 12

13 13 United Farm Workers Benefits: Specific Hours and Pay Toilets and Water in fields Pension after retirement Protective gear against pesticides Amnesty for workers brought illegally.

14 Cesar Chavez Born in Yuma, Arizona in 1927, Cesar Chavez spent his childhood as a migrant worker. In the 1940s, he moved to San Jose, California where he married Helen Favila. Chavez met Fred Ross of the Community Service Organization and became an organizer for the CSO learning grass roots organizing methods.

15 He became general director of the national CSO, but in 1962 resigned and moved to Delano, where he organized the National Farm Workers Association. Their most effective tactic was the boycott. The NFWA urged supporters not to buy products from companies that did not sign a contract with the union.

16 NFWAàUFW In 1967,the UFW targeted the Giumarra Vineyards Corporation (the largest producer of table grapes in the US), boycotting all table grapes. After five years, they finally obtained a contract with the grape growers. The Union turned its attention to the lettuce growers of the Salinas Valley.

17 End of the Bracero Program The bracero program finally ends, in part due to pressure form the NFWA and its supporters. That same year, President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of The new law prohibits racial discrimination and establishes affirmative action programs to remove discrimination in advertising, recruitment, hiring, job classification, promotion, wages and condition of employment.

18 Timeline of Events On September 8, Filipino farm workers from the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee strike the Di Giorgio Corporation, a large grape grower in the San Joaquin Valley of California, demanding recognition of their organization and higher wages. The following week, Chavez and Huerta lead the NFWA in a vote to join the Agricultural Workers organizing Committee strike.

19 La Causa From March 17 to April 11, Cesar Chavez and the National Farm Workers Association march from Delano to the California capital in Sacramento to publicize their strike. They arrive on Easter Sunday. On August 22, the NFWA and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee unite to form the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFW).

20 1968-On February 15, Chavez begins a twenty-five day fast at Forty Acres, near Delano, California. Shortly thereafter, he appears in court to respond to an injunction filed by the Giumarra Corporation aimed at prohibiting picketing by the UFW. Chavez is too weak from his hunger strike to testify, and the incident gains national attention and sympathy. On March 10, he breaks his fast at a Catholic mass in Delano s public park with 4,000 supporters at his side, including Senator Robert Kennedy.

21 1970- The UFW wins a major victory when 40 growers in California s Coachella Valley ask to negotiate contracts with the union. Huerta leads two months of negotiations that result in better pay, a union hiring hall, creation of formal grievance procedures, restrictions on the use of pesticides, rehiring of strikers, and employer contributions to a health fund. In another victory, grape growers in Delano sign three-year contracts with the UFW. Meanwhile, when Chavez refuses to call off a lettuce boycott, he is jailed and then released, pending an appeal to the California Supreme Court.

22 Dolores Huerta Born in New Mexico, Dolores Huerta moved to Northern California with her family. But unlike most other farm- worker leaders, she did not labor in the fields. In explaining why she dedicated her life to service, first in the CSO and then in the farm workers union, she stated:

23 My background is a little different than most people. My mother was a business woman and she was born here I was always active in organizations. I was in Girl Scouts for ten years. I was active in all the Catholic groups. I started a couple of teen-age centers. I always liked to organize. Even when I was really young I liked to join things (Rosales 1996;133).

24 Homework Chicano Movement Packet Page Lesson 4. Read and answer the questions.

25 Struggle in the Cities The 1960 Census counted nearly 4 million Mexican Americans with a per capita income of $968, compared with $2,047 for white Americans. The median school grade for Latinos was 8.1 versus 12.0 for whites. In Texas alone, the median grade level was 4.8. In San Antonio, Texas, only 1.4 percent of Chicanos had a college degree. In this same city, only 49.7% of the Mexican population lived in homes with plumbing versus 94% for the whites.

26 Inner City Schools In Los Angeles, segregation increased. Mexicans made up more than 80% of the Boyle Heights-East Los Angeles area. The Eastside had overcrowded classrooms, a lack of Mexican-American teachers, and a high dropout rate. In 1968, 91% of the students enrolled in institutions of higher learning were white, 6% were African American, and just less than 2% were Latinos.

27 Students Organize In 1967, students met at Loyola University (Los Angeles) and founded the United Mexican American Students (UMAS) The group fought for better Chicano Education. In 1968, the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) was created to promote higher education among Chicanos. In 1967, the Brown Berets was formed in Los Angeles to defend neighborhoods against crime and police brutality. It also promoted cultural awareness and pride.

28 The East L.A. BLOWOUTS? In March of 1968, nearly 10,000 Chicano students walked out of five Los Angeles high schools- Lincoln, Roosevelt, Garfield, Wilson, and Belmont. Prior to the walkout, the school system had pushed out more than 50% of the Chicano students, through either expulsion, transfers, or simply lack of caring.

29 In 1967, only 3% of the teachers and 1.3% of the administrators of these 5 schools had Spanish last names. Sal Castro, a teacher at Lincoln HS at the time, became a leader figure for these youngster, both high school and some college students, and was indicted by a grand jury.

30 East LA 13 Sal Castro and 12 other Chicano/a students were arrested and charged with conspiracy to disrupt schools and the peace. Focus shifted from Education Reform to releasing the East LA 13. Although the movement did not gain all of its demands, the district did hire more Chicano teachers and Universities began to accept more Chicano students.

31 Homework Chicano Movement Packet Pgs. 5-8, Lesson 2. Read the document and answer the questions.

32 Chicano Movement Other Chicano high school students also walked out in protest; Denver, San Antonio, Phoenix, and Delano among others. The walkouts, which spread throughout the Southwest, had a tremendous impact on the participants; a majority remained activists and went on to receive higher education (Acuna, 2008:260)

33 Rodolfo Corky Gonzalez In 1969, he formed The Crusade for Justice in Denver. The main role of the Crusade for the Chicano Movement was establishing cultural nationalism and a vague notion of separatism. Gonzalez also wrote an epic poem, I am Joaquin that became the anthem for the movimiento.